“I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.”
-Thomas Jefferson
Ahhhh bacon, that most wonderful of man foods. There is just something about bacon that men love. Perhaps it is the sizzle of the bacon in the pan, or that hunger-pang inducing aroma that fills the house when the bacon hits the heat. Whatever it is, one thing is for certain: most men love bacon. Yet, for all our passion for bacon, many of us have never learned how to properly cook this most manly of meats. Cooking a good strip of bacon is just as essential a man skill as lighting a good campfire or being able to jump start an automobile, so let’s head to the kitchen and get those culinary skills of yours up to par.
“Bacon,” a sourdough friend translated, when asked what he meant by saying he’d gorged himself with vast amounts of tiger. “That’s because it’s striped. Sounds nobler when called tiger.”
-Skills for Taming the Wilds by Bradford Angier
Fortunately for those of us who don’t have a great deal of experience in the kitchen, bacon preparation is flexible. You can successfully cook bacon several different ways, all resulting in a wonderfully crisp, flavorful treat. In the following sections, you’ll be introduced to several different ways to prepare bacon, including classic styles and unusual twists.
The Classic Pan Fry
This is bacon the way your grandfather cooked it: on the stove and in its own grease. You will want to use a large flat frying pan, laying out the bacon strips in the pan so that they are not overlapping but generally fill the pan. Cooking only one or two slices at a time can cause problems because there will not be enough grease rendered from so few slices to keep the bacon from burning. Overlapping bacon will leave the overlaying pieces uncooked, resulting in unevenly cooked bacon.
The number one fatal error that many people make when cooking bacon is throwing cold bacon onto a hot pan over high heat. Set your bacon out for several minutes before you cook it, allowing the fat to loosen up a bit and return to a more natural state. When you are ready to cook, place the bacon in a room temperature pan and then place it over medium heat. This allows the bacon to gradually take on the heat and cook more evenly and avoids the scorching that so often results from dropping the bacon onto a high heat pan. Once the bacon begins to sizzle, you’re in business.
Another common error is in the flipping. There is no need to continually flip your bacon while it cooks. Allow it to cook evenly by flipping it only once, just as you would a good steak. Over medium heat, you can expect this flip to come around the ten minute mark, but all appliances are different so be sure to keep an eye on it. Once your bacon has reached a level of crispiness that is to your liking, offload it onto paper towels to soak up some of the remaining grease and partner it up on the plate with fried eggs and flapjacks.
As a variation: Instead of putting the bacon next to the pancakes, try cooking it right into them.
The Rush Job
Of course, sometimes you don’t have twenty minutes to burn (no pun intended) cooking bacon. When you need to get out the door quick, the microwave offers a speedier option. There are many different styles of microwaveable bacon racks available on the market, most of which use a Foreman Grill style fat runoff system to drain away the excess grease while cooking. For good microwave bacon, however, this is not a requirement. Instead, place three layers of paper towels on a microwave safe plate and then lay out your bacon strips side by side. Cover the arrangement with another paper towel, and you’re ready to cook. As a general rule, one minute per slice is a safe cooking time, so four slices would be cooked for four minutes. However, microwave wattages differ so it is best to keep a close eye on your bacon the first time you try cooking this way. As long as your microwave has a rotating tray, you can spend the cooking time anticipating the wonderfully greasy goodness you are about to partake in. If your microwave lacks the rotating tray, however, you will need to give the plate a spin at least one time midway through the process. Once the microwave bell goes off signaling the start of the bacon bonanza, remove your bacon and uncover, allowing it to cool slightly before partaking.
The Way of the Pros
Ever wonder how restaurants serve such perfectly crisp and flat bacon? The answer is simple. Because most breakfast restaurants have to cook bacon in large amounts, which would require a great deal of time and grill space, they opt to bake it instead. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. If you have one, a slotted baking tray is the preferred way to bake bacon, but sans that a standard baking sheet will suffice. Lay out the required slices of bacon without overlapping on the tray and place it in the oven. You should expect the cooking process to take in the neighborhood of ten to fifteen minutes, but remember, bacon is an art, not a science, so keep an eye on it. The resulting product will be deliciously crispy, perfectly flat bacon the likes of which you’ve been overpaying for at that little diner down the street for years.
