Bacon cooked in the oven is wonderfully crispy and delectable. Additionally, it is pretty simple, produces less mess than cooking it on the stovetop, and enables you to multitask in the kitchen. If you’ve never baked bacon, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. Bacon. Bacon is traditionally created by rubbing hog loin or belly pieces with a salt and spice mixture and allowing the flesh for a week before being rinsed with warm water, dried, and smoked. And if you’re willing to pay for it, you can still purchase bacon prepared in this manner.
Thus, what do you offer with your bacon? To be honest, everything! Poached eggs, soft and hard-boiled eggs, and fried eggs are all included. And don’t forget about my paleo pancakes (and fantastic bacon dipped in maple syrup). Bacon is a salt-cured pork product manufactured from various cuts, often the belly or less fatty back. It is consumed as a side dish (especially at breakfast), as a primary ingredient (e.g., in the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich (BLT), or as a flavoring or accent (as in bacon bits in a salad).
How To Cook Bacon In The Oven?
When it comes to wonderfully crispy, uniformly cooked bacon, nothing beats baking bacon. However, it’s astounding how few people have ever tried it, and it appears as though the cooktop rules supreme. Today, I’ll explain why you should break your bacon-cooking traditions and cook bacon in the oven. And believe me when I say that you’ll never cook it again on the cooktop after you’ve cooked bacon in the oven!
Cooking bacon on the stove creates splatters and hot areas on the pan. This means that certain pieces of bacon will cook more quickly than others. That is why you may have some bacon slices that have been mistakenly overcooked while others remain uncooked.
The heat evenly cooks all bacon slices when cooking bacon in the oven. They sizzle slowly, do not splash, and cook evenly. It’s pretty lovely.
Oven-Baked Bacon – In 5 Steps
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Lay the bacon slices on the baking sheet.
- Cook the bacon for 18-20 minutes or until it’s as crispy as possible.
- Remove the bacon from the oven and transfer it to a paper towel-lined plate.
Tips For Cook Bacon In The Oven
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a big sheet pan with parchment paper (or leave it unlined – but that’s messy). It’s as simple as pulling out a sheet of parchment paper, laying the bacon on top, and frying.
- Should the bacon be cooked on a cooling rack? I don’t believe so. I experimented with it and discovered that the change was insignificant. However, I was required to clean a cooling rack (those buggers are hard to clean).
- Four hundred degrees Fahrenheit is an ideal temperature for standard and thick-cut bacon. Preheat the oven to 400°F and cook the bacon for 18-20 minutes until the desired crispiness is achieved. I rotate the pan halfway through for even cooking, but that is all. Additionally, keep in mind that your bacon will continue to crisp up as it dries.
- Refrigerate leftover bacon in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat in the oven, microwave, or air fryer if desired.
- Line a rimmed sheet pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper before adding the bacon strips for easy cleanup. There is no need for a baking rack.
- Ensure that the bacon slices are all in one layer; overlapping portions will not crisp as effectively. If you’re preparing more considerable amounts of bacon, use two pans and rotate the pans after around 10 minutes. Cooking time may need to be increased by a few minutes.
- Allow the bacon grease to cool on the pan for about 10-15 minutes before transferring it into a jar if you want to store it.
What Are The Benefits Of Cooking Bacon In The Oven?
- First, you can prepare food for a crowd (and sometimes that crowd is just your immediate family). This is critical during the holidays or whenever a large group of guests descends on your home, and it’s also critical for maintaining your sanity while cooking with a crowd.
- Second, baking bacon is significantly more hygienic than cooking bacon, and I’m infamous for splattering bacon all over the stovetop because I probably cook it too hot. However, there are no splatters when cooking bacon in the oven since the bacon sizzles until it is perfectly crispy (or done to your liking).
- Finally, oven-cooking bacon enables you to multitask in the kitchen. Because once you’ve popped that sheet pan of excellent bacon into the oven, you’ll have about 15 minutes to scramble some eggs or cook some pancakes or waffles.
What Is The Right Temperature For Baking Bacon?
I prefer to bake my bacon at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, and I recommend beginning with a cold oven. This allows the fat in the bacon to melt away, resulting in crispier finished bacon slowly. (Unless you create candied bacon, the oven should be warmed to ensure that the sugar caramelizes quickly!)
While 375°F is my preferred temperature, you can drop a sheet of bacon in at any temperature if you’re cooking something else in your oven. If you cook it at a higher temperature, keep a close eye on it to prevent it from burning.
How To Store And Reheat The Bacon?
Bacon storage is simple. Once cooled, store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container for five days. Reheat the bacon in a skillet over low heat or in 15-second bursts in the microwave. Additionally, you may freeze the bacon if you make a large lot. Freeze the strips individually or between pieces of parchment paper to prevent them from sticking together.
Bacon will keep for a few days in the refrigerator and reheats well in a skillet over low heat. Additionally, you may freeze the bacon if you make a large lot. Freeze the strips individually or between pieces of parchment paper to prevent them from sticking together. Additionally, you can keep and reheat on the same tray. When storing them, wrap them in foil and place them in the refrigerator until ready to reheat. Reheat in a preheated 300-degree oven for approximately 8 minutes. Finally, here’s a simple method for baking bacon in the oven for a classic BLT.
Conclusion
As I do, if you buy organic bacon, you should render and save the bacon fat. Not only can bacon grease add a depth of flavor to braised meats and other foods, but it also has a high smoke point, making it a far more stable cooking medium. Other types of meat, such as beef, lamb, chicken, goat, or turkey, can also be sliced, cured, or otherwise prepared to resemble bacon and may even be referred to as “turkey bacon.” This practice is widespread in locations with sizable Jewish and Muslim populations, as both religions forbid pork intake. Other vegetarian kinds of bacon are available, such as “soy bacon.”
My preference is for center sliced bacon uniform in thickness across the breadth. I usually avoid baking thick-cut bacon due to the added time, but you can bake whichever bacon you choose. Increase the baking time by 5-10 minutes using thick-cut bacon. Bacon is also used for barding and larding roasts, particularly game such as deer and pheasant, and maybe spread atop the meat to insulate or flavor it. The term comes from the Proto-Germanic back on, which means “back meat.”
