Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Cooking Bacon

Frying bacon in the frying pan is a pain in the ass. I remember when I thought that was the only way to do it. It was so hard to get it nice and crispy. It demanded constant attention, and despite my constant care, it would curl up around the edges in defiance of my pampering.

There finally came a time when I realized like any parent must, that bacon in the frying pan is like that preteen who really just wants you to leave it alone. It will be happiest when it's left to do its own thing. It will also be on its best behavior when you do decide to check up on it. Ya see, bacon is just a free spirit that can't stand being controlled. Just let it breathe, let it live a little, and it will pay you dividends.


To truly unleash the free spirit of bacon, lay it on a rack over a foil-covered baking sheet, the place it in the oven.

Then preheat the oven to 350.

When the oven reaches 350 check on your bacon, depending on how fast your oven preheats, you may need another 15 or so minutes (mine needs about 10 extra minutes but my oven is real slow)


Your bacon should be flat and crisp and perfect. Now take away its freedom and DEVOUR IT.

12 comments:

James said...

Happy days of cooking 200 breakfasts on a weekend....

I whack the heat up to 265 oC highest oven will go (500 oF) gets more colour I find. Faster too.

Free spirit. Tried curing bacon with whisky?

Jena said...

I saw this recommended way to cook bacon somewhere online and tried it years ago, and I've never done it any other way again. So easy! And all the bacon gets done at once!

Nova said...

so THIS is the secret to flat bacon! and here I was trying to coddle it in the frying pan!

Eric said...

You gotta throw some brown sugar on it beforehand. It's like candy.

Beau said...

I have cooked bacon in the oven, and still do. However, after cooking one batch in a heavy pan, I don't drain the rendered fat, add more raw bacon and sort of "confit" the new bacon. I turn it down so that it cooks slowly and it becomes crunchy and fatty at the same time.

Tags said...

Sounds like some bohemian bacon you got there, Nick.

The Empress said...

But why does bacon need to be flat in the first place? Surely the joy in bacon is having a variety of textures and flavours in each rasher?

Anonymous said...

Hee hee - you might want to consider the meaning of the word "preheat"

Unknown said...

My mom always cooks bacon :)
back when I ate meat, that is...

Chris said...

Exactly what Eric said! I put some brown sugar on mine this morning and I've never had better bacon! My only problem was that I used the "convection" setting on my oven, and it didn't work all that well.

Beth said...

I always burn bacon until I saw this method on the back of the bacon box. Good advice, thanks.

Nick N said...

James,
does it burn at all when you cook it that high? Never cured it with whisky. Good stuff? Flavor comes out?

beau,
very good idea

the empress,
variety of texture sounds good in idea, but different textures with bacon usually means part crispy, part chewy fat. Maybe good for some, not so much for me. I like is all crisp.