The Vermont Style
There are several options for spicing up your standard bacon fry. As a staple breakfast food, bacon matches up with several breakfast flavors incredibly well, especially one in particular…maple syrup. Marinating your bacon in maple syrup may seem odd, since bacon is not normally marinated before cooking, but it results in a delicious twist on an old favorite. The idea is simple enough: place several slices of bacon into a bowl and douse with maple syrup. The thinner, more traditional style maple syrup is recommended as it makes less of a mess during cooking, but your standard Aunt Jemimah will get the job done too (but you must then cease from calling it “Vermont Style,” as you have committed syrup sacrilege). Be certain that the syrup is coating all the bacon slices, then stash it in the fridge for a half hour or so to soak. Once you are ready to cook, simply fry the bacon up using the classic pan fry method, keeping in mind that the caramelizing sugar in the syrup will make the endeavor a little messier. Not only does this result in a delicious spin on your standard bacon, it also fills the house with an aroma that is sure to have everyone heading to the kitchen to see when breakfast will be ready.
The Maplewich: Two slices of French toast+bacon+maple syrup=breakfast awesomeness.
The Brown Sugar “Cure”
Another option for spicing up your bacon is the brown sugar “cure.” To accomplish this, lay out your raw bacon at room temperature on a pan and coat both sides with brown sugar. While test driving this recipe, the author used dark brown sugar with delicious results, although light brown sugar will achieve a similar effect. It is critical that the bacon be close to room temperature so that the fat will be in a soft state and will therefore soak up the sugar. After letting the sugared bacon sit for a few minutes to “marinate,” begin the cooking process following the classic pan fry method. Be warned: once you have had bacon cooked this way, you may never go back to the old standard again.
The Gourmet Style
A gourmet twist on your standard bacon, panko bacon can easily be used as a side dish with any meal and is not limited to breakfast. Aside from the bacon itself, you will also need an egg, all-purpose flour, and panko bread crumbs (extra crispy Japanese style bread crumbs available at most supermarkets). You are going to set up three bowls as a sort of prep station. In the first bowl, place enough flour that you will be able to dip the bacon into it and completely cover it. Add in a dash of salt and pepper. In the next bowl, mix the egg with two tablespoons of water, creating what is known as “egg wash.” Again, add salt and pepper. Fill the third bowl with enough panko bread crumbs to cover a slice of bacon completely. Take a slice of room temperature bacon and dip it into the flour bowl first, coating the slice completely. Next, douse it in the egg wash, again completely covering the slice. Finally, dip it into the panko, coating the slice.
To cook, heat two to three tablespoons of vegetable or corn oil in a pan over medium heat. Once the oil has reached cooking temperature, add one to two slices of the panko bacon at a time. Fry the bacon until the panko coating is a nice golden brown on both sides, flipping as few times as necessary to maintain an even cooking. Once completed, place on a bed of paper towels and dab off any excess oil and grease.
Turkey Bacon
…is not bacon.
What are your bacon cooking tips and twists? Share them with us in the comments!
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{ 96 comments… read them below or add one }
I am so glad I read this article. Now I know new ways to cook bacon. I am so sad there is no bacon in my fridge right now to experiment. I really want some bacon. Right now.
If I had a time machine I would use it to go back in time to when I was eating more bacon.
Go to your local butcher’s and buy yourself a slab of smoked bacon rather than the pre-sliced bacon that you find in grocery stores.
Cut a large chunk and boil it in water. NO SALT!
When you have a good smoked bacon stock, add in fresh beets (peeled and cut in 1/4s).
Add fresh-ground pepper to taste and boil for about an hour (make sure to add water to replenish the liquid level)
Discard the beets.
Serve in soup bowls with noodles and a side of smoked bacon.
This is clean beet soup. Very healthy for you and if you add enough peppers, it will do wonders for clearing any sinuses. Also beets are good for your liver, blood, and kidneys. And they’re cheap. Plus BACON!!!!
Hahaha
Love the last line about Turkey Bacon.
Well, that last one will now be my “get up just before girlfriend does, to make a big breakfast” recipe.
BACON.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
I’ve also cooked bacon in the microwave using this method:
Flip a bowl upside down on a plate. Lay the bacon over the bowl. Follow above directions for microwave times.
The plate catches the grease that drips down the bowl. Since the grease runs away from the bacon, it can result in crispy, slightly “drier” bacon. So be careful not to over-cook.
Fantastic post. I got especially excited about the bacon strip pancakes, because I invented something very similar this year at college.
Mancakes!
1) Prepare the pancake batter as usual.
2) Cook all kinds of breakfast meats in the skillet. Remove the meats and reuse the grease.
3) Add batter to the pan, then the cooked bfast meats, then pour batter on top.
4) Cook both sides till golden brown.
