For my 60 posts in 60 days challenge I am starting a new series – Homemade Tip Wednesdays! I will be sharing a quick tip with you every Wednesday. If you want more tips, check out my eBook – The Homemade Mommy Handbook. I have tons of tips for everything from roasting to handling herbs and spices + 60 real food recipes. It is on sale now for 25% off through May 31st!!!
Now onto this week’s Homemade Tip
I have a confession: I eat bacon. I hope my kosher friends and family understand!
Now that that is out of the way, I like to make my bacon in big batches so that I make only one mess to clean up. During the week, I can just take out a piece and heat it up quickly. I have found this method to be the easiest and fastest.
How to Make a Pound of Bacon in 20 Minutes
Ingredients
- 1 lb pastured bacon
Directions
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Place bacon on a sheet pan lined with a silpat. Bake for 20 minutes or until crisp. I usually flip the slices of bacon at around 17 minutes in.
No muss no fuss! You can save the bacon grease to cook eggs or vegetables in the next day. You can thank you me later.
I love cooking bacon this way. So much easier, cleaner and everything gets done at the same time. I use heavy duty foil for easier clean up. You can also put the bacon in cold oven then set it to 400. The bacon still only takes about 20-25 minutes total. Tip: never walk away during the last couple of minutes! It can go from perfect to bitter and burnt in a matter of seconds. You can also freeze bacon grease if your not planning on using it right away.
How do you heat it up again?
I do the same thing but I have a cooling rack that fits perfectly on my lipped cookie sheet. I put the bacon on this and it lets the fat drip down so I can save it. It also doesn’t need to be flipped since it isn’t in the fat.
I have tried that but I don’t like to do it that way because the cooling rack is hard to clean! 🙂
I have sprayed the cooling rack with the spray oil with flour. The bacon comes right off!
This sounds like a great idea! I don’t like to have the bacon cooking in the grease.
I do this too–I save the grease and use it when I make mayo. Yum!
Rebecca, how do you make your mayo? I’d love to try this with the bacon grease. Thank you.
Yes, please share your recipe! I would assume you are replacing the olive oil with the bacon grease. Just the thought makes me giddy! Lol.
I make mine this way and when I am feeling extra naughty (as far as dieting goes) I sprinkle it with a little brown sugar before I pop it in the oven. YUM!
Yum!
What the H is silpat?
I had to look that up as well … had no clue! It is a silicon mat for your cookie sheet … I personally have never used one I just cook the bacon right on my cookie sheet.
Demarle Cooking Products offers a the SILPAT. They offer home parties or you can buy on amazon or ebay. I have bought several Demarle products and really love them. I don’t go shopping to big malls so attending a home party to help my Christian friend with a Big family and saving gas is all worth it. Mmmmm bacon.
We’ve been making bacon this way for 25 yrs. You must be young, lol.
I have been baking mine for years. I think it comes out so much better and there is much less spattering of grease.
Thanks for sharing. I did think you were talking about making not cooking. 🙂
How long will bacon grease last? My grandma kept it in a coffee can under the sink. I’ve been doing the same! Whoops! Fridge or freezer much longer?
Doesn’t the oven get full of bacon spatters and then get smokey the next time you do baking? Bacon grease lasts a long time in the fridge. I make my own mayo, but think it would not taste very good using bacon fat.
Our new house has a beautiful but hard to clean oven so here I usually simmer it in water in a large cast iron with the vent on, it doesn’t splatter as much and you can lower the temp and it cooks brilliantly. Since I buy the ends bulk and the pieces are often uneven or hand-cut and thick, it works out very well. As any method, you must watch it or the precious goods can overcook!
How do you reheat it?
Reheat bacon? Why in the world would you have leftovers? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm…..nom nom nom.
How do you reheat bacon? I’ve never heard of that before! Does it stay crispy?
I was just wondering about something like this, because I may have bought too much uncured bacon recently, and don’t want it to go bad. Can you freeze bacon? Or how long does it last in the fridge after cooking?
But more importantly, how do you re-heat it? Does just a few seconds in the microwave do the trick and keep the crisp?
Thanks so much for your time and help!
You just heat up your frying pan and put the cooked bacon in it for a few seconds on each side–til it sizzles again. It’s really quick. GREAT IDEA! Thanks for sharing this post. I LOVE BACON, and I make my own mayo too. GOTTA TRY the suggestion to use the bacon grease in the mayo!! YUMM!
I’ve tried this and it always splatters allllll over the oven and never comes out quite right. It makes me sad 🙁
Maybe check your oven temperature?
Nope. Why wait ’til later? Think I will thank you now Lindsey!