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

[MarketStEl]

Where at on Ward Parkway?  The next time I am up, probably January, I will bring a cooler and go shopping.

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Near 79th. It's a pretty cool store. I happen to live about 6 blocks away which is a big part of why I'm a regular.

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Glad to see some things about the old hometown don't change...

--Sandy, KC native (East Side, near 41st/Benton Blvd)

[MarketStEl]

Put me down for the rack-in-pan-in-oven method as well. I'm usually in a hurry, though, and cook the bacon at 400 F for about 15 minutes. You do have to be more attentive at this temperature, though, as one minute's inattention can make all the difference between bacon that's crispy and bacon that's burnt to a crisp.

However: There is the advantage that you can bake your biscuits at the same time you're cooking the bacon at this temperature.

[RETREVR]

I cook it in a cast iron skillet unless I am nekid....Then I cook it in the oven. If cooking in the oven, wear your apron backwards so you don't scare anyone when you bend over to pull the bacon out of the oven.

Nothing wrong with wrapping a filet. That cut has no flavor to begin with.

There are more subtle fats that can be used for larding fine cuts.

Jalepeno wrapped in dove wrapped in bacon and grilled is pretty dammed good.

Fresh caught trout fried in bacon fat with cornmeal is fairly good also.

I had the contract for our local octoberfest this year. Can you say potato salad with bacon dressing? Do you have any idea how much bacon you have to cook off to get enough fat to make dressing for 2000 people?

A am pretty much convinced that there will not be peace in the middle east untill the people embrace pork...bacon in particular.

[Luckylies]

baon in micro on paper towels is good for quick sandwiches..but for big batches...the oven. it always turnws out flat and crispy...mmm. i always ruin it in the pan, i'm totally impatient.

white bread

red heirloom tomato

boston lettuce

bacon

avocado

litlle red peper flake

little mayo

pepper

best sandwich ever. other than an "all bacon" thats good too.

[Toliver]

I thought I would post this here since the subject is appropriate.

Is anyone else ticked off at the new Old Navy TV ads where there this young guy is touting the fact that they're giving away prizes every hour in their Old Navy stores and you could be a winner, too. They show a lot of people in the background running around, screaming about their prizes.

Except for Irwin...

They cut to a kitchen where this guy (Irwin) is busy frying bacon in a skillet. The spokes-kid stands next to him and says everyone can be a winner except for Irwin here who'd rather stay home and fry bacon than be an Old Navy winner. The spokes-kid actually says "Don't be an Irwin".

Hello?! Priorities, people! I don't care if Publisher's Clearing House is knocking on my door. If I'm frying up some bacon, go away...leave me be to my fried heaven in a pan. I'd have given that kid a taste of my pig iron upside his head for standing in my kitchen and insulting my bacon frying.

Old Navy can go to hell.

My name is Toliver-Irwin and I'm a bacon-fryer, dammit.

[nocturnalsunshine]

I thought I would post this here since the subject is appropriate.

Is anyone else ticked off at the new Old Navy TV ads where there this young guy is touting the fact that they're giving away prizes every hour in their Old Navy stores and you could be a winner, too.  They show a lot of people in the background running around, screaming about their prizes.

I'd have given that kid a taste of my pig iron upside his head for standing in my kitchen and insulting my bacon frying.

Old Navy can go to hell.

My name is Toliver-Irwin and I'm a bacon-fryer, dammit.    

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I love that commercial, i saw it the day i was having bacon and donuts for breakfast and then went to old navy and got some underwear, i laughed all the way there and back.

[Sarabeth]

I usually do mine, plain, in the oven... and then I had"Elizabeth's" bacon in New Orleans. Sadly, I don't think they reopened after Katrina (I hope I'm wrong)

She served thick cut bacon that had been liberally covered in brown sugar and pecans before going in the oven.

Just thinking about it is going to keep me awake and hungry tonight.

[ravelda]

I love to serve thick cut bacon, coated in a maple syrup and bourbon marinade, a dash of chinese five spice, seved with roasted vine ripened tomatoes and sourdough - mmmmm!

[Fat Guy]

The other day we were over at some friends' house for breakfast. We were preparing a feast: pancakes, eggs, home-fried potatoes, toast, and bacon. They have a four-burner DCS range. It's actually the exact one I have at home, which was strange to see in someone else's kitchen (first time for me). Over two burners went the griddle for pancakes. The third burner had the skillet for the potatoes. And burner number four was reserved for the scrambled eggs. Toast would go in the toaster.

That left the bacon. My friend's plan was to cook it on the griddle, then clean the griddle, then do the pancakes on the griddle.

I said, "Why don't we do the bacon in the oven?"

He looked at me like I had two heads. But he consented.

I turned the oven to 325 degrees (F). I took a half-sheet pan and laid the bacon strips out very tightly packed -- overlapping a bit in places -- so that a one-pound package of sliced bacon fit on the tray. I put the whole thing in the oven and waited.

After about 15 minutes -- and during all this time we were able to make stuff on the stovetop -- I opened the oven and turned each piece of bacon over with a fork. By now the bacon had shrunk a bit so it no longer overlapped. Back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so.

The bacon was ready around the same time as all the other food. I took the tray out of the oven and put it on the counter on a couple of cork trivets and took the pieces off to dry on paper towels.

At the table, my friend's wife, who was not involved in the food preparation, asked "How did you get the bacon to come out so good?"

Another convert to bacon in the oven.