5) Enjoy the manly feast!
Now I’m craving bacon like I’ve been starved half to death, and it’s 9:30 at night. Damn you, Chris!
Baking bacon is the only way to fly. It makes the most perfect bacon every time.
Discovered this making bacon cheeseburgers -grilled bacon is crispy, not very greasy, and generally excellent. Cook it on the cooler part of the grill for about 5-7 minutes.
I found an ice cream parlor here in So. Cal that serves Bacon Ice Cream. It’s actually very good!
I like to BBQ — NOT GRILL — pepper bacon slowly (30 minutes plus) over hickory using rib racks to drape bacon strips over……..
Bacon! Grew up with it!! Wonderful recipes suggested by all…
And which Ice Cream Parlor might this be? I live in L.A. and would like to try that flavor.
Try some fresh ground pepper on it while its cooking. You can buy bacon with ground pepper already on it $6.00 a lb but I have found that a fresh grind while cooking gets the same result!
I do this; Fill a small 8-inch cast iron skillet with bacon, fry up to desired crispness, remove and set aside. fry two eggs in the grease, carefully set aside (don’t break the yokes), toast a jalapeno bagle in the grease (this also helps clean the skillet), put it all together and smother with mushed avocado.
careful, its a bit messy, but I have never had any complaints
As I was reading today’s post I thought of comedian Jim Gaffigan talking about his love of bacon.
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=CaK9bjLy3v4&p=E7A3EFC946793190&playnext=1&index=10
Sorry about the link not working. Here’s the corrected link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaK9bjLy3v4&p=E7A3EFC946793190&playnext=1&index=10
I baked bacon last night. I preheated to 400 degrees, and cooked it for about 15-20 minutes. A useful trick: cover the baking tray with crinkled aluminum foil. This makes clean up instant, and by crinkling the foil you allow the grease to pool away from the bacon.
“Turkey bacon is not bacon”. Clever. But at least it isn’t high in fat and cholesterol like the “manly” bacon.
I’m not a fan of streaky bacon for anything other than topping roast meat. For me back bacon is the way to go (Might be called British or Irish style where you are). Much meatier and leaner.
Another way the pros do it? Well, if you were like me and worked in a pizzeria during college and needed bacon quick for the occasional deli sandwich, use a deep fryer. If you have one of those lying around, you can get 5 or 6 strips of bacon in about 5 minutes without a big mess. I also like curly, chewy bacon, not flat and crisp, so I love using the deep fryer for bacon.
Because I love you all, I will now share my own secret recipe for…
…BACON COOKED IN BACON FAT!!!
Here’s how it works. Every time you cook bacon, save the fat in a plastic container in the freezer. When you want to cook bacon, take the fat out of the container (run hot water over the outside first, if necessary) and melt in a cast iron frying pan over medium heat. Once the fat is liquid, add your bacon strips. Cook to desired degree of crispness. Blot with paper towels and enjoy. Once the bacon grease has cooled slightly, pour it back into its container (filtering out any particles through a paper towel or coffee filter, if necessary), and freeze for next time.
The great thing about this method is that the bacon cooks perfectly evenly, as it is completely surrounded by hot fat. The bacon fat does not add any more grease to the finished bacon, but does add flavor, especially after several uses.
I second the aluminum foil comment. Cover your pan in it (make sure you don’t tear it), bake the bacon, then after it cools you just pull off the foil and toss it in the trash. There is usually a bit of residue on the pan, but if you run hot water over it for a minute it usually washes right off.
As for bacon being unhealthy, well that is a myth. Saturated fat has never been linked to heart disease. We eat a lower fat, low cholesterol diet, but our rates of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are skyrocketing. Carbohydrates cause the development of plaque in the arteries, not fat. And what do Americans eat to the tune of 135+ pounds per person per year? Sugar! Which is, of course, a carbohydrate. (That’s up from 5 lbs/yr in the late 1800′s when cancer and heart disease were rare.) Check out the link below for more info on saturated fat and heart disease.
http://www.spiked-online.com/articles/0000000CAE78.htm
I’m a fan of pan frying the bacon. Then, once the bacon is done, mix flour, milk, salt, pepper, and a touch of water in a cup, turn the heat down to simmer and wisk into the bacon grease. Bake some biscuits and pour the resulting gravy over them. It’s the best gravy you’ll ever taste. Additional points if the gravy has some of those tasty little bacon pieces in it.
To Keep the bacon flat in the pan, run it under cold water first. Not sure why this works, it just does.
