Excellent pork tenderloin, amazing sauce, and the bacon wrapping just makes it that much more awesome.

This isn’t even the first time we have made bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin. The now-elusive Kyle made this a couple years ago. His was great, but I have to say that mine significantly ups the flavors by adding mushrooms, cream, and whiskey. (Maybe now he’ll have to one-up me…)

This dish is great served with rice or potatoes to soak up the leftover sauce. I even wiped the skillet with a piece of bread to get every last bit of sauce into my belly–It’s that good.

For a cream sauce, it’s lighter than you would think. That may have something to do with the addition of whiskey :) The mushrooms give it a more robust flavor without compromising the consistency. I’m tempted to make this sauce with chicken now… I may even make a simplified version to serve with fish.

Those are little packets of flavor wrapped in a bacon strip.

Bacon wrapped pork tenderloin with a whiskey cream sauce

Ingredients
1 to 1.5 inch medallions from a single tenderloin
1 slice bacon per medallion (at least 8, I used more because I doubled up on some and not all the slices were usable)
salt
pepper
1 pint mushrooms, sliced
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup whiskey
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup half and half (or cream)
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
vegetable or canola oil

Directions
1. Place the bacon in a large microwave safe bowl and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Cook in the microwave for 1-4 minutes without letting them crisp. This is to render some fat from the bacon. You should have at least 1/2 cup of fat that you can pour off. Once cooled slightly, wrap each medallion with bacon, using kitchen twine or toothpicks run through it to hold the bacon onto the pork. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Place about 2 tsps of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the medallions to the skillet being careful not to crowd the pan. Sear the medallions on all sides, including turning them on edge to sear the bacon. You may find it easier to work in two batches rather than doing it all at once. Remove from the pan and reserve on a plate covered in foil.
3. Reduce the heat to medium, add the mushrooms, shallot, garlic, and spices to the pan. Cook on medium stirring occasionally, for about 5-7 minutes, until the mushrooms have given up their liquid and have started to reduce in size.
4. Add the whiskey and allow to simmer for about a minute. Then add the stock and return to a simmer for about a minute. Add the cream and mustard and return to a simmer. Finally add the reserved medallions and any juice that drained onto the plate. Allow to simmer for a few minutes to reheat the medallions, then serve.

Winter BLT

Really, this sandwich was an excuse to use up some bagels and that terrific sun-dried tomato spread. My original humble idea was to make a simple BLT. The issue with that though is that in the dead of winter, fresh tomatoes just aren’t available. (Sure, tomatoes are available year-round, but the best BLT are ones made with honest-to-goodness, outdoor-grown, vine-ripened, hyphen-laden-adjective, heirloom-style tomatoes.) I had just made that sun-dried tomato spread, so I figured I could use that as a substitute. And if I was going to make one substitute, why not make several. Bagels, obviously, were on hand. Avocados are always tasty (doubly so in a BLT). And bean sprouts? Why not, they are healthy–it’ll offset the bacon!

Get your chompers around this!

I’ll spare you the assembly directions, I trust you to be clever enough to assemble the ingredients listed above between two slices of toasted bagels. Don’t let me down, now. I believe in you. Go and enjoy a BLT in the winter. Now you have no excuse for not having access to fresh tomatoes.

I believe this is what is called "the money shot"

Shrimp and Grits

The recipe I came across I saw on the Food Network on the show Throwdown with Bobby Flay.  I thought Bobby’s recipe looked much more appealing than the challenger’s, so I went with his recipe.  The combination of grits, white cheddar cheese, and shrimp just sounded too delicious to pass up.  Not to mention you cook the shrimp in garlic and rendered bacon fat.  How could this recipe not be delicious?  After making the recipe, I realized I had chosen correctly.  The white sharp cheddar cheese gave the grits a sophisticated taste, and the rendered bacon fat and garlic gave the shrimp an amazingly rich flavor.  To top it off, the shrimp and grits are topped with sliced scallions, which gives the dish a refreshing, complex flavor.  This dish aptly demonstrates Bobby Flay’s excellent ability to make a dish with complex flavors that meld together and dance around your palate.

