For what it’s worth, bacon presses are great devices for all sorts of other things that need to be kept flat against a pan. Steaks, burgers, hot dogs, french bread, sandwiches, etc. My press is cast iron and can be pre-heated…
Anyway, I only pull them out if I end up with a batch of bacon that curls up too much. I don’t use them every time.
My normal technique is just to cook the bacon more slowly than most people do. If you turn the bacon two or three times while it’s still in that pink/grey stage of rawness, then it stays pretty flat as it crisps because the heat has time to distribute through the meat, even the parts that have slightly less contact with the pan.
Thank you! I thought I was losing my mind there for a second. Reading this thread I kept thinking to myself: “Am I the only one who thinks the curly kind is far superior in taste?”
I remember seeing this episode and making note of this advice 40+ years ago.
I love that you cited it, but I must nit-pick:
Gomer used sugar as his secret for tasty bacon, but he did not identify it as brown sugar. I presume he meant white sugar. And if I recall correctly, Grandma Pyle taught him that trick.
Also, it was an episode of ‘Gomer Pyle, USMC’, not ‘The Andy Griffith Show’. Gomer was working in the mess hall with Sgt. Hacker, and his cooking skills - particularly his bacon - impressed the brass.
mmm
I suspect you’re correct, it probably was Gomer Pyle, USMC, now that the foggy ruins of time are cleared out a bit. Do you have a link for the sugar versus brown sugar claim though? Either will work of course.
I also meant to say “that’s a feature, not a bug”. Bacon is tricky to do right for certain applications - Bacon Cheeseburger for example. A single limp, chewy stringy flavorless piece the size of a Band-Aid will not qualify as a Bacon Cheeseburger. I’m looking at you, AAFES. It can’t really be assembled ahead of time, or will lose the crispiness. Lots of thin, crispy heavily smoked belly, piled high is what’s key there. Same thing with a BLT, crispy, crumbly, is what works.
Bacon can be cooked fairly quickly, but it will burn easily at those temps. Not worth the risk. Instead of extra-thick bacon, the trick is to get a bigger pan and cook more of it. The one pound package is generally considered a single serving, no? I mean, what are some word combinations that you have never heard uttered in real life? One of them is “Leftover Bacon”, right?
Mr. Ruby will only pan-fry bacon in this house. He gently caresses each slice as it’s frying in the skillet to assure that all of the “curls” in the bacon are evenly cooked. No one should put that much time and effort into bacon but it sure is a little bit of heaven to eat.
Better yet, put parchment paper on the sheet pan. The bacon comes out perfect, lifts right off of the parchment, and cleanup is easy-peezy. You can buy parchment paper at a very reasonable price at Sam’s Club.
Do it like this, and you’ll never cook bacon any other way again. I cook an entire package this way in the oven, and put leftover slices in a zip-lock bag in the freezer to eat later.
I tried this today, just out of curiosity (though I did 425 for about 15-20 minutes) and I can report that, yes, this yields pretty much perfectly flat bacon. Good tip to know if I need to cook bacon for a crowd. (I mean, I was aware of the bacon baking brigade–I just hadn’t had the occasion to try it until today.)
Just chiming in to say I am eating a plate of oven-baked bacon as I read this thread. I heard about it first here on the Dope a couple of years ago. One of the best pieces of advice ever on this board.
