We’ve all heard the phrase “everything’s better with bacon” well, in our house of six, it really should be “everything’s better with more bacon!” Sunday breakfast we’re pretty much cooking an entire pound of bacon. Cooking a few strips at a time on my cast iron skillet just isn’t how I want to spend my morning.
It turns out, if you want to make a lot of bacon there is no better way than cooking it in the oven. I searched high and low for the best method and decided I needed to go to the source.
I tracked down Bill E. Stitt of BILL E’s SMALL BATCH BACON in Mobile, Alabama and asked him for help. He gave me his secret for oven cooked bacon which I’ve shared below.
How do I cook bacon in the oven?
Cooking bacon in the oven is a great way to cook a large quantity of bacon without all of the mess. It’s also super easy. Just follow these simple steps.
- Put your bacon on a cookie sheet. Make sure you have one with a high lip, there is still going to be grease.
- Preheat your oven on to 350 degrees
- Put the pan in the oven on the center rack.
- Set a timer for 10 minutes
After 10 minutes, start checking it every two minutes. According to Bill E. you want to “treat it like ham and leave it soft since it will continue to cook when removed from the oven.”
That’s pretty much it.
When it’s done, carefully remove the bacon. There will be a lot of grease in the cookie sheet. You don’t want it to spill.
Transfer the bacon to a paper towel covered plate so it can soak up the grease.
Eat bacon.
Should I flip the bacon in the oven?
Step away from the bacon. You don’t need to flip it over while you’re cooking it. There is a enough bacon grease boiling in the cookie sheet that the top and bottom will come out just fine.
Is cooking bacon in the oven messy?
If you’ve never tried to cook bacon in an oven you might be afraid that it’s going to make a mess and you’ll be stuck spending the rest of your day cleaning out bacon grease. Guess what? It’s not. Cooking bacon in the oven is probably the best way to cook bacon because the cleanup is so easy.
The only caveat is that you need to do it the right way.
The wrong way is to lay the strips of bacon across your oven racks. Obviously, this is going to make a mess, don’t do it.
Is cooking bacon in the oven healthier?
C’mon it’s bacon. No. It’s not healthy no matter what way you cook it. Four slices of Oscar Myer center cut bacon is about 240 calories, 940 milligrams of sodium and 6 grams of saturated fat. If you really want a (slightly) healthier alternative, eat turkey bacon.
Should I save bacon grease?
Absolutely! Take those bacon drippings and store them in a bacon grease container. When you save your bacon grease, you want to make sure you strain it to get out any food particles. A bacon grease container usually has a built in strainer which makes this easy.
Once you’ve strained it, you can store bacon grease in the fridge for up to three months. You can also stick it in the freezer.
How can I use bacon grease?
According to Bill E., you take your drippings and “blend them with your favorite local honey or syrup to use as a salad dressing.” I haven’t tried that yet but it’s on my list.
I’ll sometimes substitute bacon grease for vegetable oil when I don’t have to worry about vegetarian cooking. It’s really delicious when you are roasting vegetables. You can also use it to season your cast iron pans.
Sometimes, I’ll just put it on popcorn.
Experiment, have fun.
You have to make sure you’re storing grease properly. You don’t want it to get rancid. Here’s what I do.
- Pour the bacon grease from the pan through a strainer into a grease container.
- Let it cool.
- Transfer the grease into one or more take out containers.
- Using a grease pen, mark the date on the container.
- Store in the refrigerator for 2 months or in the freezer indefinitely.
If you think you’re going to use the grease quickly you can skip the take-out containers and just put the grease container into the refrigerator directly.
Guess what?
Do you like to find recipes on the internet? Do you hate losing those recipes? Of course you do! You should try our cookbook app ClipDish. You’ll never need to worry about losing a recipe you found online ever again. Plus, ClipDish strips out all the extra stuff just leaving you with a nice clean consistent recipe view.
