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

[andiesenji]

The real easy way is to put it on a plate(not plastic)lightly wrapped in a paper towelIn the M/Wave on high,

for 1 minute 30 seconds,nice and crispy,,,,fast and neat...

Bud

This method works great for regularly sliced bacon but I find it makes shoe leather out of the thicker stuff.

No way! This is a huge waste - no drippings for use in various applications, such as cornbread and flavoring green beans &etc.

I will stick to my old fashioned method which gives me both the bacon and the drippings.

Microwave bacon produces perfectly nice drippings. I've used microwaved bacon drippings for years--always have a container of it in my fridge. No different than skillet-collected drippings, frankly. I have a microwave bacon tray that's angled with a trough at one end, which makes it so easy to pour off the collected fat.

I don't have a problem with microwaved bacon - I have a couple of the grill plates and also a couple of the gadgety things for cooking bacon.

I also have an old Corning grill pan that does a terrific job and is usually my microwave bacon cooker. And it can go into a warm oven to keep the bacon warm, unlike the Nordic Ware bacon tray.

My objection was to wrapping it in paper towels. The drippings can't be recovered from paper towels, sadly, they are gone forever.

Edited April 21, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[Carlton]

Crispy bacon has always been my favorite but recently I worked out something a little different. I fry it over a low heat in a non stick pan and brush on some blackstrap molasses, enough to cover both sides. It stays fairly flat this way and tastes like candy when it's done. Goes especially well with hamburgers.

[HowardLi]

The real easy way is to put it on a plate(not plastic)lightly wrapped in a paper towelIn the M/Wave on high,

for 1 minute 30 seconds,nice and crispy,,,,fast and neat...

Bud

This method works great for regularly sliced bacon but I find it makes shoe leather out of the thicker stuff.

No way! This is a huge waste - no drippings for use in various applications, such as cornbread and flavoring green beans &etc.

I will stick to my old fashioned method which gives me both the bacon and the drippings.

Microwave bacon produces perfectly nice drippings. I've used microwaved bacon drippings for years--always have a container of it in my fridge. No different than skillet-collected drippings, frankly. I have a microwave bacon tray that's angled with a trough at one end, which makes it so easy to pour off the collected fat.

I don't have a problem with microwaved bacon - I have a couple of the grill plates and also a couple of the gadgety things for cooking bacon.

I also have an old Corning grill pan that does a terrific job and is usually my microwave bacon cooker. And it can go into a warm oven to keep the bacon warm, unlike the Nordic Ware bacon tray.

My objection was to wrapping it in paper towels. The drippings can't be recovered from paper towels, sadly, they are gone forever.

Have you tried simmering the saturated paper towels in water?

[Kouign Aman]

325F 45 min 1 lb bacon, on rack, in pan, in oven.

Rack cleans easily w a brush. No soaking required.

Fat rescued for re-use, pan cools, wipe off remaining layer of fat & discard, pan washes easily.

[gfweb]

Crispy bacon has always been my favorite but recently I worked out something a little different. I fry it over a low heat in a non stick pan and brush on some blackstrap molasses, enough to cover both sides. It stays fairly flat this way and tastes like candy when it's done. Goes especially well with hamburgers.

Doesn't the burned molasses screw-up the non-stick?

[alanjesq]

The real easy way is to put it on a plate(not plastic)lightly wrapped in a paper towelIn the M/Wave on high,

for 1 minute 30 seconds,nice and crispy,,,,fast and neat...

Bud

This method works great for regularly sliced bacon but I find it makes shoe leather out of the thicker stuff.

No way! This is a huge waste - no drippings for use in various applications, such as cornbread and flavoring green beans &etc.

I will stick to my old fashioned method which gives me both the bacon and the drippings.

Double "No Way". My great Dane would eat my face if I did not pour the fat over his kibble. Gives him great dog breath too.

[Jaymes]

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.

No kidding.

My grandmommy, who was a legendary southern cook, got her start in the restaurant biz as a Harvey House Girl back around 1910 or so, married a conductor on the Kansas & Topeka Railroad and, when he died, around 1922, opened a "home cooking" restaurant in South Texas.

She always cooked the bacon in the oven.

Unless she was just cooking for one or two folks.

And that almost never, ever happened. There usually was all the family and half the neighborhood gathered around her table at any given time.

She just had a big sheet pan with a small lip. She laid the bacon right on it. No racks or parchment or "tin foil" or anything else. If she thought about it, then halfway through, she'd turn the strips of bacon over. If not, then not.

When it was done, out the pan would come. She'd put the bacon strips onto a napkin or dishtowel or something to absorb excess grease, and then drain the pan of its drippings right into that pretty little ceramic jar that she, and everybody else, kept on the stove for just that purpose.

Edited June 1, 2011 by Jaymes (log)

[bmdaniel]

Just read Ruhlman's new book Twenty; not that much groundbreaking in there (I think it's really targeted at a more beginner audience, which it is probably a fine book for), but he did mention that his preferred method of cooking bacon is to put it in a pan, just cover with water, then cook until the water is completely gone and fry up to finish. Claims it tenderizes and is dead simple, both of which kind of make sense to me.

Struck me as an interesting method I hadn't heard of before, anyone tried it?