Ingredients:

Grits:
4-5 Cups Chicken Broth (Recipe calls for shrimp stock, but I didn’t have any, so I used chicken broth)
1 Cup Yellow Stone Ground Corn Meal
1 Cup Grated White Cheddar Cheese (Preferably Sharp)
Freshly Ground Pepper
3 Green Onions (Scallions) Sliced for Garnish

Sauteed Shrimp:
20 Large Shrimp, Shelled and Deveined
1/2 lb Thick-cut Bacon
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
3 Cloves Garlic, Minced
Salt and Pepper

Directions:
1. Bring 4 cups of broth/stock with 2 teaspoons of salt to a boil in a medium sauce pan over high heat.  Slowly whisk in the grits and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until the grits are soft, whisking every couple minutes.  This will take 15-20 minutes depending on your stove/pan.  If the mixture becomes too thick, add more of the additional broth/stock.  Once the mixture is smooth, whisk in the cheese and add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Cook the bacon (I recommend baking, I prefer the faster method) and save the rendered bacon fat.  The day I made this, I had the bacon for breakfast and just saved the bacon fat for later.  Or you can always slice the bacon into strips and cook it in the skillet you are going to cook the shrimp in like in the original recipe.
4. Pat your shrimp dry with a paper towel and salt and pepper them.   Place 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat and the olive oil in a 12-inch skillet (non-stick is best here)  over medium heat and add the shrimp and garlic to the pan.  Cook until the shrimp is opaque about 1-2 minutes on each side.
5. Remove the shrimp and place in a bowl and reserve the garlic oil from the pan (it will be drizzled over the final dish).
6. Divide the grits into 4-6 bowls (depending on what size portions you want) and add the shrimp on top.  Drizzle on some garlic oil and top with the sliced green onions.
7. Dig in and enjoy!  You won’t be disappointed.

That, my friends, is all that is needed for an amazing sandwich.

BLT

It’s summer, so homegrown tomatoes are in abundance. A coworker has more than she knows what to do with, so she has been giving them away at work. I’m all to happy to lend a hand. The key to a great BLT is sourcing the best B, L, and T you can get. So, with the T already in hand, the L is next.

When I make a BLT, I tend to go with iceberg lettuce. It’s not the most flavorful or fancy lettuce, but I think it’s classic. That fresh crisp lettuce is great with the salty warm bacon and the juicy tomato. The relatively neutral flavor doesn’t compete with the rest of the flavors.

And finally B. Ah yes, bacon. In a sandwich with so few elements to it, it is vital to get the best, thick-cut, bacon you can get. If you can get it from a butcher instead of those pre-sliced supermarket packs, you’ll be better off. Day-to-day, most of my bacon comes from the quality name-brand packs. Many are quite good and the price is a bit easier on the wallet too.

Other than that, you need mayo and bread. There are some heated discussions on the interwebs about which mayo is best, but I haven’t had the opportunity to try them all, so go with what you like. As far as bread, this time I used wheat bread. I like the mild sweetness it contributes and find that the earthiness compliments the tomato and bacon nicely. Otherwise a crusty sourdough or other hearth bread works well. Just be sure you toast it. I am also a fan of giving the pepper mill a light crack over the sandwich before closing it.

But that’s it. Grab a drink, some chips, and eat. Excellent, cheap, and super tasty.

BLT & Beer

Vosges chocolate bacon bar

Vosges Haut Chocolate makes a chocolate bar that combines all three of the above. I absolutely buy into the idea that chocolate can be made savory. For example, cocoa itself is naturally bitter until sugar is added, mexican hot chocolate is spicy, chocolate and chili is actually not uncommon (i.e., moles).

The Vosges Mo's bacon bar, unwrapped.

Vosges touts its use of quality exotic ingredients: “Applewood smoked bacon”, “Alder wood smoked salt”, “deep milk chocolate”. Each ingredient is amazing in its own right, but can they be combined successfully? Or will they mix as well as toothpaste and orange juice? Click through for the full review.

The first thing I noticed when opening the packet was the smell of bacon. Breaking off a piece of the the chocolate released a smoky, bacon aroma. You can even see small bits of bacon mixed into the chocolate.

Tasting the bar, the bacon flavor was much more subdued. The smoky saltiness seemed to come to the front, just ahead of the milk chocolate flavor. Bacon was definitely present throughout the entire bar, just more noticeable as you found pockets of bacon within the chocolate.

Vosges Mo's bacon bar, broken open.

The texture of the chocolate was great as well: smooth, easily melting in your mouth with no graininess.

