How do you cook bacon?

[WillTravelForFood]

Maybe this?

[mnavarre]

Oh, man. Kraut bacon bombs sounded great, right up until my brain threw out kimchee bacon bombs. Or kraut bacon bombs wrapped around a little smoky. Clearly much research is needed.

[SheilaAnn]

Neither

[Alan Brice]

I can dig that!

[Skip]

This is what I do with bacon. SV @145 for 12 hours then Grill Indirect on the Pellet Grill @375* for 20 minutes or so until it's about have cooked. After that I freeze it and take out a few slices at a time when we want some bacon. Now it only takes a few minutes in the microwave or frying pan to crisp it up. I SV and Grill a couple pounds at a time a few times per year and we have bacon ready in just a few minutes whenever we want with no mess. This method works well for us with just 2 people in the house. I believe Serious Eats suggested the SV step which makes the bacon a little more tender. I'm sure you could skip the SV if you don't want to do it.

[Oakgrovebacon]

Pellet grill, 350 for about 15 min. Turn once or twice..

[Oak Smoke]

Do you get a flaming inferno this way?

[Oakgrovebacon]

No, keep the deflector plate in place. A fair amount of extra smoke but no flames.

[IdahoJim]

I've had a couple of spectacular fires in our Memphis Advantage pellet grill doing this. Never again...

[Mark V]

I use the oven if I am cooking a lot of bacon. Otherwise I use a pan, like the result better.

[SheilaAnn]

Now I want a BLT!

[Reds Fan 5]

If one or two strips, skillet on stove top. If a whole package, foil lined sheet pan at 400. My wife and I like different levels of doneness so the oven is an easy way to control that. Clean up isn’t bad and no splatters.

[Richard Chrz]

Baked in the oven.

[STEbbq]

I can’t believe I forgot to mention this. Whatever way you cook the bacon, sprinkle some brown sugar on top to take it to next level. Yum.

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

My wife and I discussed this just the other day.... I am NOT a sweet bacon fan, neither is she. She ordered a sammich at some restaurant or other and the bacon was candied or something. Oh I remember, it was sweet peppered bacon at Eskimo Joe's in Stillwater. She was not a fan, I had 2 bites of my burger and skipped the rest as well. What a waste that place is, can't believe it's so popular. Anyways - sweet bacon, no thanks from my camp.

[Jfrosty27]

These days I mostly use the outdoor griddle. No fuss, no muss. My Pit Boss Ultimate three burner can handle a lot of it at once. And the non stick top makes clean up a breeze.

When circumstances force me indoors, it’s in the oven. Sheet pan, foil, then parchment paper, and finally a rack. The rack allows the excess fat to drain off and the parchment paper prevents any mess in the oven. Clean up is a breeze with this method too. Let the pan cool on the stove top and the just roll it all up and toss in the trash. Again the parchment paper controls any loose grease. Easy peasy.

[Oak Smoke]

Jfrosty27 How do you either prevent all the little pieces from sticking to your racks or how do you get them off?

[Porkies]

Oak Smoke described exactly why I don't use a rack anymore

[Jfrosty27]

Oak Smoke Porkies The racks I use have a non stick coating on them. I have no recollection of where I got them but I have had them for years. No issues with sticking as a result.

[Bob K]

Surprised this hasn’t been mentioned yet: sheet pan lined w foil, with a rack, fits a pound of Wright’s, as others have mentioned. Into a cold oven set to 375, pour in enough water to cover the bottom of pan. The bacon heats gently until the water boils, which steams the bacon for excellent fat render, which falls into the pan but doesn’t smoke or splatter because: water. The water evaporates off, remove when it looks good to you, and the bacon is crispy but with that sort of tender inside.

[JeffJ]

Indirect on a charcoal cooker. No wood. I’ve also done it on the offset but made absolutely certain that the wood was producing clear smoke. Bacon is easily overpowered by smoke flavor if you aren’t careful but indirect work charcoal or clear burning sticks produces great flavor.

[fzxdoc]

I cook bacon a pound at a time in the oven or gasser. Either way, I use a large rimmed sheet pan lined with heavy duty aluminum foil. But here's the trick: take a second sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil about the same size as the sheet pan and wad it up, then roughly straighten it out, set it in the foil-lined sheet pan, add the bacon on top of it and start cooking in a cold oven or gasser to encourage fat rendering as the heat increases to the set temperature. I usually cook the bacon at 375°ish.

In this setup, crumpled piece of foil gives enough topography to mimic a grate without the grate cleanup woes.

Or buy some of these Clean BBQ Aluminum grate covers, which I also use instead of the crumpled aluminum foil insert in the foiled rimmed sheet pan. So I don't use them to cover the grill, I use them in place of a grate in the sheet pan.



Kathryn

[Porkies]

I once baked the bacon in the same manner as you. I just got tired of the extra work and the mess.
I also bake around 375 but if I have a second batch to cook I will drop the temp to 350 to slow the cook for the fat rendering. I let the 2nd batch set out open while the first batch bakes to also help with the rendering.

[Oak Smoke]

fzxdoc The crumpled foil is genius. I’m ordering the grill liners too. Thank you!

[Porkies]

I use either CI or I bake it. One difference than most others have posted - I do not use foil nor rack. I have a large high side pan that i use just for bacon and clean it best as I can when done. After that pan gets "too used up", I buy another one. They're pretty cheap and last a while.

The foil method and the rack method are just too messy for me. Also, I want to cook my eggs in the bacon grease!

[fzxdoc]

There's plenty of grease in the bottom of the rimmed sheet pan when the bacon is cooked. I pour it out into a skillet and get the eggs going, pronto!

Kathryn

[acorgihouse]

I don't find the foil/sheet pan messy at all. I pull the pan out, let it sit a minute on stove top while I get plate and paper towel to offload bacon onto (see my pics higher up in this thread.) Let the sheet pan sit till cool enough to handle easily, then tilt it to pour off still warm/runny grease from one corner. Pour through strainer into wide mouth mason jar. Done. Throw foil away, sheet pan an easy wash (although it fits in the top rack of my dishwasher, barely).

[surfdog]

I use an oven.
My second choice would be the oven.
Failing that…I’ll use the oven. ;-)

Stoopid simple to do pounds at a time.

Edit: Oh yeah, and save all that bacon fat. Pure goodness. Along with the obvious, like frying, a dollop can be tossed with some veggies to kick those up a notch. And it’s great if making a wilted salad. A little spinach, a little cheese…instant pasta stuffing. Soooo many options.

[IdahoJim]

We normally use a big rimmed cookie sheet with a cooling rack in it. The rack is a bit of a pain to clean, but if we remember to spray it with Pam, it's a lot easier.

For just a couple of slices, a Corel plate with a couple layers of paper towels, bacon, another layer of paper towels and into the microwave.

Our 28" Blackstone can make a huge amount of bacon. We just don't seem to use it anymore.

I did a bunch once indirect on my 26" kettle. Aluminum foil under the bacon, Slow N Sear XL holding the charcoal. Worked great. I may try that again.

I've tried a few times in our Memphis Advantage pellet grill, but two times resulted in some impressive infernos. Never again straight on the grates. I want to try our normal cookie sheet cooling rack setup we do in the oven on the pellet grill. I think the chances of a fire are pretty minimal that way.