Bacon is the chocolate of meats.
I’ve also read that a waffle iron is a good way to cook bacon.
http://lifehacker.com/5405561/make-better-less-messy-bacon-in-a-waffle-iron
For a seriously tasty energy replacement after high intensity training,…bacon and peanut butter sandwich on wheat.
Love the last line!! According to the one of hte “Eat this not that” Books, Reglar bacon could be better for you than turkey “bacon” due to the increase in salt.
For those survival nuts out there – myself included – may I recommend Tac-Bac. Tactical Bacon. It’s precooked, comes in a can and has a shelf life of up to ten years. When you’re in a hurry, or out stalking grizzlies with a K-Bar, you can quickly get your bacon fix! It sounds gross, but it’s bacon – and delicious!
Great article. The only tip from my own experience would be to not pan fry bacon until it reaches the crispiness you would want to eat it at. I usually fry it until just a little bit before it reaches that point because it seems the bacon will usually crisp up a little more after you move it to the paper towel, since it’s still hot and technically cooking for a minute or so after you take it off the heat. In the past, i’ve ended up with overcooked bacon when i’ve forgotten to do that.
In Ireland we call bacon like this rashers. They can be streaky (like that pictured) or back rashers which have less fat and more meat. All delicious! Thanks!
These are things I do when I cook bacon, simple things. But I wanted to mention them because I think they make a difference. ( have not read article yet, but I wanted to post this real quick before my lunch break ends)
I don’t put bacon in my skillet when I cook bacon. What’s the point?
I cook it on low heat and and actually flip it once. I don’t get the pan hot before I cook bacon, I just put it in the pan and turn the low heat on.
I USE TONGS TO TURN IT… not the little stupid tongs there are basically one big piece of wire, but the one’s that look like this:
http://www.allseasonstentrental.com/Tongs_Spring.jpg
My father always used a regular fork to flip bacon, god I hated that crap. And I always tried to mimic him. Sausage patties used to be my favorite food because hey I could cook them without getting burnt by grease. He also used to put his bacon in hot grease to cook it, but once I started doing my own thing and not mimic my dad and used Tongs to flip bacon.. yes seriously, it made such a wonderful world of difference. From then on I loved cooking bacon!
When I shop for bacon I try to find the leaner bacon, it makes a difference how well it cooks.
And that’s all I have to say. I’ll start reading now.
“I don’t put bacon in my skillet when I cook bacon” I meant, ‘I don’t put cooking oil in my skillet when I cook bacon”
I actually did proof read… shit I don’t know how I missed that error. -_-’
B is for bacon, and that’s good enough for me.
I rendered a pound and a half of bacon on Sunday for the fat. Nothing makes a better roux for gumbo than bacon fat. Plus I had two cups of home made bacon bits to snack on after i was done. Win-win.
Some links to REAL bacon please! The excuse in supermarkets truly lives up to non kosher TRAFE. it is also anathema to any environmental or animal ethos. Pigs, an animal even more intelligent than our beloved dogs are kept in massive collectives in the Carolinas. Those states have huge lakes of offal that sometimes flood and pollute their nieghbors.
I would rather enjoy real bacon; butchered from a farm raised animal after a decent life, properly cured and fried in a dutch oven once a week than a daily serving of the other ‘product.’
I don’t know about you guys, but I’d like to see more AoM articles on syrup and the sacrilege thereof. :-D
Looks like nicname is going to make a maplewich in about 20 minutes.
Don’t throw away your bacon fat! It has so many uses and you pay for it when you buy the bacon …
1) Seasoning your cast iron skillet.
2) Making cornbread.
3) Making collard greens.
4) Any recipe that calls for butter or oil to grease a pan.
5) Seasoning your grill (and, please, don’t call it a BBQ because BBQ is a thing you eat).
6) Eating straight out of the jar … and I am only half-joking about this one … it ain’t half bad on some toast!
@Andrew I’ve never made gumbo and I recently came into some farm fresh okra (i’ve also never had okra before) I don’t want to screw this up, do you have a favorite recipe?
I find chopsticks are the ideal tool for cooking bacon. You can grab the slices easily, and if you’re using a teflon pan they won’t scratch it up.
DEFINITELY save the grease. Scratch biscuits made with bacon fat are heavenly!
You can also use Bacon fat to make soap. It’s messy and mushy, but is good for those industrial cleaning around the house uses, or in the garage.
