Perfect Bacon and Awesome Tips! Recipe
At a Food Blogger's Conference, I attended a few years ago, I sat through a food writing workshop. One of the adjectives that we were told to eliminate, when describing a recipe, is "awesome". I'm breaking that rule, because I'm sharing two awesome kitchen tips that I use for storing bacon, and for making awesome bacon.
Tip #1: My boys prefer thick-cut Applewood Smoked Bacon. Whenever I stock up, at Costco, I buy their bacon. When I arrive home, I roll out a long piece of plastic wrap. I set a slice of bacon on top, and roll it over once, then add another slice and roll it over...well, you get the picture. What I end up with is a layer of individual slices, with plastic wrap. I put that rolled up bacon slices in to a Zip Loc bag and place it in the freezer.
There's a method to my madness, with taking the time to do this. For one, once I open a package of bacon, I'm risking that it will go "bad" if I don't use it all at once.
In addition, when I need one slice, (or multiple slices of bacon) I simply unwrap my frozen package and pull off a slice.
Sometimes, I slip a dull knife in between slices, and that usually gets the party started. There! One slice of bacon. When I make breakfast potatoes, or any kind of recipe that needs "lardons" (basically thin slices of bacon), I find that frozen bacon is much easier to slice.
As an added flavor bonus, I make Candied Bacon (Brown sugar bacon) which has become a favorite breakfast treat, with my men. I simply dip bacon slices into brown sugar, and coat them on both sides, before placing them on the wire cooling rack. The only drawback, is that the rack can take a bit of elbow grease to clean.
My clever friends at "America's Test Kitchen" shared a tip that I had to test for myself. Instead of using a wire cooling rack, I used heavy duty aluminum foil, folded it to fit the width of my foil-covered baking rack. I folded the heavy duty aluminum foil into approximately 1-1/2" folds, to resemble a fan.
Because my Big Boys love bacon, I figured I needed to make at least 12 slices. I was able to fit the frozen bacon over the folds, even though the slices overlapped a bit. You might be wondering what the advantage is by
I generously sprinkled brown sugar all over the frozen bacon, and then inserted the rack into a 400F oven.
Baking time varies, of course. America's Test Kitchen recommends about 10-12 minutes total. Because I used thick-cut, frozen bacon, the total cooking time was closer to 24 minutes. My boys like their bacon to be more of the soft and chewy side. I like for my bacon to be more on the crispy side.
Once I removed their share of bacon, and placed it on a paper towel-lined plate I returned the bacon to the oven,
and broiled the slices for a few minutes, keeping a close eye on them. (The brown sugar can burn very quickly and set off the smoke alarm-- which gave my son a rude awakening that mom was making breakfast.)
The cleanup is easy!
Crunch, together, the foil (once the fat has cooled)...
...and toss. Done.
Here's the recipe card:
Other than the smoke alarm going off, I had two happy men. I ate two slices, and they ate the rest. The brown sugar gives an addiction sweet and salty flavor that is irresistible.
Enjoy!