I’ve been cooking a lot of bacon lately, and I’ve discovered a few tricks that I thought I would share.

Open to other’s experiences and tips.


Start with your favorite bacon laid on a sheet pan. I preheat my oven to 380°F.



Pro Tip: add a little water to the sheet pan so that the temperature of the bacon stays at 212°F for a while. (This breaks down the collagen and other proteins in bacon during the rendering process.)

The amount of water will change how chewy or crisp your bacon will be. This is a personal choice.


380°F in my oven for 25 minutes, then flip, place back in the oven for 5 to 10 more minutes.


Done

I do similar, baking it in a sheet pan, but I use butcher paper instead of foil.

I haven’t tried it… I’m not sure how the paper would hold up to the water… Probably would be just fine.

I've done it in the oven using aluminum foil but never with water. Might have to try that.
My go to is still cast iron though. Yes, it's messy but I'm just so used to doing it that way. Hard to change.

Baking the bacon flat on a sheet pan is how every professional kitchen ever does it unless they’re grilling it to order on a flattop like a diner.

I’ve never heard of using water, seems like you’re poaching it then instead of letting it fry in its own fat? I’ve found the key is to dump off the excess grease once or twice as it renders out.

Yeah, I don't use water either.

Somewhat similar, a foil pan in a toaster oven. Using water is a new one.

I bake mine on a sheet lined with parchment paper. I save the grease so no water for me.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Baking the bacon flat on a sheet pan is how every professional kitchen ever does it unless they’re grilling it to order on a flattop like a diner.

I’ve never heard of using water, seems like you’re poaching it then instead of letting it fry in its own fat? I’ve found the key is to dump off the excess grease once or twice as it renders out.

One of the oldest 'hacks/tricks' in the pro cooking tool box...cook bacon in oven = free's up stove space, reduces splatter, walls & hood don't get as sticky due to repeated uses and free's the cook to work on other parts of the meal.

Not sure water is needed, it does make the cooking a tad gentiler, the rendering is going to happen as part of the cooking process though.

Looks fantastic. My favorite way is putting a cooling rack on a pan like above and place the bacon on the cooling rack. Since the bacon is not sitting on a hot pan or skillet it cooks more evenly and lays flat.

Probably marginally healthier since the bacon is not cooking in its own grease.

The reason the water is used, is to maintain the temperature at 212° for 5-15 minutes on the bacon to reduce proteins that only breakdown at narrow and specific temperature range.

Cooking is chemistry; i.e. browning/Maillard reaction, emulsions and sauce making.

This is a biochemistry trick … cooking bacon is mostly rendering bacon. This is a critical step and rendering proteins down.

It’s for taking (thick) bacon and making it crispy.

I preheat both oven and sheetpan to 400 degrees. I have oven safe egg skillet too with removable silicone handle cover so I preheat that in the oven at the same time.

I put my thick cut bacon on foil without water. Foil makes for both easy clean-up and easy saving of bacon grease.

Put bacon/foil on preheated sheetpan and insert in oven.

After 9 minutes, pull my egg skillet and leave bacon to cook. Begin frying eggs.

After 4 more minutes, pull bacon and put on papertowel lined plate.

Complete frying eggs.

Plate both bacon and eggs.

I buy quality thick-cut bacon, and it always comes out perfectly crispy and melt-in-your mouth without using water in the baking sheet.

Plus, as mentioned above, it allows you to save the undiluted rendered bacon grease in the bottom of the pan for later cooking use.

Guys… in a 380° oven the water all boils off.

Maybe it’s counterintuitive.

Don’t try it. Evar … Lol.


Why are you so afraid?

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
Why are you so afraid?

Why are you so insistent that it's a critical step?

Instead, it appears to me to be introducing an unnecessary step to a process that already works perfectly.

"Don't fix it if it ain't broke"

You do you. I'll stick with what I know works for me.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:

The reason the water is used, is to maintain the temperature at 212° for 5-15 minutes on the bacon to reduce proteins that only breakdown at narrow and specific temperature range.

How much water do you use? Enough to cover the bacon? More? Less?

I like bacon on the crispy side, but not brittle.

Guess I'm just an old school curmudgeons as I continue to use a stovetop cast iron frying pan for my bacon.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:

The reason the water is used, is to maintain the temperature at 212° for 5-15 minutes on the bacon to reduce proteins that only breakdown at narrow and specific temperature range.

How much water do you use? Enough to cover the bacon? More? Less?

I like bacon on the crispy side, but not brittle.

I don’t like it brittle either… That’s way overdone in my book.

I think the rule of thumb here is that more water equals less chewy. I like a certain chewiness to my bacon, but removing a fair amount of it is an amazing process!

I tend to use good bacon that’s thicker than Oscar Meyer store-bought. I also prefer uncured bacon over cured; however, in the photos above you can see all the sugar left in the pan from cured bacon. (I’ve also use the Costco 2 pound bacon packages as well. I’m currently using the local butcher but it’s all cured.)


The amount of water is somewhat variable. I have found depending on the thickness of the bacon (we have an instant hot water tap that I use at the sink) to add enough water to cover probably about half the side/thickness of the bacon, maybe a little bit more.

(I’ve probably cooked 75-100 pounds/pans of bacon in the last five or six months easily. I’ve dialed it in for my oven.)

And lastly, I never said that’s was for everybody. Only those who really care about their bacon!

I cook it on parchment paper at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

It's what my butcher told me to try years ago and it works for me.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
I like bacon on the crispy side, but not brittle.

Flip the bacon about half-way through, 10-12 min. Once the fat starts to foam on top of the meat, pull it out. Remove from pan, put on plate with paper-towels to absorb excessive fat.

quote:

Originally posted by bald1:
Guess I'm just an old school curmudgeons as I continue to use a stovetop cast iron frying pan for my bacon.

Curmudgeon maybe not, you just enjoy the process. I'm the same with making steel-cut oats over the stove-top.