My Step-father who was born in 1915 (since passed away) always said people nowadays cook Bacon at too low of a temperature. He said it needs to be cooked like you would over a campfire in a cast iron skillet. He liked it cooked over a medium high heat. Of course it was unevenly cooked, but he lked it that way.
I make it in the skillet at medium temp. and in the oven too.
Ever heard of “Chicken Fried Bacon”? There’s a little place in Round Rock, Texas, outside of Austin called the 620 Cafe’ that serves it. It’s just what it sounds like. Served with cream gravy for dipping. Heaven. Just Heaven.
I’ll second the campfire skillet comment. Whenever my friends and I go camping, I’ll throw the skillet right on the fire to heat it up… and then use an extra-long spatula to avoid burning myself as we cook up a pound or two at a time. By the time you’ve laid out each individual slice on the pan, the first slice is ready to turn; by the time you’re done turning, the first slice is ready to come out. Just gotta pay attention to it.
The grease is then used to cook diced peppers and onions, while rolls toast over the flames… and in ten minutes we’ve got some incredible sandwiches.
Alas! The new world obsession with sugar overpowers the bacons mighty saltiness, resulting in such horrors as bacon in syrup. Man up! Syrup is for children, not manly men. The traditional English breakfast dates back to the middle ages, the slices of bacon being known as “collops” and traditionally served with fried eggs. Let me tell you how to prepare a manly breakfast.
Firstly you must have the correct ingredients in your larder- failing having a flitch of bacon hanging up, buy a few rashers from the butcher. The finest eating is of course back bacon, it has the most meat on it. Streaky is from the belly, and striped with fat, great when it’s well crisped up, also the best to wrap around sausages to accompany a roast dinner (pigs in blankets). For a compromise, there’s always middle bacon- a cut from the neck, with as much meat as back bacon, but plenty of fat too, and a delicious rind. Smoked or unsmoked according to taste, but of course smoked is more manly, just as a pipe of St Bruno is manlier than a pinch of snuff.
Leftover boiled potatoes can be set aside for brekkie- they’ll be lovely fried up in the fat.
There should definitely be mushrooms.
Black puddings are the manliest of breakfast ingredients, the finest come from Bury. Scottish black puds have herbs and spices like those found in Haggis, which is quite tasty, and RS Ireland make a perfectly passable pudding too. White puddings are an Irish tradition, made with milk and liver. They are more like a sausage.
Sausages are optional, and take a while to fry.
Tomatoes make it all digest rather nicely, big vine tomatoes are nice halved, sprinkled with salt and pepper and fried, or little cherry tomatoes sizzled up whole. Whatever you do, get the ripest reddest ones you can. The ones that stink, not the pale, hard things.
Eggs are essential, and if you can find them, duck eggs are truly luxurious.
So, when you get up, make up your fruit scones and have them in the oven while you eat breakfast, so you can have a few afters, and some for afternoon tea. If you include yoghurt in place of some of the milk it prevents them drying out. Put the kettle on for a nice cup of tea. Put plates to warm in the bottom oven, and if possible, get an estimate of who wants what. Get the pan on, slice your bacon, and put it in. Add some oil if cooking a less fatty cut- lard or dripping is great, olive oil is fine too, and if you must use butter, add some olive oil to prevent it blackening. While the bacon starts to fry, peel your mushrooms, throwing them in the pan as you go. Peeled, they will absorb the bacon fat really well. When the bacon is done extract it from the pan, put on the plates to keep warm in the oven, and finish doing the mush. Put a lid on the pan to keep the heat and moisture in, but take it off if they sweat too much. Pepper them if you like. Remove the mushrooms when done and do the tomatoes, peppering to taste. Next is black puddings- slice in discs if it’s a big one, if it’s a little horseshoe shaped one you can slice it in half and cook as two horseshoes. Fry until blacked on both sides, then sprinkle with mushroom ketchup or in a pinch Worcester sauce, and clap the lid on, so it steams in the sauce. This will soften it up wonderfully between the crisp fried sides. Fry the potatoes in plenty of fat until golden brown, and if you need it, fry some bread as well, some people really like their eggs served on fried bread. Finally, by this time everyone should be awake and on their way downstairs to investigate the lovely smell, cook the eggs, basting them well with the fat to seal on top while preserving the runny yolk. Serve up as soon as the eggs are done, and if there are more people to serve than there is space in the pan to do eggs, implore those served first to tuck in while it is hot. Wash all this down with copious tea, and after the scones, you can then serve freshly brewed coffee, from a coffee press is best for this purpose, for everyone to drink while they sit around smoking and waiting for it all to digest.
