I picked up my method of oven-roasting bacon from Alton Brown: Place a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet, then lay the bacon on top of the rack. Place the whole works in a cold oven, heat to 400 degrees, and cook for 20 minutes. This gets the same evenness (and lack of production associated with frying on the stovetop), plus it keeps the bacon from cooking in its own grease.
What's Cooking? B.L.T's . . . In the Oven?
I don't know about the rest of the planet, but growing up in my house, frying bacon for a family meal was the absolute LAST job you wanted to get stuck with.
People standing over your shoulder, some wanting it curly, some wanting it straight . . . all the while grease is splattering, and you have to stand there watching and tending the stuff for what feels like forever. Then, you get it cooked and drained and someone inevitably walks by and snags 2-3 of the 10 - 12 pieces you painstakingly prepared for an entire group of people. Aaarghh!!!
Last summer, during a breakfast gathering with friends, the hostess showed me a bacon preparation tip that blew my mind. I wish someone had shown me this years ago. It would have saved me a ton of stress. Here's what she did:
While preheating the oven (350-375 degrees F) for a coffee cake, she pulled out a 9 x 13 inch baking pan, cut the pound of bacon in half, and arranged the pieces flat in the bottom of the pan. When the oven was heated and the coffee cake went in . . . so did the bacon for about 10-15 minutes (different ovens run hotter or cooler, so play around with yours the first time until you get a handle on this).
This was one of the slickest darn things I've ever seen. Because enough fat drips off the pieces to cover them completely, both sides get cooked without the flipping process. Can I just say, halleluiah? Here's the other thing . . . the pieces cook flat which is great for lunch and dinner BLT sandwiches and chicken and turkey club sandwiches as well. The only step that's really left for this is the draining. You can do this on paper towels (don't worry, I won't report you as an eco-sinner), re-used brown paper bags, or on a baking rack placed on top of a cookie sheet.
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Make ahead tips: To keep a supply of these on hand for quick dinner sandwiches, I use a tall canning jar with a screw on lid. After filling it with the straight, pre-cooked bacon pieces, I store it in the door side of my over-the-fridge freezer for quick and easy access. Also, so that I get a fresh-cooked flavor every time I use the bacon (which is also great crumbled on top of baked potato soup or as a tater topper with a sauce), I originally oven-bake it just shy of the crisp stage so that it can stand a few seconds in the microwave just prior to sandwich assembly. Basically, this is just like the pre-cooked bacon you can buy at the store (which I admit to occasionally indulging in). A good time to do this is when bacon goes on super-sale or when your regular market has a bunch of it reduced for quick sale.
My favorite way to do a BLT: A darker bread (toasted), crisp bacon, extra leafy greens, a meaty slice of roma tomato and the ultimate zinger flavor ingredient . . . horseradish sauce instead of regular mayo.
My favorite way to do a chicken or turkey club: Dark bread again (preferrably a long roll if I'm feeling self indulgent), slices of the poultry, leafy greens, crisp bacon, and some of that mashed avacado we were discussing on the brown bag lunch post. (Here are some other sandwich ideas, if you're feeling the need to experiment.)
Other ways to enjoy the bacon: Chopped in a salad or on top of a breakfast pizza.
I hope this helps with meal ideas for today. Since I'm the road now, there really is nothing actually cooking at la casa. So, as promised, I'm filling in with a suggestion and prep tip to keep the ideas flowing. This really has been a great solution for us and makes sandwich night not feel so hum drum, particularly with a nice six pack of specialty beer.
Have a great day!
Photo by AMagill
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Oh my! Thanks for that tip! It eliminates the draining step completely. I hate to sound over dramatic, but this might actually enable me to die happy, ha-ha! I'm at this moment having one of those slap my head, I could have had a V-8 moments. Thanks for sharing.
I learned the trick of oven bacon when I met my wife -- she'd been doing it this way for years. I had no idea!
But I always wonder, when I make extra bacon to store in the fridge.....how long can you store it? I get weary of it after a week, and toss it! (a horrible waste!)
Anyone?
Freeze it. Quit throwing away perfectly good food. Then, it will still be available when you want it and you don't have to bake more.
Great tip, especially for those who are on low-carb diets!
I just microwave my bacon between a couple of towels. It takes less than a minute & is crispy.
What does a salad caprese with oranges have to do with BLTs?
Yeah, I was wondering about the picture, too. Why not just get a picture of a BLT?
Here's a good one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pancakejess/747920997/
You know, I searched through my entire 8 cd collection for one with no luck. I finally decided it was more important to get the post up than to worry about something most people probably knew how to assemble.
That being said, my personally owned royalty free images are not catalogued in the easiest format. I have a few suggestions of online resources, but am trying to find time to review them. The key would be a source where you could easily search by exact image that wouldn't take forever to process. I'm open to suggestions, and will check out your link. But hey, the photo is at least food related, right? Thanks for taking the time to read and post. I really appreciate it.
I do the alton brown method too - 1/2 hour and you can cook all the bacon you want! The nice part about using the cooling rack method is that all the fat is rendered out and drips into the cookie sheet (be sure to line your cookie sheet with foil for easy cleanup).
Um, hate to blow it for everyone, but I worked at Arby's and that's how they cook all the bacon they use. Make sure you use a cooling rack to save some of the fat.
Before I forget, to the person who asked about storage time - I put it in the freezer so I don't have to worry so much about using it up quickly.
I had no idea about this strategy until last year. Good to know so many people are using it. Thanks so much for all the comments!
Most of us use Flickr Creative Commons for our photos. I was paying for photos through iStockPhoto, but it got too pricey.
Just make sure that you're getting the photos from Creative Commons (the link above goes there) and not a regular Flickr pool. And make sure to attribute the photo to the artist by linking either to their homepage (found on their profile) or to the Flickr profile.
We LOVE the Creative Commons section of Flickr. Generous artists and amateurs make blogging so much more fantastic by being very free-love with their work.
Oh man . . . how fantastic! And indexed. I haven't minded searching through the ones that I have, but they are not nearly as convenient to find in the database as with the tool you just forwarded. When I couldn't find something specific, I just tried to approximate by category. . . which is a colossal pain in the neck. Thanks a bunch! I'm going to include this one on my favorites. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted. Thanks again, really.
