College Cooking Tips
A pan with shallow sides and lots of hot fat can easily spill and burn you. Be careful.
If you are using organic bacon or pork grown healthfully, be sure to save the fat. It can be used to enhance the flavors of many dishes. If the animal was raised in conditons and practices that required the use of disease mitigating inputs, these elements will migrate and be stored in the fat of the animal increasing the concentration of negative factors. It's best to let that bacon fat go.
- The temperature is more consistent on all sides of the bacon which will avoid hyper crispy (read as burned) mixed with chewy (read as close to raw)
- You can put the bacon in the oven and then do other things instead of constantly tending the bacon.
- The consistent temperature keeps the bacon laying more flat instead of curling up into little bacon knots.
- It doesn't tend to spatter as much and keeps the spattering away from an open flame or a hot burner that can ignite and cause a fire.
Cookin' Bacon
Heat the oven to 350 degrees
On a cookie pan with edges, lay out each strip of bacon. (The pieces are going to shrink so don’t worry if they're a little tight. Though I find if I try to put too much bacon in one pan, all the pieces stick together making it more difficult to turn them over.)
- Place the bacon in the oven for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, remove bacon from the oven and use tongs to turn the pieces over. If a lot of fat has rendered you can pour off some of it at this point.
- Place the bacon back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
- Check again to make sure the bacon is crisp. You might need to bake it another 5 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and place on a paper towel to absorb the grease.