Baking Bacon In The Oven

For best results, let your oven do the work of baking bacon. It cooks in minutes while you prepare the rest of your meal or dish, with no greasy splatters to clean up. The slices cook evenly to perfection with no flipping or turning and with just the right amount of crispiness desired.

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Makin' Bacon

Bacon is commonly known as salt-cured pork meat, typically found on the parts of a pig's belly or back. However, today, bacon is also made from other meats such as beef or turkey.

Eating bacon made from pork dates back to around 1500 BC in China. It is believed that the Romans and Greeks later domesticated the hog after their conquests in Asia, improving pork breeding and increasing their meat production and fame.

The Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto is credited with bringing the first pigs to America in 1539. As the herds grew, so did the desire for the taste of their meat. Today, Americans are eating more bacon than they ever have before.

And why not? Doesn't everything taste better with bacon? Think about it, there's:

• Bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches
• Bacon on a cheeseburger
• Bacon-wrapped chicken tenders
• Bacon dipped in melted chocolate
• Bacon-wrapped grilled shrimp
• Bacon, pancakes, and syrup
• Bacon and eggs
• Bacon-wrapped beef fillet
• Bacon in beans
• Bacon in dip
• Bacon in salad dressings
• Bacon on salad
• Bacon on pizza
• Bacon on a baked potato
• Bacon jam
• Bacon-covered meatloaf
• Bacon ice cream

And many more ways to enjoy those delectable salty cured slices of pork!

Storing Bacon

Keep bacon in cold storage. Buying extra packages and storing them in the freezer is helpful, and purchasing larger packages is often more economical, especially when you snag them on sale. Here's an easy way I've found to preserve the meaty strips in the freezer.

Lay the bacon slices side by side across an unrolled piece of parchment paper. Next, roll the meat up inside the parchment paper and store the roll in a large zip-top freezer bag in the freezer. The parchment paper keeps the slices separated and from sticking together when removed one at a time for cooking. There's no tearing the meat apart here! A 24-ounce package makes a couple of rolls that easily slip into a gallon storage bag.

Baking The Bacon

We all know how messy cooking bacon on the stovetop can be. With the splatters to clean up, there's the chance of getting burned from the grease popping out.

Cooking bacon in the microwave is safer, but it doesn't always yield the best results. It's quicker, but still requires attention when stopping and turning the bacon in the middle of cooking, and later cleaning up the splatters.

Baking bacon in the oven is a much easier, cleaner, and safer method. Simply lay the bacon strips in a single layer on a piece of parchment paper or a baking tray in a shallow pan. Next, place the pan in a preheated oven at 400°F and bake for approximately 20 minutes, without turning or flipping. Just your oven baking the bacon to perfection.

Amazingly, there are no splatters or spills when baking this way in the oven. I like using this Nordic Ware Oven Crisp Baking Tray. The heat travels around the meat to cook evenly, and clean-up is easy. The baked-in drippings wipe right off. I have used this pan several times and it still looks new.

I consistently achieve the best results when baking bacon. It's a time-saver, as it allows me to set the pan in the oven and let it do its thing while I prepare the rest of my meal or dish. For me, baking is the best method.

More Recipes With Cooked Bacon

• Savory Mini-Muffins, 3-Ways
• Easy Vegetable Breakfast Casserole, you can add meat to this one
• Sweet And Savory Broccoli Cauliflower Salad

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The clothes we wear are what people see. Only God can look on the heart. The outward signs are important. They reveal something of what is inside. If charity is there, it will become visible outwardly, but if you have no charitable feelings, you can still obey the command. Put it on as simply and consciously as you put on a coat. You choose it; you pick it up; you put it on. This is what you want to wear.

Elisabeth Elliot