100 Great Bacon Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to perfect bacon? ›

1: Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil or parchment paper, and lay out as many bacon strips as will fit snuggly without overlapping. 2: Place in a cold oven. Then heat the oven to 400 degrees F and bake to desired crispness, 25 to 35 minutes. 3: Drain well on a paper-towel-lined platter.

Brush uncooked bacon slices with a slurry of balsamic vinegar and maple syrup, brown sugar, or honey, place them on a rimmed, foil-lined tray in a 400°F oven, check every five minutes or two to see how things are faring, flip and baste as needed, and when the bacon is cooked and the glazed thickened, cool the bacon on ...

Even though it doesn't necessarily come with a mild flavor, bacon is a total blank canvas. With the help of some extra ingredients and spices for your bacon, you can take its original savory, salty, and smoky flavor and enhance it with things like chili powder and coffee, Sriracha, maple syrup, brown sugar, or honey.

Why Does Cooking Bacon in Water Work? The addition of water keeps the initial cooking temperature low and gentle, so the meat retains its moisture and stays tender as the fat renders. Plus, since the water helps render the fat, there will be significantly less splatter as your bacon finishes in the pan.

Lean bacon is key

The bacon chefs use in restaurants, however, is usually far leaner than the supermarket kind. Chefs often have the benefit of specifying with their suppliers how they like their meat-to-fat ratio, and this gives them less fatty bacon that has the perfect amount of lubrication without getting greasy.

If using the brown sugar, sprinkle across and over the bacon, but don't pack it on. Into the sweet-spicy-savory interplay? Add some paprika, dried chiles, red pepper flakes, or the sauce from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce to the mix. You can even opt for Sriracha!

According to Epicurious, par-cooking it in the oven is the preferred method of many restaurant owners.

The health risk of bacon is largely to do with two food additives: potassium nitrate (also known as saltpetre) and sodium nitrite. It is these that give salamis, bacons and cooked hams their alluring pink colour.

Fat = Flavor

When you cook bacon and break down the bacon fat to combine with the sugars and amino acids in the meat, it creates a flavor profile that is sweet, buttery, and salty, with a serious punch of umami and smokiness.

Why Is it Called Million Dollar Bacon? Bacon is good on its own but what makes this worthy of the million dollar title is the syrupy sweet topping. It creates an addicting balance of sweet and salty. It's also known as Millionaires Bacon.

Is water the secret to crispy bacon? ›

Cook It In Water. This counterintuitive, yet highly effective method of cooking bacon in water produces a perfect product, every time. Published May 13, 2022.

Put the bacon in a non-stick frying pan set over a medium heat. When the fat starts to run out from the bacon, increase the heat and cook for 1-3 mins on each side, depending on how crispy you like it.

You take strips of bacon and place them on a baking sheet, then sprinkle all-purpose flour on top and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 to 25 minutes. I was surprised to find out how great this worked. The flour definitely helped to give the bacon a crispier texture and nicer color than the other methods I tried.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Lay the bacon slices on the baking sheet. Cook the bacon for 10 to 20 minutes or until it's as crispy as you'd like.