Everyone knows bacon makes things all better again. There are tee shirts to prove this, including one featuring a piece of bacon with the words “I love you too much to let you live.” Or “Bacon = Meat Candy.” There are ties, shoes, postage stamps, and even skateboards featuring bacon.
There is also the Damsel’s Bacon Corollary, which reads: “The amount of bacon cooked will never exceed the amount eventually eaten.”
The Damsel has cooked a lot of bacon in her life, and has also eaten it in restaurants. She has looked with great longing at restaurant bacon and wished fervently to know how they get it so nicely flat and evenly cooked. She’s fooled around with bacon presses and extra-thick cuts and precooked packages, with mixed results.
Recently she heard about BAKING bacon instead of frying it on the stove. The Damsel was skeptical. It can’t really be that easy, can it? Or wouldn’t everyone be doing it?
She tried it. They were right. This is a seriously good way to make bacon.
Lay the bacon on a cookie sheet. You can line it with foil first if you like. (In this picture the Damsel is cooking the second batch of bacon on the same foil, hence the strange foil appearance)
Turn the oven on to 400F degrees and put the pan in the oven. Don’t preheat! Put them in the cold oven, even though it seems terribly, horribly wrong.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, depending on how crispy you like your bacon. The Damsel feels wiggily bacon should be banned from the kingdom. This is her wish.
Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate for immediate consumption and happiness. Look! It’s flat! It’s crispy! nom nom nom.
oh definitely amazing…hm…I have bacon in my fridge. oh wait…I was going to do a raspberry chipolte bacon covered pork tenderloin…
We recently tried this too!! It totally works! (And can you believe our package of bacon actually had baking instructions right on it?!… to think I could have figured this all out years ago by just reading the directions.
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I agree. Wiggily bacon should be banned.
Baking bacon is the only way to go! No wiggly bacon for me either~ banned it is! I sprinkle a little brown sugar on my bacon while it is baking. I like the sweet salty taste.
We’ll be tryng this tomorrow, because there is no such thing as a bad time for bacon.
lining with parchment paper works good too. I also think pouring off some of the drippings part way thru cooking helps to speed up the process.
Well I’ll be.
I have never heard of such a thing!
I also plan on never doing it any other way again!
My Mother in law taught me to do this. We use the broiler pan (you know, the one that comes with the stove you never use). The fat falls through the slats…perfect, drained bacon. I also cook my meatloaf on the broiler pan, same drained meat concept.
kiracooks.blogspot.com
Oh, Damsel – Even when everything in the world seems wrong, you come through with a post like this that is …just….so….right.
Thank you.
MMMM Bacon! We’ve been baking our bacon for years! It’s the BEST!
And now I want bacon. Curse you, damsel!
I love bacon and have baked it many times, but never from a cold oven and always at 475–which probably explains why it ends up over-crisped. Thanks Damsel. And congrats for making it to Mormon Times!
I always bake my bacon, with a little brown sugar on top..yummo! it’s the best
It’s funny you mentioned “Bacon = Meat candy” because I just found a recipe for Bacon Caramels… Hmmm.
Bacon caramels? Oh dear.
As if we don’t already have enough reasons to love the Damsel, now she gives us this. Long live the Damsel!