I know it sounds like I am raving about this chocolate bar, but really, I’m not. I wanted to like this, I really did. Tasting this bar didn’t completely turn me off the idea of mixing bacon with chocolate. I’m sure there is a combination out there that is right for me, but this just wasn’t it. While Vosges does make a very good bar, there was something about this bar that wasn’t quite right. Maybe the “deep milk chocolate” (*) wasn’t dark enough, or maybe I was expecting a stronger bacon taste. Maybe it wasn’t salty enough. I may never know.

In it’s totality, this creative chocolate bar was not bad. I’d recommend it to those looking for a new flavor experience, but not to fans of chocolate or bacon looking to be wow’ed.

(*) What is “deep milk chocolate” anyway?

Alton Brown, again, showed me the error of my ways. (I really need to find another chef to watch on the Food Network!) I saw his episode about meatloaf and, for the first time ever, I actually wanted to eat meatloaf.

Bacon wrapped meatloaf.

I was apprehensive at first, so I looked around the internet for a few more ideas. How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman has been very dependable, so I opened his book in search for some meatloaf direction. I also turned to Cook’s Illustrated, knowing that they run so many tests that they bound to come across something useful.

So I set about to combine recipes for myself. Here is what I came up with: a bacon-wrapped, three-meat, free-form meatloaf.

Bacon-wrapped meatloaf.

I no longer fear the meatloaf. I have learned to love the ketchup glaze, and you should too. Click through for the recipe and more pics… and also to find out one huge change I’ll do next time I make it.

Meatloaf
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, minced
1 small celery rib, minced
4 oz cremini mushrooms, minced
1 carrot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp paprika
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup whole milk or plain yogurt or cream
1 1/3 cups bread crumbs
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
1 pound ground beef chuck
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 pound ground veal
6 – 8 ounces bacon, thin sliced (8 to 12 slices, depending on loaf shape, enough to cover the loaf)

Glaze
1 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
4 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 F with oven rack in the middle position. Prepare a baking sheet (see image below recipe).
2. Mix all the glaze ingredients (the ketchup, coriander, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and honey) in a saucepan; set aside.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium to medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, mushrooms, and carrot, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown (7-8 minutes). Add the garlic near the end of cooking.
4. While the above is cooking, mix egg with cayenne pepper, thyme, paprika, mustard, salt, pepper, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and milk or yogurt.
5. Add the egg and spice mixture to meat in large bowl along with bread crumbs, parsley, and cooked onion and garlic. Mix with forks until evenly blended. The mixture should not stick to the bowl–if it does, add more milk or yogurt, a couple tablespoons at a time until it doesn’t stick anymore.
6. To mold the meatloaf, either free-form a 9-5 inch loaf or pack it into a 10-inch loaf pan (turn the pan upside down to dislodge the meatloaf). Do this directly onto your prepared baking sheet.
   

   Snugly wrapped in bacon.

7. Brush with the glaze. Arrange the bacon slices over the loaf. Overlap the slices slightly (they shrink with heat) and tuck the ends under as best as you can.
8. Insert a temperature probe at a 45 degree angle into the top of the meatloaf. Avoid touching the bottom of the tray with the probe. After about 30 minutes, brush more glaze onto the loaf. Bake until the probe registers 160F, about 1 hour. Let rest at least 15 minutes.
9. Simmer remaining glaze over medium heat until thickened slightly. Slice the meatloaf and serve with extra glaze.

Notes: Preparing the baking sheet.

The baking sheet is prepared this way for a number of reasons. First the entire baking sheet is covered with an extra large sheet of aluminum foil. This is for easier clean-up. You don’t need to clean the sheet-pan afterwards, simply ball up the dirty foil and throw away. Place a metal cooling rack into the baking sheet and lay a large piece of foil over this. Poke holes into the foil with a skewer or chopstick to allow the fat to drain through. The loaf is baked free-form to allow a crust to form on all sides of the loaf rather than just the top.

Prepared sheet pan for Bacon-wrapped Meatloaf

Full Disclosure:  About that “huge change” I mentioned; well, I messed up the recipe on the first go-around. I forgot a key ingredient when I was assembling it: the breadcrumbs. I know, I know. How could I forget the breadcrumbs you ask? I was in a hurry and got distracted. Wouldn’t that have changed everything? Probably, but cooking isn’t always perfect and this still turned out very tasty.  If you do make this recipe, be sure to add those breadcrumbs… I’ll let you know how it turns out when I make this again.

