How To Make Bacon
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This is the first in a series of “How To” posts, where I will teach you, step by step, how to do simple kitchen skills or basic recipes! The idea came from putting together cooking lesson plans for my dad. He recently married and, after decades, he is going to learn how to cook! I appreciate and admire people who have a growth mindset (if you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out this AMAZING book, Mindset)- Dad says he strives to be a lifelong learner! I’m blessed to have many examples of this in my life. It’s never too late to learn or do something new!
That brings us to BACON. Is there anything more delicious?! You can eat it by itself, make it the star of a BLT, add it to a burger for extra flavor, chop it up for garnish on a baked potato (or anything really!), throw it in green beans, baked beans or collard greens! The possibilities are truly endless!
Generations of women used bacon grease for cooking like we use olive or vegetable oil today! I haven’t experimented much with this, but it’s on my bucket list to learn.
There are countless ways to prepare bacon. Growing up in the 90s, the trend was making everything low fat so my Grandmommy and Mom both had microwave bacon cookers that got rid of the grease! It was quick and easy and still delicious! However, when Austin and I married we had a tiny kitchen without much storage space so we didn’t register for any extra kitchen accessories. I began making it in a skillet on the stove the old fashioned way!
You can use any 12 inch skillet, but it needs to be nonstick or seasoned cast iron. I highly recommend cast iron! I’m going to write an entire post about how much I love my cast iron skillet and everything you can use it for, but, in my opinion, it is the best way to make bacon on the skillet! It cooks the bacon evenly and makes it crispy. This Lodge Cast Iron Skillet is a great option if you need one!
Unlike my other recipe blog posts, for these “How To” posts, I’m going to write them step by step with multiple photos. So, without further ado, here is how I make bacon!
How to Make Bacon
Step 1: Purchase the Bacon!
I recommend getting plain old, regular bacon. I purchase the Walmart brand of hardwood smoked bacon. This is really your preference, though! I get the regular sliced in lieu of the thick sliced because it takes less time to cook. A pound of bacon is the perfect amount (for now!) for my family of 5 but if we have multiple guests I will make 2 pounds.
Step 2: Mise en Place
Mise en place is French for “put in place”. Being a successful cook requires organization and each recipe requires different elements that you need to prepare beforehand.
Depending on how much bacon you’re cooking, get a cookie sheet or dinner plate and line it with several paper towels. Also get tongs ready. You will be using them a lot! Lastly, place your cast iron skillet on the stove!
Step 3: Heat the Skillet
I’ve found that it works best when you put bacon into a skillet that is already hot! Turn the heat onto medium and wait until you can feel the heat coming from the skillet when you put your hand above it.
Step 4: Put the Bacon in the Skillet
Open the package and remove 4-5 bacon slices. You can use the tongs, but for getting the bacon pieces separated and placed into the skillet, I prefer to use my hands. Place 4 or 5 bacon slices into the hot skillet (enjoy the sizzle!), making sure they aren’t touching. The bacon will shrink as it cooks. Wash your hands immediately then turn on the kitchen fan/vent. I have an overly sensitive smoke detector and have set it off more than once when I make bacon!
Step 5: Cook the Bacon
The biggest thing about bacon is that you need to babysit it. There are no specific cooking times and you don’t need to leave it unsupervised! I would recommend not even trying to multi-task or cook anything else at the same time as the bacon. You can keep bacon warm in the oven.
This is when the tongs come in handy! There are probably other techniques, but I flip my bacon several times while cooking it. Keep flipping every minute or two to cook both sides evenly and you will see it starting to get brown and crispy. Also make sure that the bacon is flat so all of it gets cooked.
What bacon will look like when it needs to be flipped the first time!
Once the bacon has shrunk, is brown and is getting crispy on the edges (they are turning a darker brown) it is done! Remove the bacon from the skillet, let the grease drip off it for a second, then place the cooked slices on the paper towel on the plate. Even though the cast iron skillet cooks things evenly, the pieces closer to the center of the skillet still tend to cook quicker than the pieces closer to the edges. If you need to remove the middle pieces and cook the outside pieces a little longer, do that! I wait to put any more raw bacon into the pan until every piece from the batch is done.
Bacon that is almost done and ready to remove from the skillet!
Also, if it feels like its taking a long time to cook, just be patient. The first batch always takes the longest!
When you’ve cooked the first batch, there will be some bacon grease in the skillet. This will help the next batch cook quicker, and the next batch after that and so on! Repeat Steps 4 and 5 until all of your bacon is cooked!
Step 6: Once the Bacon is Cooked
Once all of the bacon is cooked, you will have a bunch of bacon on paper towels and a skillet full of hot bacon grease. Move the skillet (very carefully!) to a cool burner.
The bacon slices should be crispy and most of the grease should have come off on the paper towels, but if there is any more on the side not laying on the paper towels, dab any extra grease off with another clean paper towel.
With the tongs, transfer the cooked bacon onto a plate or serving platter. If you still have more to prepare and want to keep the bacon warm, cover with aluminum foil and place the plate or serving platter (as long as it is oven safe!) into the oven on the “Keep Warm” setting.
Step 7: Eat the Bacon
Eat. The. Bacon.
Step 8: Deal with the Bacon Grease
There are several options here! The biggest cardinal rule, however, is, DO NOT pour bacon grease down the sink! It can cause all kinds of plumbing issues. Also, wait until the grease is cooler (but before it solidifies) before handling it. It can hang out in the skillet on a cool burner on the stove for a little while. There are three main options for what to do with the grease:
1) Keep the grease to use. Like I said before, I haven’t really done this, but I know people who pour cooled bacon grease into a mason jar and keep it to cook with.
2) Dispose of it the lazy way (which is what I usually do). Once the bacon grease has cooled completely and solidified (it will be white), take paper towels and wipe up all the grease out of the skillet and throw it away in the trash can!
3) Dispose of it Grandmommy’s way. When the bacon grease is still liquid but not scalding hot, pour it into an empty soda can. You can also use an empty tin can and then cover it with foil. Then place the can of grease into the freezer. When it is frozen, toss the can with the grease into the trash can, preferably on garbage day!
There you have it! Let me know if you make bacon this way and how it turned out!