Best Way to Cook Bacon: Soft/Crisp? Fry/Bake/Microwave?

[Ufimizm]

With the new bacon topic, I figured you bacon enthusiasts would appreciate the "Bacon Flowchart."

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fncll/2129889439/sizes/o/

[jgm]

The bacon flow chart is so wonderful!

Even though I'd heard of cooking bacon in the oven several years ago, I just recently started doing it that way, and I will never go back. We've tried several brands of bacon this way, and even the cheap, thin stuff does much better than in a frying pan. When I cook it on top of the stove, I always seem to miss that magic window in which it's just done enough, but not overcooked. This method allows much more room for hitting the mark, and it cuts down on shrinking and curling.

[MGLloyd]

Chris, have you noted any food safety issues with your multiple-hour at 200 degrees approach? Or is bacon so loaded with nitrates and what not that it is inhospitable to bacterial growth?

[Chris Hennes]

Chris, have you noted any food safety issues with your multiple-hour at 200 degrees approach?  Or is bacon so loaded with nitrates and what not that it is inhospitable to bacterial growth?

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200 degrees is not much lower than what I smoke bacon at when I am making my own at home, so I don't think there would be an issue. Of course, the only evidence I can proffer for this is that I'm not dead yet .

[dougal]

Chris, have you noted any food safety issues with your multiple-hour at 200 degrees approach?  Or is bacon so loaded with nitrates and what not that it is inhospitable to bacterial growth?

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200 degrees is not much lower than what I smoke bacon at when I am making my own at home, so I don't think there would be an issue. Of course, the only evidence I can proffer for this is that I'm not dead yet .

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Hmmm !

200F is much higher than the temperatures used in sous-vide cooking, and is higher than the the temperatures used for poaching ("boiling") ham. Cooking at 200F (93C) for long enough to 'cook' the bacon should be no health hazard at all.

Regarding MGLloyd's mention of "nitrates and what not", two points could be clarified.

Nitrate can be used in bacon-curing (in Europe and elsewhere) BUT the nitrate's action requires bacteria to be present - otherwise the cure never gets started. The first stage is nitrate reduction to nitrite by bacteria!

However, because of entirely different food safety concerns (nitrosamine formation), the US FDA doesn't like nitrate in bacon. So US cures start with nitrite (bypassing the need for specific bacterial presence and thereby making the cure "more reliable") ...

[Chris Hennes]

200F is much higher than the temperatures used in sous-vide cooking, and is higher than the the temperatures used for poaching ("boiling") ham. Cooking at 200F (93C) for long enough to 'cook' the bacon should be no health hazard at all.

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Good point: I'm sure you're right. Compared to normal sous vide temps, 200 is very high, so you have far exceeded the FDA pastuerization time/temp guidelines by the time the bacon is fully cooked. Plus, bacon is loaded with salt, which is the primary preservative (the nitrite helps, but for short durations salt is good enough). I'd be hard-pressed to imagine a scenario where cooking bacon at 200F could be significantly riskier than any other cooking technique.

Edited September 3, 2008 by Chris Hennes (log)

[jsmeeker]

I love the oven method. I'll do just a few slices that way. I'm also a no rack bacon baker. The rack is just one more thing that needs to be cleaned. Also, I don't have a rack with small enough spacing to fit my quarter sheet pans. Being single and usually cooking for one, a quarter sheet pan is large enough for me most of the time.

[Hest88]

When I'm cooking large batches of bacon I use the oven, but when I'm cooking smaller ones (6-8 pieces or fewer) I actually use the microwave. I just stack one layer of bacon each between paper towels and microwave until crispy. It usually takes about 6-10 minutes depending on if I'm cooking one or two layers of bacon.

[WandaSue]

I also cook bacon in the oven. I lay the strips directly on parchment in a half-sheet pan, then I make a small pleat on each strip, so that the bacon comes out flat. When I remove the sheet pan from the oven, I rest it at an angle so the drippings collect at one end of the pan, sort of like self-draining bacon.

[judiu]

I cook a lot of bacon, and nearly always in the oven, but I use a slightly different strategy, one that amounts to culinary torture when you are hungry... I put the bacon on a wire rack over a baking sheet in the oven at 200 F. It takes many hours to achieve perfection, and the smell of bacon permeates the house the whole time, but it makes the best bacon I have ever had. My theory on this is that more of the flavoring compounds seem to stay attached to the bacon, rather than dripping off with the rendered fat. When you cook the bacon this way the fat that renders off is perfectly white, with little to no discoloration or flecks. I have no idea if this theory makes any scientific sense, but give this method a try: it's delicious.

