How can you not LOVE bacon? It is such a great meat item that is salty, crunchy, addictive, and all around delicious. You can add it to anything and have an amazing dish. Morning, noon, night, bacon is wonderful. One thing though that hinders the enjoyment of bacon is the grease. When you fry bacon on the stove you tend to get lots of splatter all over your cook top and then inevitably end up with shrunken curled up pieces that can become burned very easily. Also, you can often only fry up four to five pieces at a time so you have to keep pieces warm in the oven while the others bake. Then you have to find a tin can or other metal vessel to dump your grease into. The solution is found in your oven.
Take a rimmed cookie sheet and line it with parchment paper. Place a cooling rack on the paper and lay out as many pieces of thick cut bacon as you can fit on your cooling rack. Your cookie sheet goes into the middle of a cold oven. Turn your oven on to 375 degrees and cook for about 20 to 25 minutes, depending on your desired crispiness. Once your bacon is done you can pat dry with paper towels and then allow the grease to congeal on the parchment for easy clean up. Cooking your bacon in the oven allows you to have more free space on the stove top and frees you up to focus on other items like pancakes or crepes. Also, you are able to keep your grease in one location for use later in other dishes like hot bacon dressing!! Try it this weekend, I think you will find yourself asking, "Why did I not do this before?"
Yes, yes I will. Your pictures have convinced me, even though I just ate lunch!
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