Makin' Bacon
 

I have bacon for breakfast about 4 days a week, and in the summer, a bacon and tomato sandwich is my go-to lunch. But frying a few pieces of bacon takes awhile, and then there is the pan to clean, etc - it's a pain.

So I started baking half a package bacon at a time and storing it in the 'fridge. When I'm ready for breakfast or a sandwich I nuke a few strips on a paper towel in the microwave and Voilà - bacon in 30 seconds with no mess.

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Bake it for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.

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Take it out before it's 100% done. Nuke it for 30 seconds when it's time to eat.

I do something similar but use a preheated broiler pan.

When I do bacon in the oven I put it on a rack on the baking sheet, so that the grease drips down/off. Just so happens that if I put the bacon in a cold oven and put it on 450, and start making biscuit dough the bacon is nice and crispy about 5 minutes after the oven is done pre-heating and the biscuits are ready to go in the oven. Start boiling water for grits, and unless the biscuits don't cooperate classic breakfast ready 15 minutes later.

I've also used the boiling trick to make bacon. Deep wide pan (or shallow wide pot I guess), chuck the bacon in (it doesn't have to be all layed out flat, I cut mine into half or thirds and just chuck it in), add just enough water to almost cover and put it on to boil until the water is almost gone, then turn down to medium. The boiling cooks it, then when the water is evaporated it has all the fat and nothing is being burnt and carbonated at that point. Then it fries and crisps up in the fat. If you need bacon bits, freeze the bacon a little so it cuts easy and then use the boil method to cook.

No mess bacon. Take a section of the newspaper (8-10 pages), open the fold, line both sides with paper towels, lay bacon, close newspaper, microwave it, flip news paper, nuke some more. 5-6 minutes total depending on how well your microwave cooks.

Cooked some that way for my uncle, he loved it, and he owned 180 restaurants which primarily served breakfast. His brother, my father, a short order cook in college, taught me that trick.

where is that Bacon Bomb BBQ thread?

You have inspired me. BLTs for dinner tonight.

I haven't tried it yet, but there is bacon in the fridge :) Air fryer. It does everything else so well why not bacon done in five minutes. I usually do mine on the BBQ.

I smoked these on the Weber grill.



I still prefer to pan fry my bacon though. I can control the crispness. I give the dogs the leftover fat if it’s not too salty.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1570925142.jpg

Air fryer for the best bacon...esp if you like it completely crispy with no fat.
Cut the slices in half to cover the basket or tray of the fryer. Cook at 400 for 10 minutes..flipping the slices halfway thru the cooking.
Thin sliced bacon works best.

Six pieces of bacon and five scrambled eggs every Friday morning at this hole in the wall restaurant. I like my bacon crispy, not soggy.

BLT’s for lunch in the summer. Yum.

I don’t have the self control required. Once bacon is made, it must be eaten—all of it. After that I snort the crumbs. Then I inject the bacon grease into my arm.

, I use a baconator or something like that, plastic with a cover, no mess, right out of the microwave.

For Xmas a year or two ago, my daughter bought me bacon:, mayo, cheese, spread, pickles, mustard,

it was sublime.....

Depends on the bacon and how much we need to make. If we need to make a bunch, then we bake it in the oven on a baking sheet lined with Al foil with the bacon on a rack so the grease drains away from the bacon. THen you can pour the grease into a container, and the backing pan should be clean since the Al foil kept the grease out.

For just a couple of pieces cooked very crispy, the microwave is best with a few paper towels to absorb the grease.

If it's somewhere in between, then possibly cooked in a skillet.

This bacon is the shizzle. It's made the old fashioned way, smoked in a smoke house with real smoke, rubbed in sugar and salt and aged. Nothing artificial or rushed about the process.
https://shop.bentonscountryham.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=hscb

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I have cook bacon just about every way. My preference is oven. If I need bacon grease/ drippings for cooking, I will use a cast iron pan.


Not to hyjack the tread, but I'm more picky about the brand of bacon than how to cook it.

+1
“Indiana” brand available here in the Midwest is a good tasty bacon with medium-thick, consistent slices and good lean to fat ratio. I’ve tried some craft bacon, but it’s a crap shoot. I bought some that tasted great, but the slicing was haphazard with strips that were paper thin on one end and too thick on the other.

If you guys love bacon so much and have a smoker, you should try curing your own. It's dead simple and better than almost any store-bought bacon.
I use a weight-based cure recipe like this:
https://thehungrydogblog.com/2014/09/how-to-make-bacon-at-home/

All the bacon I cook I have to eat. Sometimes while cooking it which gives me the goodness of floppy fat and grease while I wait for super crispy goodness on the griddle. Best of both worlds.

For over a year now the only bacon I buy is Jansal Valley cob smoked bacon which as the name implies, is twice smoked over dried corn cobs. Absolutely love it.

