The Best Method for Making Bacon

People often joke that bacon makes everything better. I tend to agree. I use it a lot as a flavoring agent in recipes a slice or two to infuse a pot of dried beans with porky richness, for example. But on #treatyoself days, I ll cook up a mess of bacon as a more substantial component to a dish, or as a standalone food. This is the bacon to pile onto burgers or BLTs, or to enjoy alongside pancakes or waffles, dragging the strips through syrup or runny egg yolks. 

Yet I ve never had a consistent, go-to method for cooking that bacon. I ve cooked it in a skillet and in the oven, and I ve resorted to the microwave when I was in a hurry. I ve read about air fryer and sous vide methods I d like to try, as well as other hacks for easier cleanup or better texture. 

To find which method or methods work best, I tested eight that are touted by trusted website sources and compared the results side-by-side. My house smelled amazing, by the way, and my sons and husband were delighted to help me taste test.

via getpocket.com

Bacon is wrong. It’s sinful. It’s delicious. It’s not just that it’s fatty and salty and imbued with that bacony goodness. It’s also the product of great cruelty to our porcine friends and neighbors, unless of course you buy that local, farm raised cruelty-free bacon, and who can afford that. Pigs are exceptionally intelligent animals. If they could talk, they might say something like “Think! what you’re doing man! You don’t have to do this! You’re going to eat me?!” A talking pig. That’s funny. Human meat is said to taste like pork. Some old timey mountain men referred to human meat as “long pork” out of their well-known delicacy of feeling. Yet for all that, if it costs you your immortal soul, it might as well be the best you can make it. Both Jew and Muslim forbid the eating of pork, though that is because pigs are reputedly unclean, which is a gross calumny from a scientific point of view. They are no dirtier than any other animals, if they are allowed to keep themselves clean. But they do harbor viruses dangerous to humans more than cattle and goats do. You hear of swine flu, not goat flu. In any event, I’ve tried all these recipes over the decades except for sous vide and air fryer, and I can attest they are all deeelicious. I would say you can’t eat too much bacon, but as I have proven, in fact, you can, but that is a lot of bacon.