One of my favorite tricks with bacon is to par-cook a large batch of it when I have the time. Once the bacon has cooled. I toss it in the freezer inside a plastic container. Then when I want some bacon for breakfast but short on time, a perfectly cooked strip of bacon is only 20 – 30 seconds, in a microwave, away. Also finishing the last bit of cooking in a toaster oven on some foil works great.
Now I know all these new ways to cook bacon, but I can’t because I’m in a dorm with no cooking appliances. I miss bacon
I remember teaching a young boy scout how to cook breakfast on a camping trip. It was the first time he ever cooked. He did all the cooking while I gave him the instructions. We only had Coleman propane stove, big metal pot, and a fork. The skillet was left at home as well as the tongs. The bacon and eggs were cooked in the big metal pot. The eggs were practically floating in the bacon grease. Everyone in his patrol commented on great it all tasted. It made his day! Bacon makes everything taste better.
Every once in a while the now much older Scout mentions that time he cooked that breakfast on the camping trip…
Bacon is trendy right now. I recently went to the Stone Brewing Company brewery in Escondido and they had a chipotle bacon cheesecake. Not as good as it sounds.
We add bacon to just about everything. We also save the grease to fry chicken and potatoes. You may want to try adding some apples to the bacon for your morning breakfast, its great too!
There’s dark brown sugar — and there’s dark muscovado brown sugar! Much darker and perfect for the sugared bacon method you suggest. See: Browner Sugar: http://feedme.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/08/browner-sugar.html
The other name for the bacon + brown sugar recipe is Pig Candy! Coat bacon with brown sugar and bake. Add ground pecans for a praline version.
12-inch cast iron skillet – about 10 pieces will fit – toss bacon in a cold skillet and place into a cold oven set to 425. Let bacon and oven warm together. Once the oven is hot, it will take only about 7 minutes to cook. No need to flip, just cook to desired doneness and remove and place on a plate lined with paper towels. Total time from fridge to gut, about 25 minutes.
PRO TIP: use overlapping pizza screens to reduce the oven mess from bacon pop.
follow the oven method, but spoon maple syrup mixed with dijon mustard over the top. best candied bacon ever and very simple cleanup.
I’ve tried to bake bacon a few times, but it seems to take an eternity and never gets done. I don’t know why, so I just cook it in a pan like my granny did it.
Unlike her, I’ll never keep the grease. She kept the drippings in a jar next to the stove. That stuff had to be rancid, though, as there’s no way she could’ve used it all. She cooked a lot of pork and all the fat went in. It had the nastiest screen over the top to catch the goobers…..
As a matter of fact, I don’t know if I ever saw her use the fat in that jar. Maybe it was just to keep her from dumping it into the garbage. I dunno.
Maybe I am an odd guy here, or maybe I am falling into the “My Dad did it that way” thing, but I am a firm believer in the much despised “throw it all in at once” method.
I love that the bacon becomes a quagmire of twisted meat. It also get all the bacon ready at once, which when cooking in the bush, is easier than trying to keep the rest of the bacon warm without getting crispy.
Maybe I am just weird.
If you want to try something even manlier than bacon, check out Ukrainian salo. It is cured, raw pork fat that can either be smoked or simply spiced. Spread it on toast like butter, eat it on bread like cheese, or fry it in a pan for oil—so versitile.
I have a friend who uses the leftover bacon grease to make popcorn on the stove. Haven’t tried it yet but sounds good.
spot on Basil – when can I come round?
Apparently I do the pan fry right, hooray for me! Thanks for the tips. I want to try the other ways you suggested. (Kudos to Basil too, for the additional info and suggestions.)
Basil, black pudding is the stuff all right. And to think I first tasted it when my life was half over. Ah, such a waste!
@Chris Kavanaugh: http://www.vtsmokeandcure.com The real Vermont style bacon. No need to go ruining it with syrup either.
If you want to see other ways to use bacon, hit up the great bacon odyssey.
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/tag/great-bacon-odyssey/
btw, great site
I think bacon should be served at every meal.
I also find that bacon cooked in the oven takes about 20 minutes at 400 for me.
ROFL!
Turkey Bacon ….is not bacon
Now I know what I’ve been doing wrong all these years, and it never occurred to me. I’ve just been taking the bacon out of the fridge and slapping it in the frying pan.
Thanks!