Not only is bacon in the oven incredibly convenient and efficient -- it leaves your stovetop burners free and if you have room for three half-sheet pans in your oven you can cook three pounds of bacon at once no problem -- but also the bacon comes out great. I'm not really sure why. Perhaps being surrounded by warm air is better for the bacon's flavor development than the unilateral heat of a stovetop skillet. Perhaps the oven just enforces the low-and-slow approach better than the stovetop. Or perhaps it's because, all of it cooking at once, the bacon comes to the table "fresher" than multiple batches in a skillet or two. In any event, bacon in the oven is the only way to fry.

[annachan]

Put the bacon on a baking rack and then on the half sheet. That way, the fat has a place to drain.

For even better bacon, brush some maple syrup or sprinkle some brown sugar on top during the last 5 minutes or so of baking.

[Tri2Cook]

I like bacon cooked in the oven. I always do it that way when we have to cater breakfasts for large groups. I don't use a rack on the pans, I think bacon is better cooked in it's own fat.

[maggiethecat]

I wrote about this a couple of years ago in a Bacon and Eggs story in "The Daily Gullet." And I stood by it today: spread bacon in your most disreputable sheetpan, put it in a cold oven, set the oven for 400, and pull when then timer goes off. Never fails.

Then pour the grease into a frying pan and cook yourself a fried egg.

[Fat Guy]

I like bacon cooked in the oven. I always do it that way when we have to cater breakfasts for large groups. I don't use a rack on the pans, I think bacon is better cooked in it's own fat.

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I don't know whether or not it comes out better on a rack but it would have to be a substantial uptick in quality to make it worth the inconvenience. The beauty of the simple on-tray oven method is that it's so convenient and efficient yet it produces excellent bacon. That's why I prefer the method to the stovetop even when cooking for a small group. As Maggie has written, even if you're just cooking six slices they're not going to fit well in a single skillet on the stovetop (though I have a an old square Griswold skillet that can just handle that many slices -- not that I'd ever cook just six slices of bacon), so the oven method is preferable in all normal bacon cookery scenarios.

[Panosmex]

Bacon in the oven is my favored way of cooking it, especially for a large group.

I always put down a sheet of parchment paper on a lipped baker's half sheet for easier cleanup.

It always comes out great.

[MelissaH]

I do bacon in the oven any time I need more than six slices. (I can fit six slices on my microwave bacon cooker.) I use a rack over a half sheet pan, lay the bacon on, and start in a cold oven that I turn up to 400 degrees F. I've tried it both with the convection fan on and without, but haven't reached any conclusions on which way is better.

I'll have to try the parchment down below. Anything to make cleanup better is a plus in my book.

MelissaH

[Jaymes]

I wrote about this a couple of years ago in a Bacon and Eggs story in "The Daily Gullet." And I stood by it today: spread bacon in your most disreputable sheetpan, put it in a cold oven, set the oven for 400, and pull when then timer goes off. Never fails.

Then pour the grease into a frying pan and cook yourself a fried egg.

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I thought we'd discussed this somewhere previously on eG....

That's the way I first learned to cook bacon some 50 years ago in my grandmother's kitchen. She used to own a restaurant, so she was accustomed to cooking in large batches. But as has been pointed out, cooking bacon in the oven works just great for smaller amounts as well. The only caveat is that I do want to cook a large enough amount to make it worthwhile to heat up that big oven.

[MGLloyd]

I have done bacon in the oven, using a rack and sheet pan, for years. After experimentation, I prefer a rack to allow the fat to render and the bacon to crisp easier. This also gives me cleaner drippings which I save in a jar in the fridge. I put the bacon into a cold oven, heat to 350, and pull the bacon at about 15-20 minutes or so. The bacon seems to shrink less at this temperature and time.

[Fat Guy]

Another benefit is that bacon in the oven seems to be a tidier way to cook.

[Andrew Fenton]

Another benefit is that bacon in the oven seems to be a tidier way to cook.

Yes, that (plus the ease of cooking) is the big benefit as far as I'm concerned: no grease to clean off the stovetop! Unless I'm only cooking a couple of slices, I never bother with cooking bacon in a pan.

[weinoo]

Since I rarely cook bacon for a crowd, I just can't see turning on the oven to cook 6 or 8 slices of bacon...I get pretty darn good results just from cooking the bacon very slowly on the stove top, turning it frequently, and making sure I don't overcook it.

And I'm betting that the brand of bacon makes a difference.

Never any complaints from my wife on the quality of the finished product...and she is bacon-demanding.

[Tsulli1]

Does anyone know about the science of nitrosamines as it relates to cooking bacon?

I know that these substances form when bacon is cooked at high temperatures (e.g. in a pan on the burner). I was wondering if cooking it at the lower temp in the oven (such as described above) reduces or inhibits their creation?

[Kim Shook]

I much prefer cooking bacon in the oven - both from a taste and a clean standpoint, but Mr. Kim and my punk prefer pan-fried, so I trade off the method. I use Release foil under the bacon and since its bigger than the sheet pan, I have exactly NO clean up.

[RAHiggins1]

We always baked the bacon in the Marine Corps, can you imagine cooking bacon on the griddle for 1200? I once burned a whole industrial convection oven of it. I carefully panned it all off in a perforated insert and put it in the big steamer for 5 seconds and it saved the whole mess from becoming bacon bits on the salad bar and me being in the hot seat.

[Chris Hennes]

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.

[dougal]

There is an oven-cooked-bacon trick that I attribute to Gary Rhodes.

Cook the bacon between two identical, nested pans.

You grease the underside of the 'lid' before putting it in place.

Result: no need to turn, and the bacon doesn't crumple up as it cooks.

This technique gets extended by some people to ham, Parma ham even.

http://www.churchhouseconf.co.uk/rotm/2003-05.shtml