Bakin’ Bacon

Posted on by Casey
Bakin’ Bacon
Recipe Type: Side Dishes
Author: Purely Primal
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 lb thick cut pastured bacon
  • 15×10 stoneware “bar” pan
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Arrange the bacon with as little overlapping as possible.
  3. When the oven is heated up (or even a little before…it won’t hurt anything), toss it in.
  4. Set a timer for about 20 minutes and check on it when the timer goes off. If it’s not done to your preference, then keep checking it every few minutes until it’s where you like it.
  5. Transfer the bacon to a plate that has been covered with paper towel so that the bacon can drain a little. Set it aside until you are ready to serve.
  6. If you wish to save the lard, grab a heavy-duty glass or ceramic container and pour all of the leftover bacon fat into it once it has cooled slightly. Use a nylon scraper and get every little drop that you have the patience to collect (without getting too many of the little “crumbs” and such). Put a lid on it and store it in the fridge.

 

Pastured bacon is darn good.  And it also contains something great for adding a little extra flavor when cooking other things – the leftover fat.  You just need to be diligent enough to save that precious stuff when you are done cooking.  And you want to keep as much of it from splattering all over the kitchen while you are cooking too.  So how do we go about this in our kitchen?  We BAKE it.

Gather Up:

  • 1 lb thick cut pastured bacon
  • 15×10 stoneware “bar” pan

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Arrange the bacon with as little overlapping as possible.  Notice the nice “patina” on my stoneware?  That’s called seasoning…and this happens to also be a great way to accomplish that as well.

When the oven is heated up (or even a little before…it won’t hurt anything), toss it in.  Set a timer for about 20 minutes and check on it when the timer goes off.  If it’s not done to your preference, then keep checking it every few minutes until it’s where you like it (I prefer chewy rather than crispy myself, and about 20~25 minutes is just right).

Transfer the bacon to a plate that has been covered with paper towel so that the bacon can drain a little.  Set it aside until you are ready to serve.  If your house is anything like ours, setting aside means putting it in a strong box with a padlock to keep the “pickers” from stealing a piece before the rest of their breakfast is ready!  Set the stoneware aside to cool down a bit and go about enjoying breakfast.

Now comes the important final step.  When you’ve finished eating, and the stoneware pan (with all that golden goodness in it) has had a chance to cool, grab a heavy-duty glass or ceramic container and pour all of the leftover bacon fat into it.  Use a nylon scraper and get every little drop that you have the patience to collect (without getting too many of the little “crumbs” and such).  Put a lid on it and store it in the fridge for the next time you are:

  • browning meat (for anything – soup, stew, chili, pan-frying, etc)
  • cooking eggs or omelettes
  • sautéing veggies
  • looking for a substitute for butter in a recipe (probably not for cookies though!)
  • making pemmican
  • needing a little “fat” snack (seriously…just a half teaspoon all by itself is SO tasty)

There you have it.  An easy way to make bacon and save the fat to use for other recipes too.  Enjoy!

Published by Casey

7 thoughts on “Bakin’ Bacon”

  3. hmm..bacon cookies?
    I can’t let me husband cook the bacon in our house, or half of it will be gone by the time we sit down at the table!

  4. My husband and I just bought our first half sow, and are enjoying the bacon now! We started with a 400 pound pig though, so we will have quite a bit of bacone in the end. I also made jowl bacon so that helps too. What recipe do you use to make your bacon?

  5. Jowl bacon is some very good stuff! I haven’t done any of my own brining and curing (yet)…some day. Now that I have the smoker, I hope to do a lot more experimenting with jerky and bacon and sausage this coming spring and summer. One thing I do need to do on the next hog is request all of the lard as well.

  6. We really enjoyed getting a butchering lesson with ours, which cost a bit of money, but it meant we got to keep everything we wanted. I’ve already rendered out about 85 ounces of beautiful pure white lard for cooking!

    By the way, thanks for the great blog!

  7. I love to bake bacon. The only thing I do different is to line the pan with parchmant before I lay down the bacon. Then another piece of parchmant over the bacon. Put another pan on top of the parchmant. This keeps the bacon flat and bakes evenly.

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