Bacon

What one other word can cause salivating, fond memories, stomach growling and heart attacks?

Usually, there are two camps for cooking this irresistible flavorful delight. The time honored bacon cooking style is in a skillet on a stove top, or you might use one of your favorite cast iron skillets from your stable, or maybe a trusted griddle. 

The second camp prefers to roast it in the oven on a sheet pan. For over 40 years I have been a camp one bacon cook. Only using my favorite cast iron skillet with my trusty cast iron bacon presses. I always cooked the bacon low and slow, providing a wonderful crispy finish. Biggest draw back for me was the amount of time, energy and cleanup associated with this cooking style.

Finally, one day I decided to go over to the dark side, or camp two, the oven roasted cooking method. Surprise surprise, I actually liked the results better. Mainly due to the fact that it took far less effort/cleanup and the flavor and crispness was very good. I also jazzed up my bacon with some Japanese 7 Spice sprinkle (optional), giving the bacon a slight spicy hot finish.

Japanese 7 Spice Mix

I experimented 3 times, changing the time and temp, with flat bacon or twisted bacon, and then the sheet pan position in my oven. 

My findings in my current oven; 425 degrees for 25 minutes (approx), moving the pan once to a different level (lower), half way through worked best with "thick cut" flat bacon. Twisted bacon slices took less time and you will need to experiment with your own oven. By turning the pan and putting it on a lower rack, it crisped the bacon to my favorite crunchiness. 

One pound of thick cut bacon will fill a full size sheet pan. The pan needs to be lined with Parchment Paper before adding your bacon slices. Roasting the bacon in the oven results in far less shrinkage than pan frying and there is no need for a press on the slices. They stay flat all the way through the oven cooking process. 

Clean up is super easy; once you remove the slices (putting them on a rack or paper towels to drain grease), and the pan is cool enough to handle, drain the grease from your sheet pan to your grease jar (for future use), remove the parchment paper and throw it away. Finish up by cleaning the sheet pan and your work is done, no grease splatter to wipe up or presses to clean.

Once the bacon is cool enough to touch you can serve as you normally would. Or try something different, drizzle slices with "Hot Honey" and enjoy. (look for my Hot Honey recipe in an upcoming post).

anyone lookin' for a couple of bacon presses...

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