Dear Dan: Please tell whoever is producing your videos to eliminate or lower the volume of the music. If you have old ears like mine, it's hard to understand what you're saying.
@@deskueber1441 for the hearing impaired any background noise can be detrimental to a conversation.. just becuz its ok to u and me dont mean it is for everyone.....peace...
same, my dad taught it to me. works great for the eggs too, little bit of water at the end, then put the lid on and it helps the top of the egg cook faster so its done before the bottom gets those crispy edges(which i hate)
Great to hear that the water method has changed your life. Meanwhile are you aware of the US involved in 7 wars??? Killing civilians and children on my dime really has changed MY life. Peace.
Dan-thank you for teaching the public about where nitrites some from. When I tell people that they can come from things like celery I get a very strange look!
I think I can safely compare that "uncured" marketing ploy bit with the nitrates and nitrites to how a lot of people are avoiding Chinese food because of MSG, not knowing that it naturally occurs in a lot of food that they already eat anyway.
Only the ones that say nitrite/nitrate free get it from celery. And nitrates in celery are absolutely completely harmless*. The problem with nitrites is they combine with proteins called amines to form compounds called nitrosamines. Nitrosamines have been well documented to cause cancer. So while you might have a few molecules of nitrosamines form when eating vegetables with nitrites and meat at the same time, it's really not enough to even think about. But when you soak meat with nitrites, you get a LOT more nitrosamines. Plants also contain antioxidants that help prevent nitrates from turning into nitrites, and guess what they don't also include when they use nitrates from plants. That's right, they don't include the antioxidants. Making it worse still. So the fact that nitrates are also in vegetables is meaningless. But, young kids and babies should not be fed vegetables with a lot of nitrates, as it can cause anemia due to their having a higher pH level in their intestines.
Honestly it's stupid to worry about stuff like that... Everything seems to have cancer warnings these days even stuff you never would have thought should. Bacon is delicious and like many things should be enjoyed without worrying if it's going to have carcinogens.
As an electrician with thousands of customers, many of my commercial customers are restaurants and ALL OF THEM use the cookie sheet with parchment to cook bacon at 350ºF for 25- 30 minutes. So that's the way I do it at home.
@@lkajiess If you add a desert spoonful of water or so, and boil it down first, then the bacon dries out and gets good texture. Then fry it, and it won't spit anymore and it's dry and you get great bacon as well and the kitchen stays clean.
I thought I was crazy reading all these comments about the sound quality and BG music in your videos because it sounds fine to me on these stereo monitors. When I pulled the audio into Adobe Audition, however, I noticed that you basically have these mastered for broadcast TV with peaks at around -6 dB and the average loudness at like -27 LUFS. For TH-cam it seems to go way better if your file is closer to around -13 LUFS on average (especially for this type of video where the sound is consistent all the way through, we do NOT want high dynamic range in this type of video, we want clarity and presence). Just using a loudness matcher to pull this up to -13 LUFS and peaks at -1 dB makes the whole thing louder and the vocal much more audible. I think people would stop complaining about your videos if you just boosted the overall loudness and compressed them a bit more. People are watching these videos on computers, laptops and phones more than anything else. Killing off some of that dynamic range with compression and boosting the volume will actually help you out in this case, simply due to the nature of the video (if it was a music video I would have a completely different view).
@@CyberwizardProductions Which is great but you always have to remaster for the medium you're posting on. You can't use the same master for vinyl and CD just like you can't use the same master for TH-cam and broadcast TV. It'd be nice if the digital formats were consistent, we'll probably get there some day.
On a foil lined rimmed baking sheet, I place bacon on a cooling rack placed, then place a second cooling rack on top of the bacon. This allows the bacon grease to drain and keeps the bacon flat for sandwiches. I’ve woven strips of bacon til they’re the size of the bread then baked it in the oven. Perfect for BLT sandwiches.
Dan, Love your "What's Eating Dan" episodes. One problem, please eliminate or at least severely lower the volume on the background music. As it is, it makes it almost impossible to hear what you're saying. Thanks, and keep up the great work!
Absolutely!!! Background "noise" is the stupidest, most annoying aspect of TH-cam videos. I cannot fathom why a publisher go to the trouble of speaking - presumably to convey information - and then completely destroys the communication with a too loud background sound track. The second most annoying trait is dropping your voice at the end of a sentence - usually on the most important word! Train yourself to speak at a level volume or run the audio though a dynamic equalizer.
Place on a rack on a rimmed baking sheet in the oven. ( there will be a lot of fat rendered off) Monitor cooking time closely as it will cook faster. For thick sliced bacon you will have to flip the strips over once to crisp up both sides because of the thickness. The rack drains most of the fat at the same time the cooking crisps up the strips so you waste no time blotting on paper towels before eating bacon😍
I love watching this guy. Not only are his videos informative and recipes look tasty, but he is so cute and I just love to watch him talk. He does this thing with his mouth that puts a huge smile on my face.
Thanks, Dan. I was born in Cuba. Been here 50 years. I have been teaching the knuckle method for years. Never knew how it worked but it's how my mom taught me. Perfect rice every time. Also, I have heard recently that if you add coconut oil to the pot of rice, before you boil the rice and then refrigerate for at least 12hours. You can reheat the rice and eliminate at least 1/ 2 the total starch content. Is this true? Sure would like it if it's true. Thanks for the science!
My all time favorite way to prepare bacon is to use my pellet smoker and cook the bacon at about 220F for about 45min. Sprinkle with either brown sugar or brush with maple syrup several times during the rendering process.
Wow, what an episode. It was like a Christmas present. We got history of bacon, anatomy of bacon, how to select bacon, how to cook bacon, how to make your own bacon. I feel like I need to watch this episode several times to absorb all of the good content. Thanks for the early Christmas guys.
I personially like doing bacon in the pan, because the texture is less uniform. Thus you get the crisp, but also some chew. which for me makes for a better overall eating experience.
I'm with you. A convenient trick for achieving this is to just avoid flipping them altogether, makes for a yin and yang like balance between the 2 sides.
Growing up we raised pigs and my dad dry cured pork belly. It was delicious. I bought some dry cured bacon at a warehouse store. 2 pounds to be exact. Took it to a friends place and smoked it all. It had a lot of meat in it with just enough fat to flavor it. It was awesome.
I've cured my own bacon twice, once with a regular pork belly, which was wonderful. The second time was with an Iberico de Bellota belly imported from Spain. It's hands down the finest pork in the world (the A5 wagyu of pork) and as a bacon, it was incredible. I don't have a kettle girl, I have a large gas grille, so I smoked it with one of the four burners on low, and the belly on a rack as far away as possible. I bought for under $16 a LizzQ pellet smoker tube and it really does provide smoke for up to 4 or 5 hours. It does slice thick, but it vacuum seals well, and all the remaining bits that don't cut into slices makes the best lardons. I prefer to use the oven, but found 350 degrees to be better than 400.
Cooking bacon in the oven, with two pieces making a "square" is my favorite way to cook it for burgers. 1) it gives you even distribution on the burger and 2) you get the right crispness. Great episode!
Great video, thank you. I often overcook bacon and suspect my "window of perfection" is short due to the high heat. I'll try your recipe, use low heat and add water.
I have come up with a great way to cook bacon for an individual. You microwave it. I put two paper towels on a plate add 3 strips of thick bacon, cover with another paper towel. I have a 1200 watt microwave oven which I then microwave the bacon for about five and a half minutes on 80% power. Then remove the plate and paper towels. If you cook it too long the paper towels can stick to the bacon so this may take a little trial and error with your microwave. If it is not yet done, you can add another 30 seconds of cooking time. This method removes a lot of the grease and your bacon is crisp. Another advantage is that the plate gets hot and keeps your bacon and eggs warm for a longer period of time.
No mention of Microwaving bacon. Place slices between two sheets of paper towels on a plate. Cook at standard high power for 45 sec per slice. Adjust time for desired crispness. Benefit: 1.) each slice is cooked throughout, much like oven procedure; 2.) paper towels absorb all grease: no spatter.
Sometimes I soak my bacon in water for about 5 minutes before cooking. This reduces the saltiness a little, making it less harsh on the tongue, and in my own testing it gave me crispier bacon.
