How to cook bacon...without a mess [Cooking]

2008 Sep 19
Just in time for the weekend!

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F

2. Take a large cookie sheet with a lip and cover it in aluminum foil.
* This is important if you don't like bacon mess. The fat congeals on the foil and can be reserved or disposed of, depending on your cooking style. *
Try to use the stuff that can cover the tray with one piece.

3. Arrange the bacon on the sheet overlapping the pieces 1/2 a centimetre. This helps with 'shrinkage'.

4. Bake for six minutes.Turn the bacon strips over, careful to not tear the foil. Shake 'em loose if they have started to cook together.

5. Bake for another 4-7 minutes depending on your oven and how crispy you like your bacon. Pat the bacon in paper towels.

2008 Sep 19
OliversRock - First let me say thanks for the tip. I have known people who use this method, and generally it works out quite fine.

My only issue is that you end up tossing out all that tinfoil. Although tinfoil is recyclable (Blue Box) it isn't if it is soiled. At least my splattery skillet method means I can drain off the bacon grease which of course I can save in the freezer and use in other cooking, or in the not so distant future I'll be able include bacon fat in the City of Ottawa's Green Boxes.


2008 Sep 19
You can just cook it in a microwave with 3 layers of paper towel on bottom and top. Or if concerned with the waste as F&T points out, used cheesecloth which can be tossed in the washer.

2008 Sep 19
OliversRock - I should have pointed out that the oven method is great if doing Breakfast or Brunch for a gang... very productive for example at Christmas time when the house is full of family. Leaves the cooktop free for making eggs, omlettes, etc.

Zym - Good call on the cheesecloth, but once the Green Boxes get here the PT won't be an issue, both PT & Bacon Fat can go in there (be it together or seperate). LOL

2008 Sep 19
What happened to the good old fashioned tin soup can approach? I fry the bacon in a frying pan. The bacon, once removed from the pan is put on a plate with a paper towel to sop up the last of the grease on the bacon. Then the bacon fat is immediately poured in the old tin soup can. Then the paper towel that the bacon is on, is used for a final wipe of the pan, and voila.. the pan is clean, and good to go again! ( Note: I do use a non-stick pan, so this also makes cleaning easier, and I use PC Old Fashioned Style bacon, which seems to splatter less, I presume because each slice is as thick as a small novel...)

2008 Sep 19
I have friends that do this. It is quite handy when you're cooking for a big group - but doesn't the splatter just make a mess of your oven? I'd rather be cleaning the stove top than inside the oven (a chore almost as bad as ironing!)

Good call on that PC thick cut bacon, I'll have to check that out. Is there much shrinkage? :P

2008 Sep 20
It doesn't splatter in the oven - if it starts to it is time to take out the bacon.

Pete - used to do that but I always felt guilty for not recycling the can - the bit of foil seemed like a lessor sin.

2008 Sep 21


I love cooking bacon in the oven - the only difference I have is that I put it on a small rack instead of straight on the tinfoil. And there is like no splatter - its wonderful. Crispy, long - so good.

This past week I experimented by cooking bacon on the BBQ - I was skeptical at first, but it turned out soo good, and a bit smokey. I definetly recommend both methods.

2008 Sep 22
OliversRock, of course you can recycle the can! You can allow the fat to accumulate over a couple weeks, and when you're ready you spatula the 'cooled' fat right into a garbage bag. (Or when we get the new food composting program, I believe you'll be able to put it in that). Then a quick rinse with hot water, and your 'fat can' is ready for another month's work. My impression was (although my memory may be deceiving me) was that the older generation would keep fat like this, and reuse it for other cooking tasks, so as not to waste any precious food. I'm not sure if I'll try oven baking bacon, as I have to admit I'm a little skeptical of wether it would produce bacon 'my way'. Further, I find bacon one of those things, like brewing coffee, where I have decided to set aside a couple minutes, and I enjoy every moment of the making, from the first sizzle, to the last bite. For coffee, it is the ritual of grinding the beans, refilling the grinder with fresh beans, and noting the subtle differences in flavour between the beans, the grinds, and the freshly brewed java...mmmm. Perhaps 'food rituals' is fodder for another forum topic...