Bowl of chili.

If you think about it, chili likely evolved over time as a stew on the road, made by ranch-hands throwing in anything that was both available and edible. Over time, different regions popularized different variations of it. If you like beans in your chili, go for it. Like many one-pot soups or stews, you can alter this endlessly and still call it whatever you want (at least, I do). I let others argue about what is a real chili, I just want to eat.

So really, the spirit of chili is not whether it has beans in it or not, but whether it is good, filling, and (probably) cheap. Regardless of what “authentic” chili is, this gets the one important part right: It tastes good.

As a bonus, this chili let me use up some surpluses I had in my kitchen. How? Click through for the recipe and more info.

An unfinished enormous bag of tortilla chips purchased for a party were beginning to go a bit stale. I always feel guilty throwing out food, so I wanted to find a good way to use them. Then I remembered that Alton Brown made a chili that used tortilla chips as a thickening agent! Great, problem solved!

I changed his recipe a bit because I didn’t have a pressure cooker. If you want his method, go here.

Ingredients
3 pounds stew meat (beef, pork, and/or lamb) (cut to 1-inch pieces)
4 rashers of bacon (cut into small pieces)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 (12-ounce) bottles of beer, a medium ale, bock or anything with some body
1 (16-ounce) container medium heat salsa
30 tortilla chips
5 chipotle peppers canned in adobo sauce, chopped
2 tablespoons adobo sauce (from the chipotle peppers in adobo)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 1/2 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin

Directions

1. Place a large dutch oven (aka a big pot) over low to med-low heat. Add the bacon and cover; cook for 10-15 minutes. You want to render the fat from this but not crisp them yet. When a lot of the fat looks rendered, you can boost the heat to medium-high until you hear the bacon begin to crisp (take the cover off, please). Once cooked, place the bacon bits into a large mixing bowl and pour the bacon fat out into a small bowl and let let to cool for 5 minutes.
2. In another large mixing bowl, toss stew meat with the bacon fat and the salt. Turn on your oven to 300F.
3. Place the dutch oven over high heat and, once hot, add the meat in 3 or 4 batches. Sear the meat until brown on all sides. Each batch should take 2-3 minutes. When each batch is browned, place in the large bowl that already has the bacon pieces in it. Repeat with each batch of meat.
4. After the last batch, add about half a beer to the pot and scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen the fond that formed when searing the meat. The word of the day is “deglazing”.
5. Add the rest of the beer, the meat, the bacon bits, salsa, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, tomato paste, chili powder and cumin. Stir the whole pot a few times. Cover and put in a 300F oven for 4 hours.
6. Take out of the oven and serve. I didn’t garnish this chili with anything (but I did use some of the almost stale tortilla chips to eat the chili off of.)

Rendering the bacon fat.

Browning the meat.

Bowl of chili.

A few notes:

• You can use any meat you want for this. I recommend beef, pork and/or lamb. Whatever is cheap. If it’s a bit fatty and has some connective tissue, that’s fine. It’ll be cooked long and slow so it’ll be tender whatever you do to it.
• I used bacon fat to sear the meat in, you can use any oil you have (though canola, vegetable or something with a high smoke point would be best.) I happen to have a lot of bacon in my house, so I use it a lot. It will save you some time if you just use oil.
• If the fond looks like it’s going to burn before you get to your next batch of meat to brown, go ahead and deglaze the pan with some beer and just pour the beer into a cup. Add the liquid from the cup to the pot when you add all the meat and beer together.
• If you don’t drink beer, use chicken or beef broth. I used AmberBock left over from a party, so I used that.
• I also like a lot of heat in my chili. I believe AB only used 2 chipotle peppers, I used 5. Next time I’ll probably use more.
• Adjust the salt and pepper after letting it cook through. The use of the tortilla chips in this recipe can add an unexpected amount of salt.

Burgers. (Bison and beef)

With a myriad of options available regarding cooking methods, meats, and toppings, burgers are nearly infinitely customizable. Unlike my previous documented excess, these were much more modest. I did make one fairly significant change by using two different kinds of meats. Using all beef will result in a superb burger, but I wanted an extra depth of flavor and a big meaty kick in these. Combining the ground beef with ground bison added the extra dimension of flavor that I was looking for. Using a combination of meats, seasonings, and a different shaping technique ensured that these burgers would be a cut above the rest. 

