Cooking bacon a day ahead


 

Jerry N.

TVWBB Emerald Member
Last year at Christmas breakfast my DD blew it. Not enough bacon to go around. I’m going to step in this year and make sure this doesn’t happen again. Thus the question, what’s a good procedure to cook a lot of bacon in advance and then heat it up on Christmas morning? I’m thinking three to five pounds.

My current process for bacon is a half sheet baking pan, covered with aluminum foil, then a rack then a silicone grilling mat. That gets the bacon off the pan and out of the grease while it cooks in the oven. I can get an entire pound in the oven at one time this way and the silicone mat makes clean up pretty easy.

Of course this is where the problem comes in. I’ve never stored bacon, short of a few pieces. Mostly it gets eaten right away. How do you store it and warm it up? Would it matter how it’s cooked? Any ideas would be appreciated. I’ve volunteered my DW and I to run a trial cook if we can keep from eating it. Maybe cook two pounds and save one for the next day.
 
I bake/roast bacon on a parchment lined sheet pan, no rack. Drain on paper towel or newsprint.

Reheating? You really only need to get it back up to serving temp. 20 minutes in an oven set on warm should do it. A microwave....it'll reheat unevenly, the fat will heat up quickly, the meat, not so much.
 
not eating it too quickly is my problem too! Since you have such a large amount, to reheat you could put it on the same sheet pan & mat & cover with foil. 20oz is about as much as I ever cook, but I wonder if stacking it would be a problem.

I have a cousin in food service who brought along a styrofoam to-go box full of bacon last year when we picked him up from work to go skiing - I asked how they cooked it and he said they bake it, cooked properly it held up in the box even after it cooled down. I'm also picturing catering or buffet chafing dishes or warming trays.

You probably don't (I definitely don't) need a single use item but these might be fun for a large group.


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I like cooking mine on the charcoal or gas grills too. I often have ideas of making a bunch to have as a ready-to-go ingredient, but it always gets eaten too quickly.
 
I bake/roast bacon on a parchment lined sheet pan, no rack. Drain on paper towel or newsprint.

Reheating? You really only need to get it back up to serving temp. 20 minutes in an oven set on warm should do it. A microwave....it'll reheat unevenly, the fat will heat up quickly, the meat, not so much.

I’ve read about using parchment paper. What is the purpose of that, just to keep the bacon from sticking? I like to use aluminum foil so the clean up is easy. Before I bought the rack and grill mat, I don’t recall the bacon sticking to the aluminum foil. I just didn’t like it sitting in the grease. Maybe I’m missing something. Does the grease help it cook better, faster, more evenly?

Sounds like the reheat is simple enough. Just put it in the oven. I didn’t want to use the microwave.
 
I’ve read about using parchment paper. What is the purpose of that, just to keep the bacon from sticking? I like to use aluminum foil so the clean up is easy. Before I bought the rack and grill mat, I don’t recall the bacon sticking to the aluminum foil. I just didn’t like it sitting in the grease. Maybe I’m missing something. Does the grease help it cook better, faster, more evenly?

Sounds like the reheat is simple enough. Just put it in the oven. I didn’t want to use the microwave.

Easy clean-up. I buy parchment in industrial quantities. I bought 2 stacks of food service full sheet pre-cut parchment, I just cut the parchment sheets in half for my half-size sheet pans.

Leaving the bacon in the grease gives it a little more fried flavor & texture, and I really dislike cleaning the racks (never seem to get them clean enough for me.)
 
We do the sheet pan,foil,rack,oven method as well. Since there's only two of us, we do a pound at a time, store the leftovers in a plastic bag in the fridge and reheat for a couple of minutes in a pan just before the eggs. Seems to work well, and holds in the fridge easily for a week or so. I'm currently hooked on bacon, egg and cheese English muffins (Bay's, not Thomas'). Had one this morning. Delish.

Jeff
 
Easy clean-up. I buy parchment in industrial quantities. I bought 2 stacks of food service full sheet pre-cut parchment, I just cut the parchment sheets in half for my half-size sheet pans.

Leaving the bacon in the grease gives it a little more fried flavor & texture, and I really dislike cleaning the racks (never seem to get them clean enough for me.)

I put one of these cooking mats on top of the rack. The mat cleans real easy and the rack stays clean. I just rinse the rack an put it in the dishwasher. I may try the parchment paper though so the bacon cooks in the grease. I thought it would be better to be out of the grease, but maybe not. With my set up, I am having a bit of a problem with even cooking.

https://www.rectecgrills.com/mesh-c...MImfC66Nn33gIVhbbACh0HlQUzEAQYASABEgK_kvD_BwE
 
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Many moons ago, I worked in food service in college and the central kitchen baked countless full-size sheet pans of bacon each day for BLT sandwiches. They used parchment paper, but I always assumed that was because they had parchment around for baking cookies and other similar items.

Here at home, I baked bacon directly on Reynolds parchment sheets for a long time but in the last year switched to aluminum foil because I think it transfers heat better to the bacon and I get better crisping. Move cooked bacon to a paper towel-lined plate, press lightly with more paper towel to remove excess grease. Rarely have leftover bacon, but it's easily zapped in the microwave.

BTW, Costco sells pre-cooked bacon that you re-heat in the oven or microwave. It's all that my brother and his family eat and they like it a lot for the convenience. Might be good for a big family Christmas brunch.
 
I’ll look into the pre cooked bacon. Might be the ticket for a large group. Plus, not the time of year to be spending a lot of time cooking just one item.
 
So I tried the Costco pre cooked bacon. Sorry, great idea, but not Christmas quality. The flavor was okay but the texture was more like thin jerky. The meat part was dry and the fat needed to cook a bit more for “chewy” and a lot more for “crispy”. Problem is that any further cooking just dried the meat out more. It was good enough to eat, I’m not food snob, but I don’t really want to serve it to a crowd that I’ve worked hard over the years to convince, with some success I believe, that I do a good job of cooking meet. I’m going to go with the sheet pan covered in foil and warm it up Christmas morning. I also figured I’d get some sausage. Hard to screw that up and that way, I’ll not need to cook as much bacon.
 
Doesn't really need to be hot. Bacon at room temperature tastes fine to me as long as the eggs and pancakes are hot.

I often cook up the entire pound and store the leftovers in a ziplock in the frig to eat during the rest of the week.
 
Well, the bacon is cooked. Left some chewy and cooked some to pretty crispy because I know a few in the family don’t like chewy bacon. Should mostly be heat and serve. Also cooked up some sausages. Should be plenty of meat for Christmas breakfast. Merry Christmas everyone.
 

 

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