Bacon: so easy to make and hard to screw up, that Dan the perfectionist covers two different ways to prepare it in about half a minute. I love it. So if we don't need to fuss over technique, the question remaining is: which bacon to buy? I just read all the top online taste tests of American bacon brands. These are what I'm now looking for at the market: •Oscar Meyer Naturally Hardwood Smoked (not thick) •Hormel Black Label (not thick) •Farmland Thick Sliced •Plumrose Thick Sliced •Louis Rich Turkey Bacon My criterion is being a well-balanced bacon that is not overly salty or extreme in any way. To minimize the presence of nitrates and nitrites which turn to carcinogenic (cancer-promoting) nitrosamines when bacon is cooked at high heat (proven by a study in the Journal of Science to occur at 350°F), I disqualify any bacon that is not cured with sodium nitrite injection or immersion. I explain my reasoning below. I can't confirm these brands are delicious, as I haven't tried them yet, but they're what I'm looking out for after reading a dozen round-ups, with more reputable sources (like ATK/CI) given higher influence. Just do an internet search and check them yourself if you're curious. You'll see the brands I picked on those lists. Oscar Meyer especially gets picked a lot as a great "typical"-style bacon, usually in a very positive "crowd-pleaser" way although occasionally it's normality is taken as mediocrity by those with different tastes. Louis Rich is a bit of a wild card, but it's the only turkey bacon that I could find a taste test actually enthusiastically endorse. SF Gate, though not a trusted source, totally loved it when they did their taste test ten years ago. It's a brand produced by Oscar Meyer and I'm not sure if it's still in production. Every other turkey bacon in every other taste test was considered "meh" at best. I've eaten a lot of Trader Joe's turkey bacon, which is rather highly ranked in taste tests (for a turkey bacon), and I'm not surprised that there isn't a turkey bacon to be found at the supermarket that approaches the taste of pork bacon. I am not an expert, but I have spent the last few hours reading experts, and I will now explain why to my knowledge "uncured", "nitrate and nitrite free* (*except for...)" bacon is an deceitful and immoral scam as it contains at least as many and often more carcinogens when cooked (as Dan confirmed with his own test in the video). Nitrates and nitrites are added to bacon as during the curing process they turn into nitric oxide (and nitrous oxide), which is what actually produces the desired effects: although you can make old-fashioned bacon with nothing but smoke and salt (bacon which will not keep as long and must be handled like fresh meat unless dried or heavily salted), nitric oxide is a better preservative and we're used to the color and (especially) the taste. Nitrate turns into nitrite, but not completely, so nitrite is much better to cure with. Nitrates and nitrites are not unhealthy to consume (there's a lot of them in your healthy veggies), but when cooked at high heat (350°F+) can form carcinogenic (cancer-promoting) nitrosamines. So for the least amount of nitrosamines in your finished food, you want less nitrates and nitrites in your food when you cook it. This is definitely found in bacon cured with sodium nitrite ("Prague Powder #1" curing salt, by regulation 93.75% sodium and 6.25% nitrite) in combination with salts of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), such as sodium ascorbate or sodium erythorbate, and chemical phosphates. Look for those salts on the label, they're mandated by law to be added to injected/pumped bacon (550ppm of either) as they're proven to reduce nitrite and thus nitrosamines. Bacon that is injected with (typically) or immersed in (rare) sodium nitrate has the lowest legal maximum dose of sodium nitrate at 120ppm. Dry cured bacon has a higher legal limit of 200ppm. Directly adding sodium nitrite is superior because having it pure like that enables manufacturers to add the minimum amount necessary, which will fully cure and almost fully convert to nitric oxide which will not form nitrosamines when cooked. "Uncured" or "naturally" cured bacon that does not use isolated sodium nitrite or nitrate instead uses vegetable ingredients that contain nitrates and nitrates. And because it is variable in these ingredients, you get more nitrate in your food because more has been added to make sure it's fully cured. Possibly, it may be undercured, allowing the growth of dangerous pathogens. The precision of just adding sodium nitrite directly enables the producer to calculate just how much they need to add to cure, and no more, so that an often negligible amount is left in the food when it's cooked. Those "uncured" and "naturally cured" that advertise not having added sodium nitrate or nitrate are deceitfully taking advantage of a loophole that allows them to put as much nitrate or nitrite in the bacon as they want in the form of celery or other naturally occurring vegetable sources. It's identical when consumed by the body, and you actually will be consuming more because these ingredients are inherently less precise and controlled. They promise no nitrates and nitrates, but you get more in your bacon! The sodium nitrite bacon actually has very little nitrate left to turn into nitrosamines by the time you cook it, since it was already converted to nitric/nitrous oxide. It leaves the factory with usually 10-20% of the originally added nitrite remaining, and the amount of nitrite continues to decline during the product's shelf life and is often undetectable. To maintain the color of cured meat throughout the storage life of the product before it's expiration, only about 10-15ppm nitrite is needed as a residual amount to regenerate color pigment loss from oxidation and light exposure. But if the company just used celery juice or powder, because of how much less consistent it is in the amount of nitrites compared to synthesized pure sodium nitrite, and how it also includes nitrates as well as nitrites (which slowly but not completely turn to nitrites, and then oxidize) you may have a lot of nitrate and nitrite remaining to turn into harmful nitrosamines as your bacon cooks. It's unconscionable that companies are knowingly deceiving their customers in this way. If I sold bacon, I would put on the packaging a message like "minimal sodium nitrite curing salt proudly directly added with vitamin C and vitamin E, for bacon with zero nitrates and the minimum amount of nitrites possible in cured bacon" and explain clearly that having added a carefully measured minimum amount of sodium nitrate with sodium ascorbate or sodium erythorbate (some other additives like Vitamin E may help, too) means less potentially dangerous nitrite and zero nitrate in the bacon, for a minimum of carcinogenic nitrosamines when cooked at high heat. Less than with other methods. Though to be clear, if you cook at low heat, like below 300°, you won't see any nitrosamines no matter how much nitrate or nitrite is in the food. Scientists cooked 275°F bacon for a long time and didn't detect any nitrosamines. So if you really want to avoid all nitrosamines and use any bacon, it's possible. But since it's not very practical to get a nice sear at that temperature, we want no nitrate and a minimum of nitrite to allow us to cook at a nice searing temperature without significant nitrosamine formation. You get that with properly made bacon cured with synthesized sodium nitrite. *Bacon curing science sources:* USDA: www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/meat-preparation/bacon-and-food-safety/CT_Index Ruhlman: ruhlman.com/2011/05/the-no-nitrites-added-hoax/ ruhlman.com/2011/02/meat-curing-safety-issues/ Junkfood science: junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/07/does-banning-hotdogs-and-bacon-make.html?m=1 "Meat guy" on Serious Eats, who has direct professional experience (apparently as a food scientist), his highly informative detailed post is on page four of in comment section of this article: www.seriouseats.com/talk/2013/07/whats-your-favorite-hot-dog-topping.html#comments-400690 "Sodium Nitrite in Processed Meat and Poultry Meats", American Meat Science Association (2011): www.meatscience.org/docs/default-source/publications-resources/white-papers/2011-11-amsa-nitrite-white-paper.pdf?sfvrsn=8
I have a bacon necktie and a bacon T-Shirt. I have tried Bacon Toothpaste, Bacon Toothpicks, Bacon Jelly Beans, Bacon Soda-pop and probably other items. But the bacon I like best is nicely cooked, somewhat limp bacon. I don't want it to be burned or too crisp. I find that often the cheapest brands of bacon taste the best.
I caught my college flat mate smashing back my crispy bacon when I came back to get my laptop that I forgot to take lol. Prior to this he always claimed that he never eats pork. He’s Muslim, I still mock him about it every time hah
I have to know how you clean that half-sheet pan after cooking bacon in the oven without lining with foil. Seriously, like step-by-step. Preferably a whole video, filmed in real time.
Try white balsamic vinegar (or any vinegar essence), let it sit for an hour or so, best overnight and the next day you just rinse the residue off 👌 no scrubbing or harming your pan/pot
Use a ceramic lined tray, a wire rack, or just keep keep the temperature low. I’ve never had issues cleaning the tray after making bacon in the oven. I started doing it when I was a teenager and my family always looked at me like it was fancy because it came from the oven. I’d also make omelettes in a muffin pan. Then you have time to make a smoothie or some fruit salad.
