For a long as I can remember bacon has been sold/packaged the same way. The strips layered uniformly, slightly fanned out, and vacuum sealed. From here the consumer is on their own to get the pack open, separate the strips by hand, lay them out on the cooking surface of their choice, and deal with the bacon grease clean-up at the end. Not too bad but not that convenient when you just want some bacon with your eggs in the morning.
I would love to see and purchase bacon already laid out on something like an 11x17 disposable oven safe tray coated with a non-stick surface (or lined with a sheet of parchment paper) with a slightly raised edge to contain the grease. Shrink wrapped or vacuum sealed.
Just pre-heat your oven, pull the wrap off and throw it in the oven. When you’re done with breakfast and the grease has cooled off you just throw the entire tray in the trash.
If they couldn’t make the trays rigid enough they could have you place it on a cookie sheet first.
They’d probably take up less space at the grocer since they’d be flat packed and stackable. They could easily be stocked on the bottom shelf.
You could even sell them in various sizes when you don’t need a full 15 strips.
What about pre-cooked bacon that you could throw in the microwave or on a skillet to warm it back up and make it crispy again?
Heck, my grocery store sells bacon fully cooked, ready to eat.
ETA: ninja’d
I can deal with a little grease when preparing bacon. Better than generating a bunch more “disposable” plasticky trash for the landfill.
I’d rather buy thick-cut bacon from a local butcher. Yeah, it’s more expensive, but that’s okay because a slice or two satiates me more than a plateful of store-bought stuff*.
Just yesterday I fried up one hearty slice, then cooked three eggs in the grease. Mmmm, tasty low-carb breakfast (that kept me from getting hungry til late afternoon, unlike a bowl of cereal).
- (unless someone’s got recommendations for a cheap-but-thick’n’smokey brand… Trader Joe’s got anything good? I’ve got a package of their pre-cooked stuff: skinny and not a lot of flavor).
Really…we need less packaging not more. I hate going to the grocery store and seeing individually plastic wrapped fruits. My teabags I bought last time were individually wrapped in plastic inside a sealed container.
Aldi sells excellent bacon in a 24oz package. Looks like a slab of meat but is sliced just not fanned out. Much better quality then normal bacon these days.
Bacon in the oven??? That’s where you lost me.
Bacon in the oven is an easy way to get perfectly browned bacon slices. A cookie sheet with an edge around it is perfect for this task. And, I save the bacon drippings. It’s like gold for southern cooking.
I wouldn’t be a customer for your idea. Here’s how I handle bacon packages.
I remove all wrapping, cut all slices in half at once, then repackage it in a large baggie. I can take one (half) slice out or more to cook, and if I am using a small pan, only a half-slice will fit anyway.
I have found that both halves of a typical bacon slice cook at different rates, so cooking a half-slice makes it cook more evenly, and easier to handle. And it’s cooked in a skillet, as the gods intended, not the oven.
It works great when cooking in bulk.
Throwing out bacon grease is the part where he lost me. Bacon grease is the reason why you cook bacon in the first place.
And how on Earth would it take up less space? Same amount of bacon, more packaging.
Not needing 15 strips is where he lost me.
LOL, toss the still factory sealed in heavy plastic slab of bacon into my sous vide at 160 F, let perk for about 4 hours [or until we get back from whatever errand we just did]. Take out, dry the outside off, snip a corner and hold over the bacon grease can and drain out all the fat. Let cool off. Lay out a few payers of paper towel and pat to dry the fat off. Lay out on cooking parchement, and freeze. Peel the bacon strips off and toss into a gallon zippy bag, and there you go. Pull them out at need, and they will cook in a minute in each side in the same pan you are going to do eggs or whatever in. Or you can eat them limp, I won’t judge you - they are cooked all the way to safety =)
And I have a can of unsullied bacon fat to use for whatever =) I don’t need to cook up bacon if I want to have something cooked in bacon fat =)
Yeah, that’s how breakfast joints do it. They blanch it in the oven, then finish on the griddle per order; or just cook it through in the oven and reheat it for the order.
I learn something new everyday. Bacon in the oven. Okay. Now I need a new pan.
Moderator Action
Moving thread from MPSIMS to Cafe Society, our home for bacon and other food topics.
I guess I knew there were people on the planet that sous vide bacon, there had to be. There’s just so many people. And sure, some of those people are going to use the high tech technique to merely simulate frozen foods. There’s just so many people in the world, you know. But I never thought I’d see someone in that corner of the Venn overlaps lol’ing about the obviousness and easiness of it. Life, she is funny.
I don’t know about others, but I have enough room in my fridge or meat drawer to put a roughly letter size package of bacon away. But I don’t have enough room to lay out / store a double that size sheet of bacon on a sheet pan.
Nothing wrong with your idea; but probably wouldn’t sell that well. The problems are:
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You essentially have to cook all the bacon at once — so you need to cook, say, a pound. Often, I need less. It is less convenient if you don’t cook it all because you have to clean up the mess plus repackage.
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A tray takes up a lot of space: in the delivery truck, in the store, in the fridge. Compact is good.
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A tray might add 30 cents or more to the cost of the bacon. I’m not saying it’s a lot. But grocery profits are pennies on the dollar. Bacon has an expiry date, and while grocers discount bacon close to date, I suspect a fair bit gets wasted - and so extra fees add up.
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Most people don’t bake bacon, even though it is good for larger batches and burns less. People often like fried eggs, bread, pancakes, tomatoes and potato — easier to fry everything at once.
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A big tray means a big oven? Toaster ovens work well for bacon; tray sizes may vary. Easier to cook bacon in advance and microwave, if convenience is a must.
When I cooked the bacon every day for a breakfast restaurant, the bacon came in a big box on sheets (I’m guessing it was parchment paper?) and the sheets were laid out around 3 rows per pan and then cooked in the oven.