Better Ways To Cook Bacon

Bacon. It's literally the best food in the world. Even people who don't prefer bacon secretly love bacon. That's why even the vegan crowd will source bacon-flavored stuff. But it's not the easiest thing to prepare. It's often a hot, splattery, messy process, and even then, results are not guaranteed. But if you'll try these methods, it'll be better.

First off, if you're going to pan fry bacon, follow the directions. Start with a room temp pan and bring the bacon up to heat. Flip if you want to, or don't. But as you continue cooking bacon in that pan, the grease builds up, and you're eventually trying to deep-fry bacon while making a huge mess.

If you have to do a whole pound, start with that same room temp skillet, cut your bacon strips into three or four sections, and toss it all in the pan. Your strips will be shorter, but the result will be better.

If you're only cooking a few slices for yourself, and this is going to sound weird, but place your strips in a cold pan and add enough water to just cover the majority of the bacon. As it cooks, it'll keep your bacon from coiling up on you and will evaporate by the time it's done.

If you want to really cook a ton of bacon, go for the oven. It's ridiculously easy, and getting through three or four pounds will only take an hour or so. The best tip I can give you is to have the correct pan.

Sure, you can pick up a dedicated bacon pan with fancy grease trays and wire racks built in, but putting parchment paper in a regular baking pan is fine enough. Because it'll allow your bacon to cook in its own grease, it'll come out crunchy, yet satisfyingly chewy.

Speaking of grease, you're going to get a lot of grease. Whether you save it or not is up to you, but dealing with it can be daunting.

After every batch of bacon, pour that grease off into another container. I remember my dad trying to pour bacon grease into pop cans when I was a kid, but my method is better. Grab a big bowl and line it with aluminum foil. It's easy to pour in, and after it cools in the fridge, easy to toss.

If you cook quite often, keep it to cook with later. You can pour it into a mason jar through a coffee filter or cheesecloth. You could also just pour it through a flour sack towel, but there's no sense in sacrificing a dollar towel just for a little free grease.

Bacon is a challenge if you let it be. Don't. Dominate your bacon game, and drop some off. I'd like to compare recipes, provided your ingredient is bacon.