Use parchment paper - -OR- -pre-warm the sheet pan, cook the bacon 325 pull off when done/ drain and save grease/wipe the sheet pan with a paper towel. If any stuck bits soak the pan for 5-10 minutes and done. Happy Day!
Very hot water, dish soap, a lot of elbow grease and a good scrubber. Let it soak as much as possible first. The other methods are smart. But you can definitely do it old school.
Thank you! I've always suspected meats were injected with water! People thought I was crazy! I thought it was to give more weight to the product for profit gain. No bacon patterned clothing here. We used to salt hog legs and hang them in the barn loft, grind our own sausage, etc. I'm surprised I, still, eat bacon. Love to see you enjoying the spoils at the end!
Beef, pork, chicken, turkey and most other meats are injected with water to add weight for larger profit. Bacon is so expensive now because of the craze.
I’ve known about the celery-juice trick for ages. Occasionally I’ll get infuriated when a label is full of smug language about the bacon or sausage or other cured meat being uncured, but usually I just ignore it as another lie that’s legal...
Glad you pointed out that “uncured bacon” is just a marketing ploy and contains the same nitrites as regular bacon. One detail that’s off is you say bacon contains nitrites or nitrates in the form of curing salt or celery powder, but that’s only nitrites. Nitrates are used in longer cured meats because over time they break down into nitrites. Nitrates aren’t used in making bacon since it’s a relatively short cure.
If you want that whole roasted bacon texture, particularly texture where the fat can be et comfortably on its own, simmer in a LOT of water, and don't overdo the frying portion (after the water has evaporated).
Personally, the best way for me to cook bacon is on a rack set (sprayed with nonstick cooking spray) over a baking pan. I put it in a cold oven and bake at 350° until done to my liking. In this way, the bacon renders the fat slowly and never cooks sitting in the fat. All of the bacon fat drips to the pan below the rack. Yes, this takes longer but 90-95% of the time you tend to get very straight bacon and it not greasy. Looks great for presentation, if that is important to you. Try it! ;)
I have been eyeing pork belly for awhile to make bacon to share as Christmas gifts! Great video. And everyone in our house agrees, bacon is best in the oven, especially to feed a crowd!
I use the microwave. Three sections of folded newspaper, a paper towel, three or four strips of bacon, another paper towel and three more folded sections of newspaper. Need a large microwave oven so full strips lay flat. 3 1/2-4 minutes and bacon comes out perfectly crisp and flat. Only drawback: no bacon fat to keep in fridge for later cooking - it's all soaked up in the papers.
I tried an Extreme! Stock pot with steamer basket layered paper towels, bacon, repeat. I steamed for 1hr giving a rendered fat, soft and flavorful with tender meat structure. Steaming is a win.
I cook Bacon in my Microwave. Put it on a Microwave Safe plate cover with two layers of paper towels, to absorb the splattering, and cook on high for ,on average, one minute for each slice. Adjust cooking time for your preference, a few more seconds for crispier a few less for less crispy. The cooking toward the end is very fast so do not leave it unattended. You can always ad more heat but you can not remove it. Jeff
I love bacon and grew up eating it daily and ended up being healthy for decades. My father would get his bacon from the slaughter house near us when I was in Michigan and when here in Arkansas we ate the bacon my grandmother cooked it for us all the time for breakfast and to this day I love bacon, but do eat more sausage now for breakfast.
Generally speaking, for 3 perfectly cooked slices of bacon, i put the bacon on a plate covered with 1 piece of paper towel and then place another piece of paper towel on top of the bacon, completely covering the bacon. "Nuke" on high for 3 minutes and check results. If needs a bit more cooking, add 30 seconds of additional time and cook. Remove and pat dry with another piece of paper towel. Will be perfectly cooked, flat and free of excess bacon fat.
Great video. I love bacon. I usually bake a pound in the oven once I open the pack. I freeze the bacon in serving size portions to use during the week. Just pop in the microwave for about 30 seconds.
I cook my bacon low and slow on the cooktop, using a spatula to press down on the fatty portions of the bacon to ensure it cooks more evenly. You can't just let bacon sit and cook on its own. You have to really watch it. Good baking requires interaction from the cook.😉 Cooking in the oven makes a bigger mess that's harder to clean up in my opinion because of the splashing grease inside the oven. I have a ceramic cooktop, so all I have to do is cool it down, wipe it off good with soapy water. Then I can just clean it easily using the cooktop cleaner. This is much easier than cleaning the oven in my humble opinion. 😊
I’m a rabid bacon consumer and I learned A LOT from this video! Thanks for exposing the “uncured” bacon myth and the tip of introducing a bit of water at the beginning of the pan fry. As always Dan, you nailed it.
The best way to cook bacon for small amounts is to microwave it on paper towels - switching once or twice to remove the fat. For large amounts bake it on wire racks in the oven. Both methods result in very crispy bacon with minimal fat. Frying or baking on a flat sheet leaves bacon swimming in fat, never really crispy.
I always want a quik style, so what i do: i grab my tosti iron, i put the bacon in, leave the iron open. While i turn it on. Wait till the bacon starts to shrivil a little bit. And then add a slic of bread on top. Then i close the tosti iron, wait a little bit and boom! Delicious bread with bacon
I use a roasting pan because it is safer than a rimmed baking sheet full of hot bacon fat. I put the bacon in a cold oven, set to 225, wait 20 minutes. Then I remove pan, flip bacon, back in and bump temp to 325. Wait 20 minutes. Then I check for crispness, bump temp to 425 and check every few minutes until edges turn dark brown/black to get crispness I want.
Do that the opposite way (higher temp at first, reducing over time) and you can have crisp without it getting black and bitter. Unless you like it bitter, of course.
I cook my thick-sliced bacon on a Treager Pellet grill at about 350 degrees. It takes about 25+ mins but it comes out perfect. The fat falls to a foil line pan and easily tossed into the trash. For a treat I will sprinkle the bacon with brown sugar, both sides.....Candied Bacon. A gift from heaven.
So straight up this is why Dan's (and America's Test Kitchen) videos are so much better than other chefs like Babish and Tasty. The garlic episode changed my cooking forever. Instead of spending 5 minutes on a recipe, sometimes 2 or 3, Dan focused on one ingredient and taught me WHY these things happen. To this day I'm still revelling in an Allicin Wonderland
Babish is not a food scientist or trained professional, he's an amateur cook making recipes according to what he does/likes. And Tasty is a plagiarizing mess that only cares about the spectacle and going viral.
Dans technique and ingredient videos are great - but I find the main ATK recipe videos a dismal mess of 'shortcuts and hacks' that take away from taste and texture of the finished dish in the name of (false) convenience. The Babish recipes are a great story, but for the most part he's trying to entertain, rather than teach. The Bon Appetite channel has killer technique as well as some great recipes. Serious Eats took a serious hit when they were sold and their programming changed. TH-cam can be like the wild west of cooking info.
I like Babish, but for different reasons. I refuse to watch any Tasty videos. My goto channels are ATK and Bon Appetit (if you don't mind the goofiness).
I always learn something. I have bought all types of bacon. I like baking it in the oven. One thing you didn't mention is adding brown sugar before baking. Yum!
When baking bacon put the bacon on a rack over a sheet pan. Cook low and slow. Fat renders but does not burn. Gives you nice tasty clean fat with no filtering needed. Having a bit extra fat gives you some hot fat to baste the tops of the whites allowing you to end up with a bit of runny yolk and no slimy whites, a bit crispy around the edges. Bacon stays nice and flat.
Finally someone else who prefers thin cut bacon! Everyone I know thinks I’m crazy and tells me how much better thick cut it. I think it’s too much like eating jerky. 🤷🏻♀️
Dan, you are now a food nerd god. Thank you for the best episode yet. Yes, Bacon is overexposed. However, I will eat it until I die. Thanks for the tip on the water in the pan. Also, for inspiring me to make some Bacon from scratch. I’m going to do that!
I recently tried cooking bacon in an air-frier with a little pepper sprinkled on top. 8 minutes @ 400 degrees does the trick and no greasy stove to clean up.
We actually have a Facebook group called "May I have bacon with that please" and every year on the month of May we post pics of bacon on/in everything that we order. And one year we had a bacon tour.