Now I'm really jonesing for bacon even after having a nice porterhouse for dinner. Would have been good on the baked potato.

I’d like to try curing my own bacon. It sounds better than injecting liquid smoke and chemicals into the meat the way it’s done commercially. I don’t have a problem with using sodium nitrite (pink salt) but some people do.

Finished dinner featuring Big Green Egg bacon.
Mmmm. Bacon.

Maui chicken on the BGE with some mild Italian sausage plus the bacon.
My son's favorite meal right now.

So you guys have gone vegetarian?

Chicken
sausage
bacon

Sounds tasty.

This bacon is supposed to be one of the best. I've ordered their country ham before and it was great! https://shop.bentonscountryham.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=hscb

I've tried making my own, buying pork belly at Costco and dry brining for a week in the fridge. Rinse then smoke and it still comes out too salty, pretty much inedible. Do any Pelicans have some tips, maybe wet brine?

I bake it at 350 for a little while longer because at 400 it just take a second or two too long and it's sticks of carbon.

Keeps the kitchen much cleaner and cooks more evenly.

Has anyone noticed that thick sliced isn't as salty tasting as regular bacon?

You can find this at some grocery stores in So Cal, Farmer John's Ends and Pieces. Great deal and there's some good size hunks of bacon in there...

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Oops. Different topic...

That's why we should eat them before they eat us.

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what y'all really want is ... tasso

Bacon wrapped bacon...The perfect food.

Thanks Steve. That was really interesting.

As a boy I had a school holiday job working at a bacon factory so I have a real appreciation for good bacon.

Bentons ... so... good... I usually order something from them once or twice a year..

I've been learning charcuterie for the last 5-6 years.. have made my own bacon, duck prosciutto, various dried/cured sausage with pork/beef/venison/duck/lamb...

A good reference for getting started is this book..

Charcuterie , by Ruhlman and Polcyn..

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Also the Eater video is great, note that they don't use any pink salt at all... just rub it down and hang it.. first few times I made bacon, I packed it cure, and ignored it ... after a few days you come back to the belly floating in a briny soup.. NFG... I learned to put the belly on a wire rack.. and recoat with seasoning every few days...

Also when making dried sausage such as pepperoni/soprasetta etc... usually only 1 tsp pink salt is used per 5# of meat.. a tiny ratio....


A serving of spinach might contain as many nitrites...


Just finished stuffing some snausage...

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Me in a very happy cool place on Arthur Ave in the Bronx..

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great video Steve, thanks for posting!

grabbed some run of the mill bacon to try in the air fryer. Didn't want to test out with the good stuff. Came out pretty good, maybe a touch chewy, not quite as crispy as I like. I'll play with the timing and temp a bit, and think I'll get there.

These are my notes on making bacon. I’ve been using pork belly. A few times it’s come out too salty but the last couple batches have been good. I’m just using a Weber grill. I place the coals on one side and a aluminum tray of water under the meat to control the temperature. Then close the dampers 80%.


Wet brine: 1.5 cups water for two pieces of meat. Two tablespoon sugar and 2.5 tablespoons salt plus 1 tablespoon maple syrup, various powdered seasonings.

5 days in brine then rinsed off and left to dry in the fridge for a few hours.

Cooked 80 minutes in the Weber. Added Apple wood chips and some small pieces of oak (firewood) every 20 minutes. Good flavor plenty of smokiness.

Oink! Had my order from Bentons ready to checkout....shipping options pissed me off :(.

I will return ;)....

....gotta pull up an old thread....I want some Tasso and Andouille sausage from LA...I think it wuz Baton Rouge...

Oink, oink..

I’m crazy lazy and when I’m hungry I can’t wait so I buy bacon in a box and keep it in the pantry.
Just saw it a while back and tried it and it’s a little thin but not bad. I love to eat BLTs and this enables me to make one in about the three minutes it takes to toast my bread.
Tony

Made a fantastic BAvocadoLT today with a brioche bun and Kewpie mayo inspired by this thread. Devoured.

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I'm now wondering if any of the mail order bacon you guys have posted is better than the stuffour local butcher shop gets...


How about Whole Foods (Amerzon groceries) - which of the mail order bacons are better than anything they have?

I have ordered from Bentons a few times, and I will concur that their shipping charges are crazy. If you order 4# of bacon @ $32, I think the shipping to me was $28. I ordered a ham and 4# of bacon, and I think the shipping was $32. So it's like they stick $20-25 for "handling" on the front end. My plan from now on is probably to buy 12-16# of bacon. That way the shipping should average down per pound quite a bit.

If I get bacon at the local whole foods, most of the bacon is actually pretty expensive, so the Bentons is actually not THAT expensive, especially if you buy a bunch and the shipping just goes up a little.

Crikey I'm making it again tonight, with sunny side up eggs and canned jalapeños.