Prep Tip: Bacon in the Oven

Some freezer recipes will require you to cook large amounts of bacon.  This can be messy and time consuming to do on the stovetop, so I highly recommend cooking your bacon in the oven,  There are a lot of methods to do this around the internet.  I experimented with them until I found the best way for my oven.  You may need to do similar experiments, but I promise it's worth it.  Cooking bacon in the oven is so much easier.

To cook bacon in the oven, I use a cookie sheet with edges on all four sides.  Make sure your cookie sheet has edges!  You don't want the bacon fat to run off your pan and all over your oven/kitchen.  I line the cookie sheet with foil and place the bacon strips on it with them just touching.  I place the sheet in a cold oven and set the oven to preheat to 400 degrees and let the bacon cook for 20 to 30 minutes.

Now, my oven is old and the heat is terribly uneven, so I don't know if you will still need to do this if you have a better one.  Once the oven gets hot and the bacon really starts to get going, I check on it pretty frequently.  The ends and back of the pan cook much faster than the center for me, so during my checks I move the bacon slices around with tongs to make sure they are all getting cooked evenly.  I also sometimes flip them over as they don't always cook as well on the underside.  Since my oven doesn't cook evenly, I remove the bacon slices as they finish cooking to a plate lined with paper towel and let the rest finish up.

If you have multiple batches to cook, I have found that starting the bacon in a cold oven is not necessary.  Once I have removed the cooked bacon from a pan, I drain the excess fat and load that pan up with another batch of bacon with the previous foil on the pan.  Toss it straight back into the hot oven.

When I'm cooking bacon for something else I generally make an extra pound to sprinkle on salads and soups or whatever else might be extra tasty with a little bacon.  In this case chop up the bacon up and freeze in a container.  To use your bacon crumbles, place the amount you need on a small plate lined with paper towel and microwave for 30 to 60 seconds or until the bacon is crispy again.