The best bacon is one you dry cure yourself, cold smoke in your back yard on a brisk spring or fall day, and bake on a cooling rack set in side a sheet pan. Smaller servings can be baked in a toaster oven with a smaller cooling rack set over a 1/4 size sheet pan.
1. No one in these TH-cam comments will ever cook for you, ever 2. "Overcooked" is a matter of taste when it comes to bacon, some people enjoy it chewy and others enjoy it crispy 3. You shouldn't be upset when other people make food the way they like, because they're the ones eating it. Not you.
I should add that the bacon I cook in the microwave for 3 minutes/3 slices is thickly sliced. Thin sliced bacon would take less time. Will have to experiment.
Per Kenji (the *original* "Dan" of CI), the oven temperature you use will affect the texture of the bacon. He said "between 425°F bacon and 375°F bacon, there was a pretty significant difference in texture. The bacon cooked at a lower temperature was more tender" and had that melt-in-your-mouth quality, while bacon cooked for a shorter time at a higher temperature had more of a meaty, chewy texture. As he explained: "Tough connective tissue in both the fat and the lean sections of bacon tenderizes with extended cooking, so the longer you take to crisp the bacon, the more tender it's going to be." (Ironically, he ultimately goes with 425°F for his recipe since it produces bacon with the texture his wife likes best. Smart man!) As for me, I choose to start low, at 350 or 375°F, and start it in a cold oven. But I don't bother with a rack on the baking sheet, as I've found (and also noted by Kenji) that it's not worth the hassle of having to clean that wire rack. Additionally, bacon that's cooked directly on a baking sheet (foil-lined for easier cleanup) is no greasier than bacon elevated by a rack; it just requires a blotting with paper towels after cooking. And by using the rack, some parts of the bacon are a little prone to drying out, so they can turn tougher and chewier. Besides, by cooking the bacon directly on a rimmed baking sheet, the fat helps it to cook more evenly, while also protecting it from drying out or turning leathery.
Oven method is how I cook bacon all the time...only difference is I lay it on a wire rack over the sheet pan so it doesn't sit in the fat. From cold, 425F, about 25-30 minutes depending if I'm looking for chewier or crispier. Just be sure to save all the fat for frying other things in :D
Love Dan and appreciate the science so much...HOWEVER, the background music is way too loud and it makes it annoyingly difficult to hear Dan. Make it go away, please!
I have the best way to cook Bacon: Microwave it! I put 3 pieces of thick bacon on two paper towels on a microwavable plate and cover it with a single paper towel. My microwave is 1200 watts so I cook it at 80% power for about 5 minutes and 20 seconds. If you cook it too long it will stick to the paper towels. You can under cook it a little and always add 30 seconds to the cooking time. The benefit is you have gotten rid of a lot of fat and chemicals that are not good for you and the bacon is crisp. Also, your plate is hot and that will keep your eggs warm as well. I have never seen this done on a cooking show.
I used to not see the appeal of bacon as a little kid, because my mom always burned it. She actually likes the taste of rock hard and blackened/burnt bacon. I had to eat it at a restaurant first before I knew what all the fuss was about, haha.
What about precooked bacon 🥓? Also, what do you have to say about cooking bacon in the microwave? Is there a best way to cook bacon in the microwave? Just curious🤷🏼♀️
Your preference for thin bacon was the real surprise. Thanks for that! I'm with you on wanting fatty bacon. What I wonder is whether fattier pork is available to be used in making your own bacon. When I google salt pork, some of the photos appear to be showing inch-think slabs of nothing (or almost nothing) but fat. (Some have a bit of skin on them too.) Finding that cut (before it is turned into salt pork, of course) might be a challenge, but it does sound promising. One other thing about the fat. . . I like my bacon crisp, which is to say that the fat is fully rendered out into the pan, and is comparatively weightless. And yet another. . . Not addressed was what to do with that bacon grease. Mom always kept it in a can, and used it to grease the skillet when making eggs, or pancakes, or French toast.
I make my own bacon from "Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing" by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. I never buy bacon from the store anymore because what I make is so much better. Dan, what supermarket bacon does ATK recommend for the NYC area?
Cant you avoid the nitrates and nitrites by buying the pork belly and slicing it up into bacon yourself? Don't cure it- just smoke it and slice it up, then fry it or use morrow method in the oven to cook it. You could also use part of the pork belly by cubing it up and smoking it like pork burnt ends...its great. Thank for the video!
I saw in one of my many cookbooks to cover bacon in a pan with water and cook on med high until the water is gone. The turn down to low and cook normal. I get crisper bacon this way.
Dan seems to be adding a lot less water to the pan in this bacon video than he did in his video from a few years ago. Is it just to save time? I tried the old cover-it-in-water method a while back, and the results were great, but took so much time that I might as well use the oven method.
LMAO!!! I was not expecting this in the middle of the background music complaints. I can’t stand the taste of cooked sausage patties, but the smell wakes me up, along with bacon cooking.
I was hoping for more information. I have seen bacon cooked in the oven on sheet pans, bacon cooked in a deep fryer ( the one used for french fries) I wanted to know the difference in those cooking methods and what is preferred.
What about laying the bacon on a baking rack in the sheet pan before going into the oven; for those of us who want the fat to drip away from the bacon? Does that impact the taste compared to the no rack method?
Dear Dan: Please tell whoever is producing your videos to eliminate or lower the volume of the music.
If you have old ears like mine, it's hard to understand what you're saying.
It's fine
@@deskueber1441 for the hearing impaired any background noise can be detrimental to a conversation.. just becuz its ok to u and me dont mean it is for everyone.....peace...
Agreed!
Microphone could use some compression or different mic’ing, sounds a little hollow and reverberant
I know that when using hearing aids, background noise destroys all ability to hear. Screaming kids = UH OH!
I've been using the water methods for two weeks and it's changed my life. Skies are bluer, water is wetter, and the world is suddenly at peace ☮️.
same, my dad taught it to me.
works great for the eggs too, little bit of water at the end, then put the lid on and it helps the top of the egg cook faster so its done before the bottom gets those crispy edges(which i hate)
Cory Stansbury Can I get a couple pounds of that? Lol.
Great to hear that the water method has changed your life. Meanwhile are you aware of the US involved in 7 wars??? Killing civilians and children on my dime really has changed MY life. Peace.
😂 😂
All you need is love - John Lennon
Dan-thank you for teaching the public about where nitrites some from. When I tell people that they can come from things like celery I get a very strange look!
I think I can safely compare that "uncured" marketing ploy bit with the nitrates and nitrites to how a lot of people are avoiding Chinese food because of MSG, not knowing that it naturally occurs in a lot of food that they already eat anyway.
TSLMachine.......good point!
I always tell people the "uncured" bacon is like saying a beer is alcohol free*
(*except for the alcohols that naturally occur during fermentation)
Only the ones that say nitrite/nitrate free get it from celery. And nitrates in celery are absolutely completely harmless*.
The problem with nitrites is they combine with proteins called amines to form compounds called nitrosamines. Nitrosamines have been well documented to cause cancer. So while you might have a few molecules of nitrosamines form when eating vegetables with nitrites and meat at the same time, it's really not enough to even think about. But when you soak meat with nitrites, you get a LOT more nitrosamines. Plants also contain antioxidants that help prevent nitrates from turning into nitrites, and guess what they don't also include when they use nitrates from plants. That's right, they don't include the antioxidants. Making it worse still.
So the fact that nitrates are also in vegetables is meaningless.
But, young kids and babies should not be fed vegetables with a lot of nitrates, as it can cause anemia due to their having a higher pH level in their intestines.
Honestly it's stupid to worry about stuff like that... Everything seems to have cancer warnings these days even stuff you never would have thought should. Bacon is delicious and like many things should be enjoyed without worrying if it's going to have carcinogens.
20 points for the Robert Smith photo when saying "speaking of curing..."
I did a spit take laughing.
It's pretty cheesy. Not funny at all.
Only 20 points? Lol
"Tell me tell me tell me why the bacon's thick"
As an electrician with thousands of customers, many of my commercial customers are restaurants and ALL OF THEM use the cookie sheet with parchment to cook bacon at 350ºF for 25- 30 minutes. So that's the way I do it at home.