I can’t believe no one had mentioned my personal favorite…..chocolate covered bacon! Your best bet is to use thick-cut bacon and fry it up however you normally would. Then, cool it in the refrigerator while you melt some chocolate. Slice each piece of bacon in half and then slice those pieces in half lengthwise. You should end up with pieces of bacon about length & width of french fries. One at a time, pick up the bacon by one end and lay it on top of the melted chocolate (still holding it). Give it a quick flip to coat the other side and set it on waxed paper. Sprinkle with coarse salt, cool in the fridge, and anticipate munchie nirvana…mmmmm! :)
Use a George Foreman, no splattering, pefectly cooked on both sides and all the grease drains aways. Don’t worry, there is plenty on grease that stays on the grill as it cooks to give it a great flavor. If you are like me, and love your eggs cooked in the grease, just cook one peice in a pan, making sure to rub it all around the surface first, that sufices for the great flavor. Bacon is party of our family’s Sunday breakfast tradition!
Oh, I set the George Foreman @ 350 degrees. How long it should cook deepends on how thick the bacon is and how crispy you like it.
Ok, maybe not the manliest to make heart shaped waffles, but BACON WAFFLES!
http://www.getcookingblog.com/bacon-waffles/
Even better is to cut up the bacon into chunk and sprinkle into the iron before pouring in the batter. Bacon in every bite!
This article delighted me! Every morning before work/class I have two slices of bacon and two eggs (fried over-medium) on a slice of multi-grain toast, with a bowl of fresh fruit/granola/greek yoghurt and a cup of milk.
Who knew that I was doing the bacon incorrectly, though!?
I worked at Wendy’s for about two years, and after I had been there a while we upgraded from a cheap, greasy, and not particularly tasty already cooked, microwaveable bacon to actual bacon. We cooked it up by baking it. Brett is right on the money about how long it takes; it took our oven anywhere from ten to twelve minutes or so to finish, sometimes a little less. You definitely want to keep a close eye on it once you get to about nine minutes or so; burnt bacon is no fun at all. It is painful remembering how much bacon (and money) we lost from people forgetting to hit the timer or take the stuff out when the timer went off.
In any case, baking bacon is a truly excellent way to cook it, particularly if you’re feeding a large crowd. An extra side benefit of it is that after a batch or two, you have a very large batch of bacon grease built up. Most people would throw this away. Having developed a sense of frugality from living with my housemate, I determined to use it. I would occasionally pinch some out and take it home with me. Bacon grease can be used for nearly anything that you would use butter or vegetable oil for, but I understand it is particularly good when used in making corn bread. And thus we are left with what I am pretty sure is the quintessential old school Southern meal: corn bread and bacon. At the very least, this is the meal Jack is often found eating in the Jack Tales of Appalachia. I’ll leave it to Brett to tell me if this kind of eating is still current in the South.
Filthy animals my ass. The Old Testament had it all wrong! ——–BACON!!!!
A variation on the pan-fry method.
Sometimes you have to feed too many people to fry up 6-8 slices at a time. In this case, you can “stir-fry” the bacon.
– Same rules for pan frying apply. Put your bacon (12-18) slices in a cold saute pan set to medium heat.
– As the pan heats up, the fact that you have so much bacon means that it renders more fat.
– Using tongs, turn the bacon over until you can see it cooking through and evenly browning the strip.
– Place the bacon on a wire rack over paper towels to drain and straighten the strips to get the nice even shape you want. (NEVER place directly on the paper towels)
Bacon is magic!
Bacon has so many advantages to other meats. For one thing it is so rich in calories that you can have bacon in place of 3x’s the amount of other meat; one ounce of bacon to 3 oz of beef, for example. It is a dieters dream, because just a strip or two of bacon can satisfy your desire for meat and fat like no other protein, and when mixed with vegetables will make any vegetable delicious. But there is a problem, and that is the processed bacon you get at the store is so shocked with salt, and nitrates that it is almost a poison. I’m not being melodramatic about that either. The best bacon and the tastiest is one you cure by yourself. All you need is pork belly, which you can’t find in regular stores, but those that specialize in Mexican and Asian cooking will have them. All you need do is go to YouTube and look under cured bacon and you will find a dozen ways of making it. It is a slow process but the results are worth it. I have been curing my own bacon for years, and give it as presents. I smoke the bacon too, which is different than the liquid smoke that is injected in commercial bacon. Smokers are easy to use and if you look around you can find one that is big enough to smoke most your own meat without any more trouble than setting up your BBQ, in fact if you have a kettle style BBQ with a snug fit you can smoke bacon in that.