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If I might inquire, how long is "many hours"? Would it be feasable to cook bacon in this manner over night, or is that too long? I'm all for bakin' bacon, but I want it NOW!

[Restorer]

This method saved me from morning hunger the other day. Trapped in a house with an unreliable kitchen, I managed a breakfast of hard-cooked eggs, bacon, and (Eggo) waffles with nothing but a toaster oven, some aluminum foil, and a plastic fork.

[Chris Hennes]

If I might inquire, how long is "many hours"? Would it be feasable to cook bacon in this manner over night, or is that too long? I'm all for bakin' bacon, but I want it NOW!

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I left that detail off because it is highly dependent on the thickness of your bacon (and I think the fat content as well). Really thick-cut bacon could go maybe six hours, but pushing it to eight you might want to turn the temp down, though I think that getting the bacon up to 200 degrees is important for good texture. Not that I have tested that theory...

[Chris Amirault]

So Hennes is over here cooking bacon at 225F for 5 hours. That got me wondering about ideal bacon cooking techniques.

Me, I think I'm going to make bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches for the fam tomorrow night. I'm thinking about 200F during the 8h work day, perhaps between two Silpats and pressed with a sheet pan.

You?

[jsmeeker]

When cooking whole slices, I am an oven man all the way. I always cooked it at about 400 to 425, directly on a sheet pan. It doesn't make a mess all over the stove. It comes out pretty flat. I can cook it so it still has chew and doesn't get burned.

But over the weekend, I did the "Hennes method". It was interesting. I cooked it directly on the pan. But then decided to move it to a rack set inside the pan. The end result was very crisp bacon. It held together, but snapped with the slightest pressure. The fat that was rendered out was very clean. Noticeably whiter than my standard method. To be honest, I wasn't a huge fan of the end result. When eating bacon "whole", I like some. chew. But this would be a great method if you wanted super crisp bacon crumbles for a salad or something like that.

[dcarch]

No sous vide bacon?

dcarch

[heidih]

I am all about minimal clean up so I just do it in the pan and clean the stove up immediately. NO walking away from the stove allowed. I make way more than I need and freeze it. My step mom is a huge fan of those ridged microwave pans.

[Chris Hennes]

Well, I appreciate y'all calling it the "Hennes method", but of course I stole it from some other guy on the internet (I think it was the "Cooking for Engineers" blog). For me, crispy bacon is the ONLY bacon, so my ultimate goal with the method is perfect crispiness. Obviously it requires substantial planning ahead, but I swear by the low-and-slow oven method. The bacon is crisp, flavorful, and flat.

[natasha1270]

Ever since I started cooking bacon in the oven, I have rarely made it any other way. I use the Alton Brown method (I think) - sheet pan of bacon (on a rack if I'm feeling virtuous), cold oven, set to 400. Check every 5 min or so once oven comes up to heat and remove once bacon reaches desired crispness.

[Chris Hennes]

Oh, did forget to mention that I cook mine on a wire rack set over a sheet pan, so the nice clean fat renders off, and the bacon doesn't cook in it.

[rotuts]

that is indeed one of the "alton brown" oven methods.

he had two: start with a hot oven, start with a cold oven on a rack etc

one got you perfect crispy bacon, the other perfect 'chewy' bacon.

cant remember which produced which.

both very good and suprisingly different.

[BadRabbit]

I like my bacon soft so I never use the oven unless the bacon is for sandwiches. I usually pan fry in a cast iron skillet so I can pull it out exactly like I like it.

[Norm Matthews]

I do the Alton Brown method by lining a rimmed baking sheet with foil, put it in a cold oven, turn it to 400º and check after 20 minutes. Thick bacon takes a little longer, really thin bacon takes a little less time. I pour off the fat and save it for cooking and drain the bacon on paper towels.

ps I didn't know it was A. B.s method though. I once saw Emril do it the same way.

Edited April 20, 2011 by Norm Matthews (log)

[jsmeeker]

I don't think the bacon in an oven method was invented by someone with a TV show. It may have been popularized and introduced by one of those guys, but I am pretty sure it's been a fairly standard food service technique for some time.

[gfweb]

Damnit, now all I can think about is cooking some bacon. And sausage.

[slkinsey]

I was introduced to cooking bacon in a sheet pan in the oven by Steven Shaw around 8 years ago, some time before I'd ever heard of Alton Brown.