My favorite way to cook bacon...

[johnpalmer]

If you want really good bacon, my opinion is the best way to cook it is this:

Take a cast iron pan (a griddle is preferable), and use low heat. It'll probably take up to half an hour to cook the bacon, so make sure you have a computer (or book, or knitting, or whatever you do to pass the time) available.

Move the bacon around so the strips all cook relatively evenly. Drain off the grease (I use a spoon) when necessary. And let it continue to cook until it's as crisp as you like.

One suggestion for those who like their bacon floppy: try at least one of the crispy strips. You may (or may not) find that it has the taste/texture you want.

Do this just right, and you'll understand why doughnuts are said to have a creamy texture when eaten just out of the fryer.

This cooking technique brought to you by a bit of disappointment over Trader Joe's applewood smoked bacon, which I decided to rush, just a bit. It *really* needs slow cooking, and burns very easily.

Comments

[anansi133.livejournal.com]

One rule of thumb I've read that makes sense, is to cook bacon naked. If the grease is popping out of the pan and burning your skin, then you've got it too hot.

My favorite way to cook bacon is in a cake pan in the oven. You can cook a lot of it at once, with low heat, and minimal handling.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Nod. Plus, honestly, it's hard to get good clothing for bacon. The little pig costume I put on it was cute, but it really didn't hold up well to the griddle.

But, yes, that's what I like about this method. There's the occasional pop if I get impatient, but it usually just lets the fat render off slowly.

[essaying.livejournal.com]

I actually prefer to leave the grease -- when the bacon is cooking in its own grease, it renders the fat out of the strips.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't try to leave the pan dry; there's always a bit of a grease film to conduct the heat evenly. I just don't like it to deep-fry :-).

[essaying.livejournal.com]

Ah, but that's the whole point -- when it *does* deep-fry, the actual strips come out less greasy, because being surrounded by hot fat renders the fat out of them.

Try it sometime & see what you think.

[laurarey.livejournal.com]

Ok....I'll have to try your method, but I still think David's way is amazing. He takes a cookie sheet with about a half inch lip around all sides and places a cake cooling rack inside of it. He then places the bacon on top of the rack, fills the cookie sheet with water, and sticks the whole thing under the broiler.

Bacon isn't dried out, stays flat, and all the excess grease drips away into the water.

Hey, that's almost how I do it.

[wyang.livejournal.com]

I do almost the same thing -- using a jellyroll pan (~quarter sheet), with a wire cooling rack... however, I don't put water in the pan, and I bake (starting with a cold oven) going up to about 350 degrees, rather than using a broiler. Takes me about 25 minutes, but it's a function of how fast your oven is....

Rendering the fat approach is good, but I prefer it baked because it's much lighter and less fatty (especially if you blot the bacon with a paper towel before serving like I do ;-).

Re: Hey, that's almost how I do it.

[laurarey.livejournal.com]

The water keeps the grease from smoking. :)

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

I've done bacon in a baking pan before; this sounds like an interesting thing to try as well. It might be faster.

[malaechi.livejournal.com]

If you were still in town I'd tell you to go to Thurn's on Greenlawn.. cut and smoked fresh weekly on site.. and only $4.29/lb.... nummy

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Hm. Yet another reason to try to find my way back to the mid-west sometime :-).

[malaechi.livejournal.com]

122 yr old German sausage shop FTW....

[firecat]

Mmmmm, crispy bacon.

[kshandra]

I'm glad I found this post again; I've got half a package of bacon ends with which I intend to make eleri's corn chowder. Sadly, I have no cast-iron cookware, so the oven method is in my immediate future.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

I've found I can do it on aluminum, but it has to be a still-lower temperature.

I've fallen in love with cast iron because I hate the thought of throwing out good metal, but I don't think you can recycle teflon-coated pans.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Oh, and, obviously: eventually, all teflon coated pans get scratched up, so they have to be thrown out or recycled.