2008 Sep 22
P-i-O - older folks absolutely used to save their bacon fat for other tasks. My mom used to have a whole pot full of the stuff that she used for deep frying!

2008 Sep 22
P-i-O - Exactly, one can always speed the process along by putting the can in the freezer, the bacon fat will just pop out of the can when frozen.

Zym - Yup, I remember that... my family used to keep a coffee can (with the lid on) in the freezer. I can't remember exactly what it was used for, but I believe it was for a variety of things.

2008 Sep 22
Well, spreading it on toast like it was butter was one way of using it, accompanied with some anchovies, herring or mackerel, it was a favourite of my grandfather's.

2008 Sep 23
Older folks? Bah!

I have a small jar of bacon fat that I keep for "other tasks".

If there's ever a time where you're making eggs without bacon (like a frittata), trot out the bacon fat.

If you're cooking onions, for pasta, for soup, for choucroute, trot out the bacon fat.

And the best ginger snap cookies have got a bit of bacon fat in them.

Chimi - that sounds so deliciously vile (or vilely delicous?). I wonder if molasses containers still suggest frying bread in bacon fat and then slathering it with molasses?

2008 Sep 23
I use a roasting pan so that the fat drains down into it. Then there is no tin foil or can to waste. And i take the fat and add it to my dogs' food. Guess if they are fans of that?

You can also make "Maple Bacon" by this method. Just drizzle the bacon before you put it in the oven. You can baste it while it cooks if you want hard core maple flavor.

2011 Jan 11
While I was cooking bacon for a supper frittata tonight, I thought I'd check out the "bacon thread" on this site. A bed and breakfast I stayed at years ago in NB cooked their bacon in the oven and basted it with both maple syrup and soya sauce. Yumsters.

2011 Jan 12
When cooking for a large group, or just making a lot we bake in the oven. If I need my bacon to be flatter for what I am doing, again bake. When we bake its wire rack on the cookie sheet as drains the meat and gets crispier. Frees up the stove top and since there is no need to stand there over the stove to cook it you have more time to socialize.

I'll often use the second rack for making biscuits utilizing the fact that the oven is on and preventing many rounds of toast being cycled through the toaster oven then trying to keep them warm. Its easier and for some reason people seem to be impressed by biscuits. *shrug*

Flavouring wise I have tried all sorts of things and usually go plain. The odd time when I flavor I eventually settled on a somewhat extreme recipe for candied bacon as my go to fave. Mixture of maple syrup and mustard whisked together. (The mustard flavour just helps the meat flavour to shine through the sweet.) Then the bacon is dipped in then packed or breaded with brown sugar and baked. I know it sounds disturbing but it is great, I rarely make it and now know to make more than you think you'd want/need as it goes fast.

2011 Jan 12
This is the method I use when making my Xmas Pig Candy.

I put some nice thick-sliced, double-smoked bacon on a rack over a lipped pan in the oven. Then I can roast it in the oven (natural gas for good even heat) at 400 for about 30 minutes. When it comes out it is nice and dry, no fat. This makes them the perfect vehicle for coating with chocolate and a sprinkling of smoked salt.

OM NOM NOM

2011 Jan 12
Maple syrup on bacon is not too weird.
I buy organic bacon made with organic maple syrup and sea salt!

it is from Ferme Fee et Fougere.

I don't think cooking bacon in the oven is that odd.
At a cafeteria that I was at last week they always cook the bacon on these large baking sheets in an oven and they taste fine.

If you don't want stuff to stick to the baking sheet you could always use one of those Silpat baking mats?
I just have the toaster oven size silicone mat and that is good and nothing sticks to it.

2011 Jan 15
One amusing answer is provided by the food network. Professional television food re-heater Rachel Ray has a "recipe" for microwaving bacon on the food network website:
www.foodnetwork.com
There are hundreds of sarcastic/nasty/hilarious comments in the "reviews" section.

2011 Jan 15
Thanks!

I am now watching america's worst cooks on the Food Network :)

How come Rachael Ray is not there?
I don't think she is a "trained chef", I read s omewhere Rachael worked in a grocery store before her show.

Is Rachael Ray any better than Sandra Lee "semi homemade"?
Sandra Lee is great...cake mixes,cold cuts and all :)