Perfect Bacon Every Time

I am a bacon-aholic. I could polish off an entire package by myself in one sitting and not even feel bad about it. When I was 17, I took a small trip into the land of vegetarianism. It lasted exactly one month. My whole family was having a big Sunday morning breakfast, complete with pancakes and eggs and sausage and, you guessed it - bacon. I couldn't take it any more. Bacon brought me back.

Since then, I have spent years slaving over a hot, popping pan, getting burned by bacon grease at every turn. My forearms were covered in mini burns. I started wearing long sleeved shirts to cook my beloved bacon. I ruined several shirts this way - oil spatters are hard to get out! I relinquished the job to Andrew for a while. Until the day I took back the bacon! "I'll use the oven," I said. "It will be perfect," I said. And it was. And we all lived happily ever after.

Perfect Bacon
Makes as much as you can fit on the pan!

What I use:

• Bacon (regular bacon works well - not so much with the turkey kind)
• Brown sugar, if I'm feeling a little decadent that day

How I do it:

1. Line a rimmed cookie sheet with foil. Lay a cooling rack on top.

2. Line the bacon up in a single layer on the cooling rack.

3. Sprinkle some brown sugar on the bacon, if you think you can handle it. (Warning: You may never eat regular bacon again.)

4. Place the tray in a COLD oven and set it to 400 degrees F. Start checking on the bacon after the oven has hit 400. It can take up to 15 minutes after that to get the texture you want. The longer you go, the crispier it will be. K likes it chewy, I like it extra crunchy, and Andrew likes it in the middle. Ah, the joys of cooking for a crowd :-)


The family says:

• It's bacon - no one was saying anything! They attacked the pan so fast, I was lucky I got the picture at all!