Boiled Bacon Anyone?
 

I have tried it a couple of times. I like the texture better than simply fried or baked. It's crispy on the outside, but still has some texture in the center. But I haven't gotten the right level of Maillard on it yet. It looks kind of pale. After the water boils away it browns, but not enough.

So far I've tried putting about 1/4 inch of water in the pan, getting it boiling, and dropping in the bacon. The fat renders out while the bacon is boiling and it's left spread thinly all over the pan once the water is gone. I cranked up the heat, but there just wasn't enough fat left to brown the bacon properly. Next time I'm going to add some vegetable oil after the water is gone to see if I can get the nice texture AND get it to brown.

Any one else tried boiling bacon?

I've tried cooking it with a little water in the pan, and it worked well. It's been a while and I can't remember the details. I don't think I started with the bacon submerged. I think there was just a layer of water but the bacon was still peaking out. But I'm not positive.

I've never had it boiled...might have to try it.

I never fry it in a pan anymore....baking it in the oven works best for me.

I'm trying it....looks good.
I love bacon.:)

I only cook it on the Weber BBQ. I get the BBQ hot so it cooks (Maillard) well on the outside but doesn't dry out the inside. Hot and fast I guess.

Boiled Bacon just sounds so wrong. I don't care how it tastes, it's just something I never want to hear.

^^^ It sounds like the trick is to get right amount of water in the pan.
Boiling sounds like a pot o pasta.....this is only calling for tablespoons.

Can I still stir my tea with boiled bacon?

At least how I've heard and done it, you're not actually boiling the bacon. There's some water in the bottom of the pain. This helps get the bacon completely cooked, the fat thoroughly rendered and greatly reduces the amount of popping and grease mess outside of the skillet.

There's a little water in the pan in the beginning, but by the time you're finished the water has completely evaporated and all that's left in the pan is what would normally be in the pan, cooked bacon and rendered bacon fat.
You can still cook it so it's crispy (without burning it).

Yep, we've cooked it in the skillet, cooked it in the skillet with water, and baked it in the oven. If we're just making a couple/few pieces we'll use a skillet (probably forget about the water). If we're making a normal amount then we bake it in the oven. I usually use a baking sheet and line it with foil and then sit a wire rack in the pan. The grease ends up in the pan under the rack after having dripped off of the bacon. The bacon is much more evenly cooked, and with the foil, you pour the grease out of one corner of the pan and then trash the foil and the pan is still clean.

I'm trying thin sliced bacon done this way tomorrow.
I'd buy some eggs along with...but my cc limit is too low.:D

Cut into big ol chunks and boil it.

Let it cool and very lightly flour it, deep fry it for crisp, and then hit it with some hot wing sauce.

Couldn't resist - One of my favorite scenes from "Better of Dead":

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LOL! I love Better Off Dead, but had forgotten about that.

Well heck never heard of that. I do boil sausage links and like to get a touch of browning when the water is gone. Sounds kinda like the same concept.

Tried it this am using about a quarter package of thin sliced bacon. Only 3 tablespoons of water was enough to cover the bacon. After about 4 minutes, flipped them and the water was about gone by the 6 minute mark. Left them in the pan for another minute or two to brown them.
Placed them on paper towels and they looked normal.

The flavor and texture was good, comparable to pan frying...a lot less mess than pan frying.


I will prob stick with doing them in the oven. Very easy and just throw away the tin foil when done.

It's been years since we tried it with water, but that's about what my vague recollection is when we tried it. And yes, we've stuck with baking in the oven as being much easier most of the time.

Like I said, if you were only going to make 2-4 slices for some reason, then the water in the skillet method would probably be far better than the oven. But if you're going to cook a lot, then the oven method is our favorite because it's less messy, more thorough/consistent, and easier.

And also...I noticed that the boiled bacon had lost some of it's saltiness from the boiling.
Not enough to bother me....but it was just a little different.

the hot water probably removes salt from the bacon, so that makes sense.

I've gotten some "country ham" which is salt cured the old fashioned way. And even though the ham is fully cured and can be eaten as is (like a proscuitto) some folks because of the saltiness recommend soaking that ham in water before cooking/eating to remove some of the saltiness.

Though I'll give boiling a try -

dude... the answer always has been in the name. Bake your bacon. 1/4 or 1/2 sheet pan (with edges) - and the second round is better as it's nearly fried in its own fat.

Air fryer makes bacon absolutely sublime. I won't be boiling mine.

So deep fried bacon. I bake it, but on an elevated rack so it doesn't deep fry.
you're not actually boiling it. And the air fryer is essentially baking it.

This guy does great videos. Skip the BS and go right to the 4 minute mark for the science of cooking bacon, or go right to 8:20 for the charts and graphs. Makes sense to me. I may try baking it in water so I can do a whole package at a time.


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A fair amount of the bacon you eat in a restaurant comes right out of the deep fryer.

A lot of bacon at home is essentially deep fried. If you cook a lb of bacon in a skillet, by the time you're half done, there's so much rendered fat in the skillet that you're essentially deep frying the bacon.

Try Sous Vide at 145degrees for 12-24 hours. Hot cast iron for 45 seconds on one side then flip for a few seconds. Crisp on the outside melting on the inside.

The other advantage is that you can Sous Vide ahead of time, refrigerate until you want some, then cook very quickly when desired.

S/F, FOG

Baked my bacon in water twice now and it was delicious, or rather more delicious!

I use a baking sheet? with low edges and just put enough water in it to touch all the slices.

I don’t pre-heat, just 390F and when it starts looking done, I flip it- and continue until crispy.

It seems to take much more time, but I thing the results are worth it.

Thanks for bringing this method to my attention.

The missus has wanted to try sous vide but not enough to go buy the kit to do it.
Interesting, so you've combined baking and adding water. We may try that.

The thing I noticed the first time was that the side touching the tray wasn’t hardly done even though the top was done. Probably because it was sitting in the water. Flipping once the top was done worked the trick and didn’t over cook the done side, probably because now it was in the “water”.

Good to know, thanks. That's why when I bake it, I bake it on an elevated rack so we get hot air all around the bacon.

Bacon boiled in potato soup is particularly wonderful.

Masaum,

I was gifted the sous vide years ago and thought it wasn't going to useful. I was wrong.

I use it for ribs and steaks, finishing on the grill or open flame, or smoker or even the broiler. The advantage, especially for the ribs, is that you can cook them ahead of time then turn the water temp down to 112 degrees until ready to finish then within ten minutes at the time of your choosing.


S/F, FOG

We usually cook bacon in the oven on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, but I really prefer bacon cooked in a big ol Iron skillet.

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I've never heard of "Boiled Bacon". :confused:

It's not really boiled.

A bit of a follow up; I’ve been using the water method for a few months now and with some experimenting I have found that using more water is giving me better results. I now put enough water in my foil lined baking tray to slightly float the bacon. Delicious!

I put it in the oven after I get it prepped while it is still pre-heating to 375 for around 24 minutes, then flip the slices and cook for about 8 more minutes.

Interesting. Why flip the slices? In a skillet, I think the cooking is primarily through conduction (hot skillet touching bacon), but in the oven, the whole oven is hot. I assume a lot or most of the cooking in the oven is from radiation and convection.

The side sitting in the water looks raw when the top side is almost cooked, so it needs to be flipped to get it completely cooked.