Baked Bacon

 
Why bake bacon?  Here are a few good reasons:

1.  When bacon is baked it lies flat instead of curling up, which is great for stacking in sandwiches.  
2.  It cooks more evenly than pan frying.
3.  It frees up the stove-top for cooking other things like eggs and pancakes.
4.  It's less messy.  There aren't any grease splatters to clean up when you're done.
5.  You can cook a whole package of bacon at once (1 lb. of bacon easily fits onto a baking sheet).

Is that enough reasons?  I figured I should at least give this a try.  I've never baked bacon in the oven before.  I really dislike getting splattered by bacon grease when cooking it on the stove-top.  Perhaps I would cook bacon more often if I could avoid getting burned.  Will baking be my new favorite way to cook bacon?

What You Need
1 lb package of bacon
Oven
Shallow baking sheet
Aluminum foil and paper towels
Directions 
Line a baking sheet with foil. This will make cleanup easier later.

Arrange bacon slices on the foil and place the baking sheet on the center rack of a cold oven. Close oven door. Turn oven on to 400°F. Walk away.

Come back 17 to 20 minutes later. As soon as the bacon is golden brown, but not excessively crisp, it's done. The exact time will depend on the thickness of the bacon slices, and also on how quickly your oven reaches the target temperature.

Remove the pan from the oven. Transfer the bacon to another sheet pan lined with paper towels to absorb the fat. You can pour the liquid fat into a heat-resistant container to save for other uses.  Or let the Liquid fat cool and solidify.  Then, wrap fat in foil and throw away.


The Results...
This was very easy!  The bacon did cook evenly and laid flatter than cooking in a pan.  I used thick cut bacon and it took closer to 30 minutes in my oven.  I placed the bacon right onto the foil and it turned out great.  Best of all, no grease splatters!  Baking is my new favorite way to cook bacon.  I'm thinking BLT's for dinner...

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