Burgers. (Bison and beef)

Click through to see details on how to make the burgers, the shaping method, and the seasonings I used.

I normally stick with ground chuck when making burgers. The 80%-20% meat-to-fat ratio allows for a tender, juicy burger. Going too lean tends to result in a denser, dryer patty, and noone wants a hockey puck of meat as their burger. The reason I didn’t use all ground chuck for these is that, as I mentioned above, I really wanted to emphasise a big game flavor. Bison fit the bill perfectly. Bison is genreally leaner than beef and the dense burger I cautioned about can result if you are not careful when shaping the patties. Mixing the bison with ground chuck ensures that there is still a decent amount of fat distributed throughout the patty to prevent the burgers from coming off the grill dry. 

Buger. Autopsy shot.

I mentioned above that the seasonings I used were also important to the finished burger. When I say seasonings, in this context I really mean salt and pepper. I season the beef before shaping the patties, ensuring an even distribution of salt and pepper throughout the burger. Sometimes I put a splash of Worcestershire sauce in there, but that’s entirely optional.

The shaping technique for burgers is also very important. You can’t just pound the meat into a disk–It’ll cook with a bulge in the middle or have a sausage-like texture. The real key to proper burger formation is to shape the patty loosly. The meat should not be falling apary, but seem like it is trying to. As it cooks, the meat will bind together. The other common technique is to make an indentation in the middle of the patties. This will prevent the burger from cooking into a mound.

Ingredients
(makes 6 1/3-lb burgers)

1 lb ground chuck
1 lb ground bison
salt
fresh ground black pepper
Worcestershire sauce (optional)

Directions

1. Loosely mix the ground beef and ground bison in a large mixing bowl. Do not pack the meat or force it together as this will result in dense burgers.
2. Season the meat with salt and pepper. If using Worcestershire sauce, put up to a tablespoon to a tablespoon and a half of the sauce into meat mixture.
3. Split the meat into six equal portions and loosly shape them into patties rougly the size of your burgers. The burgers should be loosely packed and craggy around the egdes. You can also make an indentation in the middle to prevent mounding as the burger cooks (see photos for details).

Bison and beef patties.

You can prepare the burgers in advance up to this point.
I used a charcoal grill, so the directions below are for that. The general idea is the same for gas grills or even stove-top griddles.

1. Pile the charcoal in a pyramid and light it (or use a chimney if you have one). Let burn for about 20 minutes until the fire has died down and the coals have a thin coating of light gray ash. Spread the coals over the base of the grill. The grill will be ready to use when the heat is such that it is difficult to hold your hand 5-inches above the cooking surface for more than 3 seconds.
2. Scrape the hot grill surface to clean it. Place the patties evenly distributed over the grill grate and grill, uncovered, until they are seared on one side, about 2-3 minutes. For medium-rare burgers, flip them as soon as the juices begin to ‘pearl’ on the surface. Allow 30-60 seconds longer than that for medium. Do not press down on the burgers as they are cooking.
3. Flip the burgers and cook for about 2 minutes more for rare, 2 1/2 minutes for medium-rare, or 3 minutes for medium. If using cheese, add about 15-30 seconds before the burgers are finished. Serve immediately.

Patties with cheddar and bacon.

Bacon Grilled Cheese Bacon Cheeseburger (top grilled cheese sandwich not yet applied)

These things are not for the faint of heart, but it is actually less intimidating than you think. We were all able to finish our burgers AND have a chocolate milkshake.

Autopsy shot of the burger

Examining this burger in detail, the layers are:

• Bread
• Bacon
• Cheese
• Bread
• Toppings (Tomato and Onions)
• Bacon
• Cheese
• The Patty
• Bread
• Bacon
• Cheese
• Bread

Awesome, yes? Yes. I have to point you to the inspiration of this creation at Serious Eats.

Click though to see the full recipe and more pictures.

Wide shot of plate and milkshake.

Now, making grilled cheese sandwiches and burgers is not rocket science, but for the sake of argument, I’ll show you how I make all the parts to this monster.

