How-to: Cook Perfect Bacon

I must admit that bacon, aka meat candy, is very important to my diet and lifestyle. Granted that I abide by a general principal of all things in moderation, I’d be lying if I told you I’m modest when bacon hits the table. I quickly do the math to figure out how many pieces each person gets, grab my portion, and will be the first to volunteer for the leftovers. Maybe I’m a bacon hoarder.

I don’t discriminate and love all kinds of bacon: peppered, hickory, maple, thick, thin, etc.

As your resident expert in all kinds of bacon, I have some tips to help you cook fail-proof meat candy.

1 – Bake it.

Baking bacon is a very simple way to free up your time to focus on other breakfast or home preparations while filling your home with one of the best aromas around. Someone should make a bacon candle.

2 – Line your baking sheet with Parchment Paper.

Parchment paper allows for easy cleanup and will keep bacon bits from sticking to your pan or each other.  

3 – Run water over your baking sheet to make the Parchment Paper stick.

A trick directly from my mother to you; if you’ve ever experienced Parchment Paper rolling back up on itself, this will solve your problems. Run tap water over your pan, drain the large drops of water, and watch the Parchment Paper stick effortlessly to the pan.

4 – Bake at 375 for approximately 20 minutes.

It’s pretty much that simple. Your nose will let you know if it’s done sooner or needs more time. The thickness of your bacon will determine how long you should bake it.

5 – Get rid of excess grease.

As soon as your bacon is finished baking, use tongs to place each piece on a paper towel-lined plate. Once all the bacon pieces are on the plate, take another block of paper towels and blot the top. This will make for crunchy, not greasy, bacon.

Enjoy!