Since a few folks in the oven cooked bacon thread hadn't tried pellet cooker bacon I figured I'd do a side by side method to share.
1st off, this isn't thick cut bacon like I normally use but its also not thin cut. If the temps mentioned below were all bumped up 15-25 degrees for thick cut the results are similar, with thin cut bacon you'll want to stay under 250 or check on it more often. In my experience the foil and high temp is the only way to go with home made bacon as it cooks different than store bought.
I prefer using the pellet cooker as there is no cleanup other than brushing grates and running the temp up for a bit to burn off grease. If you want to save the grease you can roll up the edges of the foil. If you want the grate method, but place foil on a lower grate to catch grease the foil will still slow down your cook time so either ramp up temps 15ish F or plan for a longer cook.
To start, I place half the bacon on foil and half on the grates. Grate bacon gets a dusting of pepper to help tell it apart. Temp is set to 225
NOTE my cooker is very even some pellet grills are not and will require rotating half way through.
After 30 minutes, I flip the bacon and ramp up to 250F.
After another 30 minutes I remove the grate bacon and ramp temp to 350F for 20 more minutes.
If not doing the test 250ish grate only or 275-325 foil only would have resulted in a 1 hour cook.
Both plates of bacon rest on paper towels in the microwave to cool a bit. So here's the visual "flop test".
As you can see the grate only bacon isn't floppy, it's got a great chew though. 15-20 seconds in the microwave will crisp it up IMO superior to cooking it to crispy on foil.
The foil bacon is at the drop to shatter level crispy. I personally would only go this route if making bacon bits OR when cooking home made bacon.
After all that work I had to make a sammy of course. I find the grate only bacon results in a perfect BLT.
1st off, this isn't thick cut bacon like I normally use but its also not thin cut. If the temps mentioned below were all bumped up 15-25 degrees for thick cut the results are similar, with thin cut bacon you'll want to stay under 250 or check on it more often. In my experience the foil and high temp is the only way to go with home made bacon as it cooks different than store bought.
I prefer using the pellet cooker as there is no cleanup other than brushing grates and running the temp up for a bit to burn off grease. If you want to save the grease you can roll up the edges of the foil. If you want the grate method, but place foil on a lower grate to catch grease the foil will still slow down your cook time so either ramp up temps 15ish F or plan for a longer cook.
To start, I place half the bacon on foil and half on the grates. Grate bacon gets a dusting of pepper to help tell it apart. Temp is set to 225
NOTE my cooker is very even some pellet grills are not and will require rotating half way through.
After 30 minutes, I flip the bacon and ramp up to 250F.
After another 30 minutes I remove the grate bacon and ramp temp to 350F for 20 more minutes.
If not doing the test 250ish grate only or 275-325 foil only would have resulted in a 1 hour cook.
Both plates of bacon rest on paper towels in the microwave to cool a bit. So here's the visual "flop test".
As you can see the grate only bacon isn't floppy, it's got a great chew though. 15-20 seconds in the microwave will crisp it up IMO superior to cooking it to crispy on foil.
The foil bacon is at the drop to shatter level crispy. I personally would only go this route if making bacon bits OR when cooking home made bacon.
After all that work I had to make a sammy of course. I find the grate only bacon results in a perfect BLT.
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