[andiesenji]

Just read Ruhlman's new book Twenty; not that much groundbreaking in there (I think it's really targeted at a more beginner audience, which it is probably a fine book for), but he did mention that his preferred method of cooking bacon is to put it in a pan, just cover with water, then cook until the water is completely gone and fry up to finish. Claims it tenderizes and is dead simple, both of which kind of make sense to me.

Struck me as an interesting method I hadn't heard of before, anyone tried it?

That's the way I cook sausage and thin ham slices/Canadian bacon but never with streaky bacon.

[Spivy]

If I want perfectly crispy bacon I take a non-stick skillet and put it on medium heat. No oil/butter. Put the bacon on and wait until the bacon has some of its fat render out then add a couple tablespoons of water. Then continue as you were and then when the water evaporates the bacon comes out perfect.

[qrn]

When I want the fat for whatever use, and crispy bacon, I put a couple of slices in the bottom of a corning ware bowl,with the lid on it and microwave it for 2 minutes on high, it makes it nice andcrisp and the fat is in the bottom ready to be used,(much faster than pan fry....),and lid keeps the spatter down...

Bud

[MSRadell]

Just read Ruhlman's new book Twenty; not that much groundbreaking in there (I think it's really targeted at a more beginner audience, which it is probably a fine book for), but he did mention that his preferred method of cooking bacon is to put it in a pan, just cover with water, then cook until the water is completely gone and fry up to finish. Claims it tenderizes and is dead simple, both of which kind of make sense to me.

Struck me as an interesting method I hadn't heard of before, anyone tried it?

That's the way I cook sausage and thin ham slices/Canadian bacon but never with streaky bacon.

I've used it like that for ham and Canadian bacon as you said many times and it always works great. I've tried it a couple of times with regular bacon without much success, it certainly creates a lot of spattering trying it that way!

[Bubs McGee]

I'm actually going to try cooking bacon in the oven as mentioned - that sounds like the end result that I prefer. I'm going to give this a shot with some BLT's.

Thanks for sharing!

[Bubs McGee]

And those photos are making me hungry for bacon too

Edited October 11, 2011 by Bubs McGee (log)

[threestars]

Well, all of us here know that hipsters and the man can never ruin bacon.

Wow! that made me drool over that bacon!

I love bacon! Whatever way it is cooked, I'd still eat it to the last bite.

[slkinsey]

For hamburgers, if you're worried about it seizing up, I find that the smash method is the best.

[MSRadell]

My wife and I have cooked bacon many different ways, microwave, oven, stovetop frypan, electric frypan, etc. each way has its own advantages and disadvantages but most of them are messy in one way or the other.  Yesterday, we bought some bacon from a new local supermarket, Lucky's they just opened here in Louisville.  I had smoked a Boston Butt overnight last night and when it was coming out I thought to myself, "I wonder how bacon would work in a smoker"?  I really didn't need nor want to add any additional smoke flavor but thought maybe the temperature would work very well to cook the bacon without shrinking it.

 

We put the bacon on a fiberglass cooking mat and cooked the bacon for 2 hours at 200°, we didn't add any chips (it's an electric smoker) so it was just heat.  The bacon came out quite well with very low shrinkage, it was what I would call cooked medium, not crispy but also not limp.   I think the next time I may try 225° to see if it comes out a little crispier!

 

How does everybody else cook their bacon?

[blue_dolphin]

In the oven, on a rack that fits into a baking sheet.  Usually at 350°F.

 

Edited to add:  More answers in this thread on best ways to cook bacon.

Edited May 18, 2014 by blue_dolphin (log)

[sparrowgrass]

You want me to wait two hours for bacon?  

[Toliver]

I debated whether I should put this post here or in that 3am Drunk Meal discussion...

"The Bacon Weave Taco"

Look, Ma, no carbs! 

No organized actual recipe on the web page...just a discussion of how it was made. I believe he also used this method to make the Bacon Weave Quesadilla.

This dude gets an "A" for effort! 

[Porthos]

Oven guy here.

 

Foil-lined half-sheet pan sprayed with Pam, into an already-heated 400 degree oven. Start checking after about 18 minutes. Remove bacon to paper towels, letting the fat drain from the slices as you remove them. Drain fat into whatever you save your bacon fat in. Carefully remove foil. About 25% of the time I am not careful enough and have to wash the pan.

 

I abandoned pan-frying the day I saw food service workers baking and have never looked back.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

For campsite cooking, bacon can be thrown into a skillet over a campfire or a Coleman stove in mass quantities. Much more than is able to fit in a single layer. Just keep stirring, and eventually it all renders its fat (drain it off) and gets crispy. You can feed a whole lot of folks more quickly this way.

[btbyrd]

I just make my bacon in the oven. But I still want a set of Chef’s Presses in various weights. They’re not exactly bacon presses, but they’re not exactly not bacon presses.

[weinoo]

How curly does one's bacon get?

[Tropicalsenior]

4 hours ago, weinoo said:

How curly does one's bacon get?

Exactly. I don't use mine for bacon because I like my bacon curly and with some fat and flavor still in it. For sandwiches, I prefer a panini grill which incidentally is great for cooking bacon.