If you're doing a large batch, yes, that's the way to go, but if you're cooking one or two pieces, using an oven is incredible overkill and very slow.
@@BooBaddyBig It keeps your kitchen clean though. Half the reason I cook bacon in the oven is to cut down on atomized grease.
@@lkajiess If you add a desert spoonful of water or so, and boil it down first, then the bacon dries out and gets good texture. Then fry it, and it won't spit anymore and it's dry and you get great bacon as well and the kitchen stays clean.
I agree with 350. I think 400 is too high for bacon, especially if you don’t like it too crunchy.
I thought I was crazy reading all these comments about the sound quality and BG music in your videos because it sounds fine to me on these stereo monitors. When I pulled the audio into Adobe Audition, however, I noticed that you basically have these mastered for broadcast TV with peaks at around -6 dB and the average loudness at like -27 LUFS. For TH-cam it seems to go way better if your file is closer to around -13 LUFS on average (especially for this type of video where the sound is consistent all the way through, we do NOT want high dynamic range in this type of video, we want clarity and presence). Just using a loudness matcher to pull this up to -13 LUFS and peaks at -1 dB makes the whole thing louder and the vocal much more audible. I think people would stop complaining about your videos if you just boosted the overall loudness and compressed them a bit more. People are watching these videos on computers, laptops and phones more than anything else. Killing off some of that dynamic range with compression and boosting the volume will actually help you out in this case, simply due to the nature of the video (if it was a music video I would have a completely different view).
That would be, because his videos are pretty much taken from a TV show, not created for youtube.
@@CyberwizardProductions Which is great but you always have to remaster for the medium you're posting on. You can't use the same master for vinyl and CD just like you can't use the same master for TH-cam and broadcast TV. It'd be nice if the digital formats were consistent, we'll probably get there some day.
@@stevenleonmusic I doubt we'll ever get a universal format or standard for digital stuff
xkcd.com/927/
Steven Cooper, Ummmm, yeah, ok....totally understand...no, way over my head.
This would be great information if I understood it. Lol
On a foil lined rimmed baking sheet, I place bacon on a cooling rack placed, then place a second cooling rack on top of the bacon. This allows the bacon grease to drain and keeps the bacon flat for sandwiches. I’ve woven strips of bacon til they’re the size of the bread then baked it in the oven. Perfect for BLT sandwiches.
My bacon always stays relatively flat when I cook it directly on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet without the wire cooling racks.
Dan, Love your "What's Eating Dan" episodes. One problem, please eliminate or at least severely lower the volume on the background music. As it is, it makes it almost impossible to hear what you're saying. Thanks, and keep up the great work!
Absolutely!!! Background "noise" is the stupidest, most annoying aspect of TH-cam videos. I cannot fathom why a publisher go to the trouble of speaking - presumably to convey information - and then completely destroys the communication with a too loud background sound track.
The second most annoying trait is dropping your voice at the end of a sentence - usually on the most important word! Train yourself to speak at a level volume or run the audio though a dynamic equalizer.
I agree. Get rid of music or lower it and choose a better tune.
I love Dan's episodes. I love them. Just wanted to say how much I love them.
Stop being coy, Jean! Do you love them or not?!
(I love them, too!)
Place on a rack on a rimmed baking sheet in the oven. ( there will be a lot of fat rendered off) Monitor cooking time closely as it will cook faster. For thick sliced bacon you will have to flip the strips over once to crisp up both sides because of the thickness. The rack drains most of the fat at the same time the cooking crisps up the strips so you waste no time blotting on paper towels before eating bacon😍
I love watching this guy. Not only are his videos informative and recipes look tasty, but he is so cute and I just love to watch him talk. He does this thing with his mouth that puts a huge smile on my face.
I cook bacon in the microwave with parchment paper on the bottom and on top of the meat. 1 minute per slice more or less...Love it crisp!
Thanks, Dan. I was born in Cuba. Been here 50 years. I have been teaching the knuckle method for years. Never knew how it worked but it's how my mom taught me. Perfect rice every time. Also, I have heard recently that if you add coconut oil to the pot of rice, before you boil the rice and then refrigerate for at least 12hours. You can reheat the rice and eliminate at least 1/ 2 the total starch content. Is this true? Sure would like it if it's true. Thanks for the science!
People always complained about me taking forever to make bacon but I've always done the slow and low it always comes out perfectly.
My all time favorite way to prepare bacon is to use my pellet smoker and cook the bacon at about 220F for about 45min. Sprinkle with either brown sugar or brush with maple syrup several times during the rendering process.
Wow, what an episode. It was like a Christmas present. We got history of bacon, anatomy of bacon, how to select bacon, how to cook bacon, how to make your own bacon. I feel like I need to watch this episode several times to absorb all of the good content. Thanks for the early Christmas guys.
I personially like doing bacon in the pan, because the texture is less uniform. Thus you get the crisp, but also some chew. which for me makes for a better overall eating experience.
I'm with you. A convenient trick for achieving this is to just avoid flipping them altogether, makes for a yin and yang like balance between the 2 sides.
My favorite way was on a grate suspended over coals.
@Valerie Hall very interesting .. !
Growing up we raised pigs and my dad dry cured pork belly. It was delicious.
I bought some dry cured bacon at a warehouse store. 2 pounds to be exact. Took it to a friends place and smoked it all. It had a lot of meat in it with just enough fat to flavor it. It was awesome.
I've cured my own bacon twice, once with a regular pork belly, which was wonderful. The second time was with an Iberico de Bellota belly imported from Spain. It's hands down the finest pork in the world (the A5 wagyu of pork) and as a bacon, it was incredible. I don't have a kettle girl, I have a large gas grille, so I smoked it with one of the four burners on low, and the belly on a rack as far away as possible. I bought for under $16 a LizzQ pellet smoker tube and it really does provide smoke for up to 4 or 5 hours. It does slice thick, but it vacuum seals well, and all the remaining bits that don't cut into slices makes the best lardons. I prefer to use the oven, but found 350 degrees to be better than 400.
Cooking bacon in the oven, with two pieces making a "square" is my favorite way to cook it for burgers. 1) it gives you even distribution on the burger and 2) you get the right crispness.
Great episode!
Great video, thank you. I often overcook bacon and suspect my "window of perfection" is short due to the high heat. I'll try your recipe, use low heat and add water.
I have come up with a great way to cook bacon for an individual. You microwave it. I put two paper towels on a plate add 3 strips of thick bacon, cover with another paper towel. I have a 1200 watt microwave oven which I then microwave the bacon for about five and a half minutes on 80% power. Then remove the plate and paper towels. If you cook it too long the paper towels can stick to the bacon so this may take a little trial and error with your microwave. If it is not yet done, you can add another 30 seconds of cooking time. This method removes a lot of the grease and your bacon is crisp. Another advantage is that the plate gets hot and keeps your bacon and eggs warm for a longer period of time.
Background noise is WAAAAYYYYY to loud.
Agreed.
I wish they would just eliminate it... does not add to the presentation.
No mention of Microwaving bacon.
Place slices between two sheets of paper towels on a plate. Cook at standard high power for 45 sec per slice. Adjust time for desired crispness.
Benefit: 1.) each slice is cooked throughout, much like oven procedure; 2.) paper towels absorb all grease: no spatter.
Sometimes I soak my bacon in water for about 5 minutes before cooking. This reduces the saltiness a little, making it less harsh on the tongue, and in my own testing it gave me crispier bacon.
Bacon: so easy to make and hard to screw up, that Dan the perfectionist covers two different ways to prepare it in about half a minute. I love it.
