Oven – How to cook large quantities of sliced bacon

baconbulk-cookingoven

This question is pretty straightforward. Are there ways to take a sliced slab of bacon (i.e. a whole large package) and effectively cook all the slices to be used in standard scenarios, like breakfast? Non-microwave methods are strongly preferred.

Best Answer

It really depends on how you're planning on using the bacon:

  • If you're going to be crumbling it anyway, you can cut it across the strips, and drop it into a pan and slowly render it, then turn up the heat to let it crisp. You might also need to drain the grease part way through.

  • If you're willing to take a loss in flavor ... you can separate it into slices and simmer it. It won't crisp up, but you can par-cook it, and then finish it using some other method.

  • If you have the time & equipment to sous-vide it as moscafj mentioned, I suspect you'd get a similar effect as simmering, but wouldn't lose as much flavor. I'd also recommend splitting it up some to increase the surface-to-mass ratio as much as possible while still fitting in the bag, to decrease the cooking time.

  • If you want strips, the easiest bulk method is cooking it in the oven. If you have multiple sheet pans and cooling racks (or use a broiler pan), you can cook a whole pound of bacon at once. It can take an hour if you're cooking it slowly, but it's mostly unattended. (although using a broiler pan requires flipping them over a few times).

If you do go with the simmer method, save the water for some other meal later (eg, beans & rice).