Bacon and Cooking Bacon

So, I generally don't eat meat, but these Two Birds know that people have a great fondness for it and to each his own of course. I will gladly cook some locally produced meat products for others. Bacon is no exception. That is no secret. It's full of flavor and has a nice texture when cooked just right. But how does one cook bacon just right?

Bacon can be fried, microwaved, boiled and baked. My mother used to microwave it using one of those fancy-shmancy bacon cookers. My grandmother would fry it. Generally I don't recommend boiling it. I only mentioned it because I have added it to soups. But I have learned through a few good sources and some trial and error that baking it results in even cooking and a really nice and consistent crisp texture. It is the crispy bacon bits that make our Two Strips and a Short Stack muffin so good. Limp, soft, or chewy bacon bits would not be good. They would be kind of gross.

I always prepare by cooking the bacon (which is purchased locally from the Nebraska Food Co-op) in mass quantity the day before I do my baking so that it has ample time to cool down. It is much safer to chop up bacon when it is not hot and greasy. Ok, makes sense.

If you want crispy easy bacon, do this:

1. preheat your oven to 425.
2. optional: prep a small cookie sheet by covering it with foil. This allows for easy clean-up. Also, the cookie sheet should have a lip around the edge so that the grease produced does not drip off of the cookie sheet.
3. Lay the uncooked bacon strips flat on the cookie sheet. They should lay side-by-side. It doesn't matter too much if they touch or even overlap a little bit.
4. Put the pan in the preheated oven and bake for about 7 minutes, then rotate the pan 90 degrees and bake for 4 to 10 minutes more, until all bacon strips are a nice deep brown. (The time will depend on the amount of bacon you are cooking)
5. Promptly transfer the cooked bacon strips from the cookie sheet to a towel-lined or paper towel-lined plate. This allows the grease to drain and the bacon will crisp up nicely.
6. After the cooked bacon has cooled, store it in the fridge or freezer in an airtight container.

this bacon is ready to go into the oven

Is there anything I'm missing? I wonder if there are more ways to cook bacon...

~Meg