So if we don't need to fuss over technique, the question remaining is: which bacon to buy? I just read all the top online taste tests of American bacon brands. These are what I'm now looking for at the market:
•Oscar Meyer Naturally Hardwood Smoked (not thick)
•Hormel Black Label (not thick)
•Farmland Thick Sliced
•Plumrose Thick Sliced
•Louis Rich Turkey Bacon
My criterion is being a well-balanced bacon that is not overly salty or extreme in any way. To minimize the presence of nitrates and nitrites which turn to carcinogenic (cancer-promoting) nitrosamines when bacon is cooked at high heat (proven by a study in the Journal of Science to occur at 350°F), I disqualify any bacon that is not cured with sodium nitrite injection or immersion. I explain my reasoning below. I can't confirm these brands are delicious, as I haven't tried them yet, but they're what I'm looking out for after reading a dozen round-ups, with more reputable sources (like ATK/CI) given higher influence. Just do an internet search and check them yourself if you're curious. You'll see the brands I picked on those lists. Oscar Meyer especially gets picked a lot as a great "typical"-style bacon, usually in a very positive "crowd-pleaser" way although occasionally it's normality is taken as mediocrity by those with different tastes. Louis Rich is a bit of a wild card, but it's the only turkey bacon that I could find a taste test actually enthusiastically endorse. SF Gate, though not a trusted source, totally loved it when they did their taste test ten years ago. It's a brand produced by Oscar Meyer and I'm not sure if it's still in production. Every other turkey bacon in every other taste test was considered "meh" at best. I've eaten a lot of Trader Joe's turkey bacon, which is rather highly ranked in taste tests (for a turkey bacon), and I'm not surprised that there isn't a turkey bacon to be found at the supermarket that approaches the taste of pork bacon.
I am not an expert, but I have spent the last few hours reading experts, and I will now explain why to my knowledge "uncured", "nitrate and nitrite free* (*except for...)" bacon is an deceitful and immoral scam as it contains at least as many and often more carcinogens when cooked (as Dan confirmed with his own test in the video). Nitrates and nitrites are added to bacon as during the curing process they turn into nitric oxide (and nitrous oxide), which is what actually produces the desired effects: although you can make old-fashioned bacon with nothing but smoke and salt (bacon which will not keep as long and must be handled like fresh meat unless dried or heavily salted), nitric oxide is a better preservative and we're used to the color and (especially) the taste. Nitrate turns into nitrite, but not completely, so nitrite is much better to cure with. Nitrates and nitrites are not unhealthy to consume (there's a lot of them in your healthy veggies), but when cooked at high heat (350°F+) can form carcinogenic (cancer-promoting) nitrosamines. So for the least amount of nitrosamines in your finished food, you want less nitrates and nitrites in your food when you cook it. This is definitely found in bacon cured with sodium nitrite ("Prague Powder #1" curing salt, by regulation 93.75% sodium and 6.25% nitrite) in combination with salts of ascorbic acid (vitamin C), such as sodium ascorbate or sodium erythorbate, and chemical phosphates. Look for those salts on the label, they're mandated by law to be added to injected/pumped bacon (550ppm of either) as they're proven to reduce nitrite and thus nitrosamines. Bacon that is injected with (typically) or immersed in (rare) sodium nitrate has the lowest legal maximum dose of sodium nitrate at 120ppm. Dry cured bacon has a higher legal limit of 200ppm. Directly adding sodium nitrite is superior because having it pure like that enables manufacturers to add the minimum amount necessary, which will fully cure and almost fully convert to nitric oxide which will not form nitrosamines when cooked. "Uncured" or "naturally" cured bacon that does not use isolated sodium nitrite or nitrate instead uses vegetable ingredients that contain nitrates and nitrates. And because it is variable in these ingredients, you get more nitrate in your food because more has been added to make sure it's fully cured. Possibly, it may be undercured, allowing the growth of dangerous pathogens. The precision of just adding sodium nitrite directly enables the producer to calculate just how much they need to add to cure, and no more, so that an often negligible amount is left in the food when it's cooked. Those "uncured" and "naturally cured" that advertise not having added sodium nitrate or nitrate are deceitfully taking advantage of a loophole that allows them to put as much nitrate or nitrite in the bacon as they want in the form of celery or other naturally occurring vegetable sources. It's identical when consumed by the body, and you actually will be consuming more because these ingredients are inherently less precise and controlled. They promise no nitrates and nitrates, but you get more in your bacon! The sodium nitrite bacon actually has very little nitrate left to turn into nitrosamines by the time you cook it, since it was already converted to nitric/nitrous oxide. It leaves the factory with usually 10-20% of the originally added nitrite remaining, and the amount of nitrite continues to decline during the product's shelf life and is often undetectable. To maintain the color of cured meat throughout the storage life of the product before it's expiration, only about 10-15ppm nitrite is needed as a residual amount to regenerate color pigment loss from oxidation and light exposure. But if the company just used celery juice or powder, because of how much less consistent it is in the amount of nitrites compared to synthesized pure sodium nitrite, and how it also includes nitrates as well as nitrites (which slowly but not completely turn to nitrites, and then oxidize) you may have a lot of nitrate and nitrite remaining to turn into harmful nitrosamines as your bacon cooks. It's unconscionable that companies are knowingly deceiving their customers in this way. If I sold bacon, I would put on the packaging a message like "minimal sodium nitrite curing salt proudly directly added with vitamin C and vitamin E, for bacon with zero nitrates and the minimum amount of nitrites possible in cured bacon" and explain clearly that having added a carefully measured minimum amount of sodium nitrate with sodium ascorbate or sodium erythorbate (some other additives like Vitamin E may help, too) means less potentially dangerous nitrite and zero nitrate in the bacon, for a minimum of carcinogenic nitrosamines when cooked at high heat. Less than with other methods. Though to be clear, if you cook at low heat, like below 300°, you won't see any nitrosamines no matter how much nitrate or nitrite is in the food. Scientists cooked 275°F bacon for a long time and didn't detect any nitrosamines. So if you really want to avoid all nitrosamines and use any bacon, it's possible. But since it's not very practical to get a nice sear at that temperature, we want no nitrate and a minimum of nitrite to allow us to cook at a nice searing temperature without significant nitrosamine formation. You get that with properly made bacon cured with synthesized sodium nitrite.
*Bacon curing science sources:*
USDA:
www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/meat-preparation/bacon-and-food-safety/CT_Index
Ruhlman:
ruhlman.com/2011/05/the-no-nitrites-added-hoax/
ruhlman.com/2011/02/meat-curing-safety-issues/
Junkfood science:
junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/07/does-banning-hotdogs-and-bacon-make.html?m=1
"Meat guy" on Serious Eats, who has direct professional experience (apparently as a food scientist), his highly informative detailed post is on page four of in comment section of this article:
www.seriouseats.com/talk/2013/07/whats-your-favorite-hot-dog-topping.html#comments-400690
"Sodium Nitrite in Processed Meat and Poultry Meats", American Meat Science Association (2011):
www.meatscience.org/docs/default-source/publications-resources/white-papers/2011-11-amsa-nitrite-white-paper.pdf?sfvrsn=8
I liked this for the effort
I have a bacon necktie and a bacon T-Shirt. I have tried Bacon Toothpaste, Bacon Toothpicks, Bacon Jelly Beans, Bacon Soda-pop and probably other items. But the bacon I like best is nicely cooked, somewhat limp bacon. I don't want it to be burned or too crisp. I find that often the cheapest brands of bacon taste the best.
Bacon toothpaste is horrid. 😝
I am jealous of you, R. Earl. #LifeGoals #baconforever
Love the content and I am with Andy - tone down or eliminate the background "music"
I caught my college flat mate smashing back my crispy bacon when I came back to get my laptop that I forgot to take lol.
Prior to this he always claimed that he never eats pork.
He’s Muslim, I still mock him about it every time hah
I have to know how you clean that half-sheet pan after cooking bacon in the oven without lining with foil.
Seriously, like step-by-step. Preferably a whole video, filmed in real time.
Try white balsamic vinegar (or any vinegar essence), let it sit for an hour or so, best overnight and the next day you just rinse the residue off 👌 no scrubbing or harming your pan/pot
Use a ceramic lined tray, a wire rack, or just keep keep the temperature low. I’ve never had issues cleaning the tray after making bacon in the oven. I started doing it when I was a teenager and my family always looked at me like it was fancy because it came from the oven. I’d also make omelettes in a muffin pan. Then you have time to make a smoothie or some fruit salad.
wood ash bro
Use parchment paper - -OR- -pre-warm the sheet pan, cook the bacon 325 pull off when done/ drain and save grease/wipe the sheet pan with a paper towel. If any stuck bits soak the pan for 5-10 minutes and done. Happy Day!
Very hot water, dish soap, a lot of elbow grease and a good scrubber. Let it soak as much as possible first.
The other methods are smart. But you can definitely do it old school.
