Thursday, December 15, 2011
Perfect, Easy, and Mess-free Bacon!
I've noticed that in the past few weeks, leading up to the Christmas season, I've been using a LOT of bacon in my savoury treats. I thought that if I'm doing this, others might be as well - and you might appreciate this tip! This past summer, I picked up a fantastic tip from a good friend. When it comes to cooking bacon, there is only 1 way to go to make perfect, crispy bacon - and it doesn't make a mess of your stove!
The trick? Bake The Bacon In The Oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Lay out your bacon in strips, careful not to overlap.
Place the tray in a cold oven, and turn the oven to 400 F. Set your timer for 18 minutes and check when the timer goes off. Depending on the length of time it takes the oven to heat up, your bacon will be finished to perfection between 18 and 22 minutes. Enjoy!
Doesn't this splatter a lot of grease on your oven walls? That worries me: that the next time I go to bake in the oven everything will smell like bacon?!?!?
ReplyDeleteBaking bacon in the oven is totally different than frying it in a pan. Buy a rectangular splatter screen that covers your cookie sheet. And regarding the smell, it goes away immediately. Happy baking!
DeleteThat's a great question - and here's my experience. I made the bacon on Tuesday afternoon, and on Tuesday evening I made a tray of cookies - there was no bacon smell in the house at all as the oven heated up or as the cookies baked. If you're worried about it, you could do a quick wipe down of the oven walls after the oven has cooled down, but I just stuck my head in my oven and sniffed and couldn't smell any bacon, and wiped my fingers on the walls of the oven and there was no grease. I suspect that there would be a LOT more splattering of grease going on if you put the bacon directly into a 400 degree oven, but I think that the slow cooking helps avoid this problem.
ReplyDeleteHey! I sell pampered chef and I bake my bacon all the time! I don't even line the pan because I use a stoneware bar pan. I do put foil over the top just to prevent it from splattering. The stoneware allows the bacon to cook on both sides with out needing to turn it over. Also, the bacon will stay flat and not curl up like when you cook it on the stove. Also, surprisingly it doesn't make you house smell or transfer to your other food!
ReplyDeleteI used my stoneware pan today. How do you clean it since you're not supposed to soak it? Thank you!
DeleteThe Stoneware is a great idea! Though, I don't turn over the bacon anyways when cooking it - and the bacon stays flat on just the regular cookie sheets, too - but putting foil over top of the bacon is a good way to ensure that there is no splattering! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYep that's how I cooked my bacon last night only I did it on my broiler pan because I wanted the grease away from it & I will NEVER cook it in a frying pan again!
ReplyDeleteI cook at my church for 250 people every Wednesday night throughout the school year. When we make Breakfast for Supper, we always cook our bacon in the oven. It's the only way to do it when cooking 25# of bacon at one time. We also do this at Falls Creek every summer. So much easier than on the stovetop!
ReplyDeleteI just tried it in the oven on a cookie sheet and it worked great. No bacon smell in the house at all. excellent post
ReplyDeleteCan I cook bacon cut to tiny bits this way?
ReplyDeleteThat's a great question, Jen, I don't know! I would imagine that the baking time would be slightly shorter.... If you try it, be sure to let us know how it turns out!
DeleteWe do this, but I find that it gets the house smoky. Do you experience that problem?
ReplyDeleteOur house has never gotten smokey yet from baking the bacon! I wonder why yours would? Do you start out with a cold or a hot oven?
DeleteMine got smokey too and set off the smoke detector! I love to cook it this wat though.
DeleteI cook my bacon in the oven (usually on a rack on my baking sheet) all the time too without any problems. The only thing I do differently is I sprinkle a little brown sugar on top of the bacon. Talk about yummy!
ReplyDeleteWe have been baking bacon for years in our house. Same procedure, but we line a cookie sheet with foil and top it with a cooling grate, then place the bacon on top of that and place it in a cold oven using the 400 degree temperature. The grate lets the grease from the bacon drip down to the foil covered pan. No mess and tasty bacon with a lot less fat and very crispy.
ReplyDeleteI've done it the same way as you for a good 25 years and after breakfast, I 'clean up' by carefully taking out the heavy-duty aluminum foil with the bacon fat and folding it up carefully and putting it in the garbage. No muss, no fuss. It's the perfect way to cook bacon, especially when you have company and have to make a lot. All of my family and friends still call it "Garf bacon" since Garf was part of my last name!
DeleteI do this all the time, make the whole package and then store in fridge and heat up in paper towels in the microwave when i need it.
ReplyDeleteI would think if you crumpled the foil a little it would help drain some of the grease.
ReplyDeleteI also cook my bacon in the oven BUT I add the brown sugar with a little black pepper. Yummy to the Max. thanks for all the info.
DeleteGrease ran off of the pan and all over the bottom of my stove and caused a big fire. It was a huge mess and the bacon didn't even get done. Will not be doing this again.
ReplyDeleteDid you use a pan with edges! Can't imaging the grease running off the pan....use a proper pan and you shouldn't have this problem.
DeleteI've been cooking my bacon this way for a while and I found there's a lot less grease then when cooking the conventional way. So much cripier and so much tastier. I'd never cook in a frying pan again. I empty my grease at least 2 times and save it for the birds in the winter, mixed with seeds.
ReplyDeleteMy message didn't sound right. I meant to say there's less grease in the bacon then when frying in the pan. There's still plenty of grease coming out of the bacon.
ReplyDeleteI did this also, but was on a diet that forbid cooked grease. After removing from the oven, I placed paper towels on top of a clean large brown grocery bag. Laid the bacon on the paper towels and added one over the top of the bacon. I folded the brown bag over on top and plopped it down on my kitchen stool and sat on it to 'press' the grease out of the bacon, rocking from side to side for 'full coverage'. Once, I forgot we had a house guest who 'caught' me in the act! Worked great without all the grease that can get caught in the dips in bacon.
ReplyDeleteHa! Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for sharing!! :)
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