First, make the bacon. Follow that link to my previous post about making bacon in the oven. We ended up using about 5 or 6 rashers of bacon per burger. Once the bacon is made, you can just set it aside or put it in the fridge until you are ready to eat it.

Then, make the grilled cheese sandwiches. There are lots of ways to do this, everybody had their favorite way. It’s even easier if you have a sandwich press, but we just used a skillet.

Ingredients
Sharp Cheddar (a thick slice per sandwich)
Bread
Bacon
Butter

Directions

1. Butter both sides of the bread. Buttering the outside is key to getting a great golden crust on it. Plus, butter tastes good. Assemble the sandwich.
2. Put a skillet (non-stick or cast iron is best) over medium-high heat. Once hot, add some butter to the pan and put the sandwiches on it. Cook, pressing down occasionally until the bottom is golden. You may have to rotate the sandwiches 90 to 80 degrees so they brown evenly—the center of the skillet is normally hottest, so if you see the sandwich cooking more there, turn it.
3. Once one side is cooked, flip them and repeat on the other side.

Normally you would be done here, but we still have to use these for the buns in our burger. So put these in a warm ove until you are ready to use them.

Burger and a milkshake

Now, the burger.

Ingredients
Salt
Pepper
Ground beef (we used somewhere between a third and a half pound of meat per burger)
Oil (Canola or Vegetable or the equivalent is fine)

Recipe:

1. Season the beef with salt and pepper.
2. Shape the ground beef into patties for the burgers. Don’t pack the meat too tightly and don’t mound it in the middle. Burgers tend to contract a bit when cooked, so any mound in the center will just get bigger.
3. (We cooked this on a cast iron skillet inside, you can otherwise grill it or do it anyway you prefer. It was cold outside anyway.) Heat a cast iron skillet over med-high heat until hot. Add the oil to the skillet. You don’t need much, the burgers have fat in them already. Add the burgers to the skillet and sear the bottom.
4. I don’t really time the burgers, but you can tell by the look of them when they are ready to flip. Once the edges start to lose their pinkish color and you can see some of the juices rise to the top, it’s ready to flip. (If you really want a number of minutes, I’d say that 4 minutes would probably result in a medium-well done burger.)
5. Flip the burgers and continue to cook on the other side (about the same amount of time, slightly less). Add the cheese and bacon about 1 to 2 minutes into cooking this side.

Then assemble your monstrosity of a burger and sink your teeth into it.

Burgers being assembled

Bacon

Cooking for Engineers has two articles about the many many ways to cook bacon. Oven-bake, oven-broil, microwave, grill, and pan-fried are all covered. To me, the oven is the best way of making bacon. I have used Alton Brown’s Good Eats method before with success and wanted to see what a longer slower cooking time yielded. (If you look at AB’s recipe, he shows you how to cure the bacon and everything, I just buy my own and skip down to the end where he says to put it in the oven.)

AB calls for putting the bacon on a cooling rack set into a baking pan into a cold oven. Then turning the oven to 400F and cooking for 12 to 15 minutes (from the time you turn the oven on, not from when it is preheated). This is good and quick.

Bacon

Cooking for Engineers takes a different approach to the oven method. Long and slow. You preheat your oven to 200F and use the same bacon-on-a-cooling-rack-in-a-baking sheet as AB. This method takes a lot longer. Three to four hours long. But hey, if you don’t have anything to do for a while or want to make bacon to reheat in sandwiches or something later, this is the way to go. I actually prefer this method for a number of reasons. It seems to render more fat from the bacon. The fat that is rendered is pure bacon fat. Pure white in color. No burnt bits in it. The bacon is great for saving and using later.

So if you have time, I say go with the long and slow oven cooking. If you want bacon faster, go with the higher temperature oven method.

Bacon

Ingredients

Bacon

Recipe (slow method)

1. Set oven to 200F.
2. Place a cooling rack into a rimmed baking sheet. Lay the bacon on top of it. Place in oven.
3. Cook for 3-4 hours. If you like softer bacon, take it out after about 3ish. If you like crispier bacon, take it out after 4ish.

Recipe (faster method)

1. Place a cooling rack into a rimmed baking sheet. Lay the bacon on top of it. Place in oven.
2. Turn the oven on to 400F.
3. Cook for 12-15 minutes. If you like softer bacon, take it out after about 12ish minutes. If you like crispier bacon, take it out after 15ish minutes.