Thank you! I've always suspected meats were injected with water! People thought I was crazy! I thought it was to give more weight to the product for profit gain. No bacon patterned clothing here. We used to salt hog legs and hang them in the barn loft, grind our own sausage, etc. I'm surprised I, still, eat bacon. Love to see you enjoying the spoils at the end!
Beef, pork, chicken, turkey and most other meats are injected with water to add weight for larger profit. Bacon is so expensive now because of the craze.
I know! Even gamers on Twich are putting Bacon in their monikers (gamer names)! It works, too! Bacon_Donut is very popular on Twitch.
Cured/smoked over corn cob pellets last Fall...It was phenomenal and the best I ever tasted and well worth the effort.👍👍
I’ve known about the celery-juice trick for ages. Occasionally I’ll get infuriated when a label is full of smug language about the bacon or sausage or other cured meat being uncured, but usually I just ignore it as another lie that’s legal...
Glad you pointed out that “uncured bacon” is just a marketing ploy and contains the same nitrites as regular bacon. One detail that’s off is you say bacon contains nitrites or nitrates in the form of curing salt or celery powder, but that’s only nitrites. Nitrates are used in longer cured meats because over time they break down into nitrites. Nitrates aren’t used in making bacon since it’s a relatively short cure.
If you want that whole roasted bacon texture, particularly texture where the fat can be et comfortably on its own, simmer in a LOT of water, and don't overdo the frying portion (after the water has evaporated).
Personally, the best way for me to cook bacon is on a rack set (sprayed with nonstick cooking spray) over a baking pan. I put it in a cold oven and bake at 350° until done to my liking. In this way, the bacon renders the fat slowly and never cooks sitting in the fat. All of the bacon fat drips to the pan below the rack. Yes, this takes longer but 90-95% of the time you tend to get very straight bacon and it not greasy. Looks great for presentation, if that is important to you. Try it! ;)
I have been eyeing pork belly for awhile to make bacon to share as Christmas gifts! Great video. And everyone in our house agrees, bacon is best in the oven, especially to feed a crowd!
I use the microwave. Three sections of folded newspaper, a paper towel, three or four strips of bacon, another paper towel and three more folded sections of newspaper. Need a large microwave oven so full strips lay flat. 3 1/2-4 minutes and bacon comes out perfectly crisp and flat. Only drawback: no bacon fat to keep in fridge for later cooking - it's all soaked up in the papers.
I tried an Extreme! Stock pot with steamer basket layered paper towels, bacon, repeat. I steamed for 1hr giving a rendered fat, soft and flavorful with tender meat structure. Steaming is a win.
I cook Bacon in my Microwave.
Put it on a Microwave Safe plate cover with two layers
of paper towels, to absorb the splattering, and cook
on high for ,on average, one minute for each slice.
Adjust cooking time for your preference, a few more
seconds for crispier a few less for less crispy.
The cooking toward the end is very fast so do not leave
it unattended. You can always ad more heat but you
can not remove it.
Jeff
I love bacon and grew up eating it daily and ended up being healthy for decades. My father would get his bacon from the slaughter house near us when I was in Michigan and when here in Arkansas we ate the bacon my grandmother cooked it for us all the time for breakfast and to this day I love bacon, but do eat more sausage now for breakfast.
Generally speaking, for 3 perfectly cooked slices of bacon, i put the bacon on a plate covered with 1 piece of paper towel and then place another piece of paper towel on top of the bacon, completely covering the bacon. "Nuke" on high for 3 minutes and check results. If needs a bit more cooking, add 30 seconds of additional time and cook. Remove and pat dry with another piece of paper towel. Will be perfectly cooked, flat and free of excess bacon fat.
Great video. I love bacon. I usually bake a pound in the oven once I open the pack. I freeze the bacon in serving size portions to use during the week. Just pop in the microwave for about 30 seconds.
I cook my bacon low and slow on the cooktop, using a spatula to press down on the fatty portions of the bacon to ensure it cooks more evenly. You can't just let bacon sit and cook on its own. You have to really watch it. Good baking requires interaction from the cook.😉 Cooking in the oven makes a bigger mess that's harder to clean up in my opinion because of the splashing grease inside the oven. I have a ceramic cooktop, so all I have to do is cool it down, wipe it off good with soapy water. Then I can just clean it easily using the cooktop cleaner. This is much easier than cleaning the oven in my humble opinion. 😊
I love Dan! Love seeing him cook on America's test kitchen!
I’m a rabid bacon consumer and I learned A LOT from this video! Thanks for exposing the “uncured” bacon myth and the tip of introducing a bit of water at the beginning of the pan fry. As always Dan, you nailed it.
The best way to cook bacon for small amounts is to microwave it on paper towels - switching once or twice to remove the fat. For large amounts bake it on wire racks in the oven. Both methods result in very crispy bacon with minimal fat. Frying or baking on a flat sheet leaves bacon swimming in fat, never really crispy.
I always want a quik style, so what i do: i grab my tosti iron, i put the bacon in, leave the iron open. While i turn it on. Wait till the bacon starts to shrivil a little bit. And then add a slic of bread on top. Then i close the tosti iron, wait a little bit and boom! Delicious bread with bacon
We make our own bacon all the time - pretty easy, not a lot of time, it mostly just sits in the fridge.
Why would you let it just sit in there, eat it!
WHAO! we have a celebrity here guys
Keep these videos coming. I love the humorous approach while teaching us all about food.
I found the retro lab footage particularly compelling.
The visual pun at 3:46 is almost unforgivable. And yet I love it.
I use a roasting pan because it is safer than a rimmed baking sheet full of hot bacon fat. I put the bacon in a cold oven, set to 225, wait 20 minutes. Then I remove pan, flip bacon, back in and bump temp to 325. Wait 20 minutes. Then I check for crispness, bump temp to 425 and check every few minutes until edges turn dark brown/black to get crispness I want.
Do that the opposite way (higher temp at first, reducing over time) and you can have crisp without it getting black and bitter. Unless you like it bitter, of course.
I cook my thick-sliced bacon on a Treager Pellet grill at about 350 degrees. It takes about 25+ mins but it comes out perfect. The fat falls to a foil line pan and easily tossed into the trash.
For a treat I will sprinkle the bacon with brown sugar, both sides.....Candied Bacon. A gift from heaven.
So straight up this is why Dan's (and America's Test Kitchen) videos are so much better than other chefs like Babish and Tasty.
The garlic episode changed my cooking forever. Instead of spending 5 minutes on a recipe, sometimes 2 or 3, Dan focused on one ingredient and taught me WHY these things happen.
To this day I'm still revelling in an Allicin Wonderland
Babish is not a food scientist or trained professional, he's an amateur cook making recipes according to what he does/likes.
And Tasty is a plagiarizing mess that only cares about the spectacle and going viral.
Good Eats>Test Kitchen>Serious Eats
Good Eats>Old school Test Kitchen>Food Wishes. Haven't checked out Good Eats Reloaded yet.
Dans technique and ingredient videos are great - but I find the main ATK recipe videos a dismal mess of 'shortcuts and hacks' that take away from taste and texture of the finished dish in the name of (false) convenience. The Babish recipes are a great story, but for the most part he's trying to entertain, rather than teach. The Bon Appetite channel has killer technique as well as some great recipes. Serious Eats took a serious hit when they were sold and their programming changed. TH-cam can be like the wild west of cooking info.
I like Babish, but for different reasons. I refuse to watch any Tasty videos.
My goto channels are ATK and Bon Appetit (if you don't mind the goofiness).
I always learn something. I have bought all types of bacon. I like baking it in the oven. One thing you didn't mention is adding brown sugar before baking. Yum!
I spray a sheet pan with olive oil and lay out the bacon. I put it in a cold oven and set it for 400 degrees. Takes about 20 minutes.
Great except for that background music. Tends to occasionally interfere with Dan's words.
Bacon is one of the food groups. That' why it's so important to human existence.
I agree that cooking in the oven is the best. I get the crispiest bacon that way and zero mess using foil in the baking sheet.
Is it possible to turn the background music down as it is a disruption to hearing the important information Dan is trying to tell us? Thank you
When baking bacon put the bacon on a rack over a sheet pan.
Cook low and slow. Fat renders but does not burn. Gives you nice tasty clean fat with no filtering needed.
Having a bit extra fat gives you some hot fat to baste the tops of the whites allowing you to end up with a bit of runny yolk and no slimy whites, a bit crispy around the edges.
