The Only Way to Cook Bacon
There's bacon salt, bacon chocolate, bacon band-aids, bacon wallets and bacon suits. Bacon has become a timeless internet meme, allowing nerds everywhere to embrace and celebrate the crispy, porky goodness. I'm a fan of putting bacon on just about everything (bacon-rapped hot dogs being a staple in my home), but what is the best way to cook it? Frying in a skillet will cover your stove (and yourself) in oil splatters and shrinks the strips to little unmanageable curled messes, and those clever microwave solutions turn out to be not-so-clever in practice. Enter the Alton Brown method, as outlined here on Eating, Etc. I've been cooking bacon in the oven for years for a few reasons: it's convenient and it produces a consistent shape. Perfect for stacking your BLTs, flat bacon is the way to go.
My method differs slightly from the article I am linking to, but the gist is the same.
1. Place a wire cooling rack on a cookie sheet (foil lining isn't necessary, though it does help with cleanup)
2. Place a few strips of bacon on said wire rack. Use as many as you would eat. Do not eat it yet, though.
3. Place the sheet into a cold, non-pre-heated oven and amp up the temp to 400 degrees. Go sit down. Do something else for a while.
4. Once the oven is preheated, check every 5 minutes or so until it reaches the consistency you'd like.
5. Now it is okay to eat the bacon.
Seriously, every time I cook bacon like this for people they are impressed. It is so easy.
[link via Eating, Etc. | Tastespotting]
