Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Apologies...made up for with bacon

Alright, sorry I haven't made a post in probably months (I'm afraid to even check). I continue to make new dishes and desserts, but to be quite frank, I have been too lazy and/or too forgetful to post and go through the picture-taking process. I plan on stepping it back up, though.

Although this isn't a recipe, I will post a nice little tip.
Ever tired of the bacon grease mess? Well, there's a nice way to avoid all of that... (or at least MOST of it, heh):

Bake your bacon!

I bet some may be skeptical, but I promise it's just as good as--or even better than!--pan cooking. All you need is:
-bacon
-an oven
-some aluminum foil
-a flat baking sheet
-a metal cooling rack (I bought one for $5 from meijer specifically for bacon, haha!)
-patience to check the oven

(click images to enlarge)
before I put them in the oven

about 10 minutes in

BLTs for dinner! (totaly cook time ~16 m)

So all you do is...
1. Line the baking sheet with the foil and curve up the edges to create a "grease trap".
2. Then set the cooling rack on top.
3. Place your strips of bacon on the cooling rack, and there you have it! This will cause the bacon to crisp up, the grease to fall down through the rack onto the foil.

4. Place the baking sheet (plus the stuff piled on it) in the oven.
5. Set the oven to 400 F (do NOT preheat!!!)
6. Bake for 12-20 minutes. This all depends on how crispy you want your bacon, etc. So keep an eye on it.

When you remove your bacon, you can just carefully move your cooling rack to the sink and fold up the aluminum foil (with all the grease) and throw it right into the garbage! It's quite a simple clean up. The cooling rack will be a little greasy, so you'll have to wipe that down, but at least it's not all over your stove top and YOU, haha :)

This is very nice way to cook a lot of bacon at once. I am using a small rack and have 16 pieces on there at once!

Notes:
-As a warning, don't get discouraged if the first time you try this you over-cook your bacon. Just take down the time you took your bacon out and do it a little shorter the next time.
-You'll hear the bacon begin to crackle around the 10 m mark (at least that's when I hear it). Don't be freaked out, this is normal! Just the fat bubbling away...
-Like any way you cook bacon, leave a little bit of room in between the strips when you lay them out so they don't get stuck together.

ENJOY!
Ron Swanson (from the TV show "Parks and Rec") eating a bacon-wrapped turkey leg, lol!