The last thing I would say is once you have cured your bacon, roast it. Take the bacon and roast it like you would duck, on a bed of vegetables, and water about ½ inches high to prevent fire, making sure the bacon stays high and dry then slowly roast the bacon at about 325 degrees until the fat is running clear, set it on paper towel for about thirty minutes and then slice it about as thick as the width of your index finger. As a side dish, or better as a main course with any good root vegetable, a saucer sized portion will be a feast.
Above when I said saucer sized portion, I meant the bacon and the vegetable, just a few ounces is all you need of the bacon.
I kinda take annoyance with the turkey bacon is not bacon comment. Mainly because I’ve always had bad luck with bacon (Pork products in general) and them always having large amounts of fat. Turkey bacon would lack the high amounts of fat AND our fellow members of society that cannot eat pork products (Halal and Kosher followers) would most likely love to hear the best way to cook the kind of bacon they can actually eat.
Just sayin’.
Here in Japan it can get pretty difficult cooking bacon since bacon here are extra-smoked so that people can eat them raw (the most preferred way to eat meat in this country). The downside is, no matter how long you cook them, they will never become “crisp” like American bacon. In order to achieve that crispiness associated with “real” bacon, you will have to import it from overseas.
Canadian Bacon Period.
1. Cook bacon crisply (a little more crisply than you would normally like)
2. While bacon is cooking, melt some chocolate chips in the microwave or on a double boiler
3. When bacon is done, drain briefly on a paper towel and cut or break into 1 inch pieces
4. Dip each piece in melted chocolate and place on wax paper to cool
5. Enjoy
Bacon isn’t complex. Put it on a plate in about six strips. Put a few paper towels over it. Microwave for four or five minutes. Job done.
“high amounts of fat AND our fellow members of society that cannot eat pork products (Halal and Kosher followers) would most likely love to hear the best way to cook the kind of bacon they can actually eat.”
If you’re stupid enough to put some mumbo-jumbo mythical magic book fairy-tale bullshit ahead of eating delicious bacon, you don’t deserve bacon.
A south African mate of mine introduced me to fried bananas when serving fried bacon for breakfast. Sounds awful, but it’s absolutely perfect – the slight sweetness of the fried banana compliments the bacon in the same way maple syrup does, only without the excessive sugariness.
Simply peel the banana(s), halve lengthways, then fry quickly in the rendered fat from your bacon. Delicious.
PS: Microwaving bacon should be a crime punishable by death. Or no bacon, whichever is worse (probably the latter, now I think about it). In fact I’d go as far as to say that using a microwave for anything food related was unmanly.
A fine write-up on how to cook bacon. What about the kind of bacon you use?
I submit that Smith’s Slab bacon is the finest out there. Try it.
AAH yes bacon the chocolate of meats!
Id like to add-always wear a shirt. Burn cream is expensive.
In regards to bacon I have only two words,
“Benton’s Bacon”.
F, yeah! I just read this and threw some bacon in the oven afterwards.
Feelin pretty manly.
Bacon Perfection in a hurry.
I put bacon on a cookie sheet and put it on the top oven rack for about 10 minutes on broil. Flip once, its awesome!
I have seen someone somewhere DEEPFRYING bacon
Didn’t see this mentioned so I figured I’d throw my hat in the ring… for the perfect BLT, don’t cook the bacon strips individually. Take 6 strips, basket-weave them into a square and then pan fry it. The square stays together after being cooked and is the perfect size for a sandwich!
can you freeze cooked bacon? and if so suggestions about thawing and reheating thanks u can email me an answer if want
bacon is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There I was, hovering over my deep fryer frying me up some of that delicious home made tater chips when it hit me……..DEEP FRIED BACON!!! By the Beard of Zeus, right after the batch of chips got done I immediately dropped a few slices of bacon directly into the deep fryer. after a few second, it came out crisp and cooked evenly! My life was forever changed when this outlandish event occurred that I thought the whole universe was going to implode!!
I always liked to add an adult twist to my bacon. Just after laying the “tiger” in the pan I will pour a light layer of the dark liquor of your choice over the strips. Bourbon adds a nice sweet taste that steps up the manliness a notch or two. Amaretto has been our favorite additive. Similar to the maple syrup, this will create a carmalized layer over the bacon that is unmatched.
As long as we’ve got the bourbon out, add a shot or two to your mug of syrup to kick up those pancakes too! This is especially good for those “breakfast for dinner” nights.
Oh my god, I know it’s three years later, but still, I now know how to cook bacon fast and fine with a microwave, thank you!