Bacon stays nice and flat.
Always presented in a way that is understood clearly. Excellent.
I cook mine on a rack in a pellet grill. It takes awhile but it's really good!
Finally someone else who prefers thin cut bacon! Everyone I know thinks I’m crazy and tells me how much better thick cut it. I think it’s too much like eating jerky. 🤷🏻♀️
The really thin cut is perfect for BLT's.
Dan, you are now a food nerd god. Thank you for the best episode yet. Yes, Bacon is overexposed. However, I will eat it until I die. Thanks for the tip on the water in the pan. Also, for inspiring me to make some Bacon from scratch. I’m going to do that!
I recently tried cooking bacon in an air-frier with a little pepper sprinkled on top. 8 minutes @ 400 degrees does the trick and no greasy stove to clean up.
this was a very informative and interesting video! i personally use the oven to cook bacon and it has been a life changer ;)
I cook it in the air fryer - super easy and delicious!
I like to fry my bacon hot and fast, just until it stops sizzling. Gets some nice browning, makes some crispy bits, but leaves it pleasantly chewy.
We actually have a Facebook group called "May I have bacon with that please" and every year on the month of May we post pics of bacon on/in everything that we order. And one year we had a bacon tour.
You all must have cheap computer speakers. Dan sounds great on my laptop. Now I have to go eat some bacon. Thanks Dan. LOL
The best bacon is one you dry cure yourself, cold smoke in your back yard on a brisk spring or fall day, and bake on a cooling rack set in side a sheet pan. Smaller servings can be baked in a toaster oven with a smaller cooling rack set over a 1/4 size sheet pan.
You are such a creative young man. Thank you for teaching us so many interesting things in our world. Nitrites insight just lowered my grocery bill!
To keep bacon flat when frying, score it diagonally on both sides before placing it in the pan.
My respect for you just increased when I learned that you like bacon properly cooked (in your words, "shatteringly crisp")
nothing ruins my breakfast like overcooked bacon. keep it slightly chewy please.
FOR REAL! Like I don’t want your nasty ass sawdust bacon.
1. No one in these TH-cam comments will ever cook for you, ever
2. "Overcooked" is a matter of taste when it comes to bacon, some people enjoy it chewy and others enjoy it crispy
3. You shouldn't be upset when other people make food the way they like, because they're the ones eating it. Not you.
Thank you . Was very educational! We love Bacon, and we don’t eat it that often, once every tow month for BLT , Do not read the label any moor.
Scientifically educational. Thank you.
I should add that the bacon I cook in the microwave for 3 minutes/3 slices is thickly sliced. Thin sliced bacon would take less time. Will have to experiment.
Haha, zero dislikes. Everyone loves bacon! And Dan! 😋
A pig just disliked it.
@@TykoBrian7 damn vegans
I do like Dan, but I’m kosher so no bacon.
Per Kenji (the *original* "Dan" of CI), the oven temperature you use will affect the texture of the bacon. He said "between 425°F bacon and 375°F bacon, there was a pretty significant difference in texture. The bacon cooked at a lower temperature was more tender" and had that melt-in-your-mouth quality, while bacon cooked for a shorter time at a higher temperature had more of a meaty, chewy texture. As he explained: "Tough connective tissue in both the fat and the lean sections of bacon tenderizes with extended cooking, so the longer you take to crisp the bacon, the more tender it's going to be." (Ironically, he ultimately goes with 425°F for his recipe since it produces bacon with the texture his wife likes best. Smart man!)
As for me, I choose to start low, at 350 or 375°F, and start it in a cold oven. But I don't bother with a rack on the baking sheet, as I've found (and also noted by Kenji) that it's not worth the hassle of having to clean that wire rack. Additionally, bacon that's cooked directly on a baking sheet (foil-lined for easier cleanup) is no greasier than bacon elevated by a rack; it just requires a blotting with paper towels after cooking. And by using the rack, some parts of the bacon are a little prone to drying out, so they can turn tougher and chewier. Besides, by cooking the bacon directly on a rimmed baking sheet, the fat helps it to cook more evenly, while also protecting it from drying out or turning leathery.
Oven method is how I cook bacon all the time...only difference is I lay it on a wire rack over the sheet pan so it doesn't sit in the fat. From cold, 425F, about 25-30 minutes depending if I'm looking for chewier or crispier. Just be sure to save all the fat for frying other things in :D
Wow I'm about to cook my bacon in oven thanks for sharing this. I love your videos ❤❤❤
Love Dan and appreciate the science so much...HOWEVER, the background music is way too loud and it makes it annoyingly difficult to hear Dan. Make it go away, please!
I have the best way to cook Bacon: Microwave it! I put 3 pieces of thick bacon on two paper towels on a microwavable plate and cover it with a single paper towel. My microwave is 1200 watts so I cook it at 80% power for about 5 minutes and 20 seconds. If you cook it too long it will stick to the paper towels. You can under cook it a little and always add 30 seconds to the cooking time. The benefit is you have gotten rid of a lot of fat and chemicals that are not good for you and the bacon is crisp. Also, your plate is hot and that will keep your eggs warm as well. I have never seen this done on a cooking show.
I used to not see the appeal of bacon as a little kid, because my mom always burned it. She actually likes the taste of rock hard and blackened/burnt bacon. I had to eat it at a restaurant first before I knew what all the fuss was about, haha.
I always love your quirky informative vids!
What about precooked bacon 🥓? Also, what do you have to say about cooking bacon in the microwave? Is there a best way to cook bacon in the microwave? Just curious🤷🏼♀️
You provide good info Dan and for that I thank you. Now please make your vids enjoyable as well by losing the hellish background noise.
This young guy is awesome
Your preference for thin bacon was the real surprise. Thanks for that!
I'm with you on wanting fatty bacon. What I wonder is whether fattier pork is available to be used in making your own bacon. When I google salt pork, some of the photos appear to be showing inch-think slabs of nothing (or almost nothing) but fat. (Some have a bit of skin on them too.) Finding that cut (before it is turned into salt pork, of course) might be a challenge, but it does sound promising.
One other thing about the fat. . . I like my bacon crisp, which is to say that the fat is fully rendered out into the pan, and is comparatively weightless. And yet another. . . Not addressed was what to do with that bacon grease. Mom always kept it in a can, and used it to grease the skillet when making eggs, or pancakes, or French toast.
The cut you're trying to find before it's turned into salted pork is the pork belly. Any butcher or decent size deli should have some
I make my own bacon from "Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing"
by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. I never buy bacon from the store anymore because what I make is so much better. Dan, what supermarket bacon does ATK recommend for the NYC area?
Cant you avoid the nitrates and nitrites by buying the pork belly and slicing it up into bacon yourself? Don't cure it- just smoke it and slice it up, then fry it or use morrow method in the oven to cook it. You could also use part of the pork belly by cubing it up and smoking it like pork burnt ends...its great.
Thank for the video!
I saw in one of my many cookbooks to cover bacon in a pan with water and cook on med high until the water is gone. The turn down to low and cook normal. I get crisper bacon this way.
Dan seems to be adding a lot less water to the pan in this bacon video than he did in his video from a few years ago. Is it just to save time? I tried the old cover-it-in-water method a while back, and the results were great, but took so much time that I might as well use the oven method.
If you can the oven method beats the stove top water method any day
Yeah in the old atk vid the bacon was basically reduction boiled in a pan of water.
I need 200% of this video. And about 5% of the accompanying music.
My wife has all these little ceramic things that use infused oils and a tea candle...hmmm wonder if bacon fat would work in them?
That has to be worth a try.
LMAO!!! I was not expecting this in the middle of the background music complaints. I can’t stand the taste of cooked sausage patties, but the smell wakes me up, along with bacon cooking.
Thumbs up for acknowledging the overexposure of bacon.
I was hoping for more information. I have seen bacon cooked in the oven on sheet pans, bacon cooked in a deep fryer ( the one used for french fries) I wanted to know the difference in those cooking methods and what is preferred.
I missed what you said (after replaying) about whether you prefer thick or thin store-bought bacon. I’m with thick.
What about laying the bacon on a baking rack in the sheet pan before going into the oven; for those of us who want the fat to drip away from the bacon? Does that impact the taste compared to the no rack method?