Monday, August 23, 2010

Bacon

Bacon. The 6th food group. The perfect addition to pancakes with butter and syrup for dinner. BLT for lunch. Perfection on top of a burger with cheddar cheese. Heck, you can even have it for breakfast if your heart desires. How do you cook your bacon? Surely you don't still stand over a frying pan getting battle scars from the hot grease and serving up the curled up crazy looking stuff.

Have you been hearing of folks cooking bacon in the oven? It's something I've wanted to try and finally bit the bullet and just did it. You can probably tell from the font I'm typing with today that I'm a converted woman.

You know that broiler pan thing in the bottom drawer of your oven? The silver thing with the silver thing that goes on top with the slats? That's called a broiler pan and you can put the bacon right on top of that so the grease falls into the bottom. Or you can use wire racks placed inside a baking sheet.



What in the heck? How'd that potty training picture get into a post about bacon? Well, since we're sidetracked you might as well know our little guy wants to stand to potty like his big brothers. Nice. So he takes that pee cup thing out and stands to try to potty. You also might as well know we rented Cats & Dogs from Redbox and I can't stop calling him Mr. Tinkles. I know. Tell me about it.

I can get on board with beauty being painful. Sometimes killer shoes make an outfit and it is just worth it. I was however tired of burning the daylights out of my hands when I cooked bacon so I switched to the microwave method. You know, line a dinner plate with paper towel, place bacon on top, cover with another paper towel and nuke for 5 minutes.

Unpeel the bacon from the paper towel and tell the fam a little stuck on paper towel on the bacon never killed anyone.

I put on my big girl panties and tried the new method. How do you like me now? To answer your questions no, the grease didn't blow up my oven.


So, so good.

400 degree oven for 10-20 minutes (depending on how crispy you like it)

10 comments:

Amanda said...

My mama always cooked bacon in the oven. I would, but I don't have a broiler pan. I'm guessing the folks who lived here before us took it with them when they left. I thought they came automatically with ovens. Anyway, I should consider buying a new one. My mom now buys the precooked bacon. I don't like it--too crispy.

Becke' said...

yummo!

Gretchen said...

So my question is ... how much of a mess of grease did it leave on the walls of the oven? That's always been my stopper. And the smell.
I like bacon, but I don't like the smell of it cooking so I bought my husband a thingamagjig for the grill. Now all sausage and bacon are cooked outside. :)

Little Oak Table said...

i did not notice grease in my oven. then again i didn't look that closely either ;). seriously it was not messy!

Jenny said...

CRISPY crispy is how I like it! :) I've cooked it in the oven before and it's always been great!

We love cats and dogs!! We actually went and saw the 2nd one 3d last time we were in branson. so fun:)

heather said...

I just made the switch too and I love it!!! I can even pop the bacon in the oven while we're doing school and everything ready for lunch without any work on my part! That's awesome!

Paige said...

i do bacon in the oven on my pampered chef bar pan - put bacon in COLD oven, turn on to heat up to 425, set timer 25 minutes - works perfectly every time - LOVE IT! so much less mess, less injuries.

Paige said...

oh - and i save the grease in a jar in the fridge - so i'll have it for seasoning in other dishes when i am not frying bacon. (o:

Little Oak Table said...

thanks for the great tip paige-we can trust her, she is the QUEEN of SOUTHERN COOKING!!!

i'll be trying her method next time!

Little Oak Table said...

http://cookingquest.wordpress.com/2008/06/16/baking-bacon-oven-frying/

My sweet friend Betty sent me the link to this post...other great tips on making the perfect bacon-you can even make it the day before you need it-what a timesaver!