30 days of bacon kick off!

So I'd been wanting to kick start this blog back up, but was struggling through a few different ideas. In the end I decided to go with bacon! Who doesn't like bacon? Bacon recipes flood every online place from pinterest to facebook, from the normal to the insane. So I thought, why not try some of these out? I went through and compiled some lists from the savory to the sweet to the crazy out there ones, and challenged myself to do 30 days worth of the recipes, so here goes!

To start off with, I wanted something fairly simple, different ways to cook bacon. Typically, in my family, we would just cook it on a stove top, but I'd seen things for frying and baking that I wanted to try out! There were two different ways to bake the bacon. One is lifting it off the cooking surface, which definitely reduces the amount of grease, and gets you crisper bacon, however it doesn't really keep that bacony- look or texture, it ends up really flat, straight and fairly dry
. If you want a healthier version, try that! If you just want a quick easy way to cook bacon, I'd suggest the other baking method. This one you line a baking sheet for easy clean up, and the bacon has the chance to sorta wrinkle up and stays nice and moist. Also watch your baking times like crazy! I went on the short end of them and ended up overcooking it. Make sure you check it every couple minutes. Finally, there's deep frying. Definitely not the healthy version, but man does it make some crispy flavorful bacon! Best way to do that is to thread it on a skewer so it holds some shape and submerge it for only a minute or two. No special recipe for that one, so this is all I'll have for it, I don't have a picture either. My favorite method would have to be the second baking one I'd say, I personally don't like terribly crisp bacon.

Alright, so for the kind of recipes. The first method requires a baking rack, that you place on top of a baking sheet and lay your bacon on. Then you simply pop it in the oven for roughly 15-20 minutes at 325. But remember, check it often! Nothing worse than burnt bacon :(

The second method you can use tin foil or parchment paper. I feel like tin foil produces better results but that's partly cause I hate buying parchment paper cause I so infrequently use it! This time, put it in the oven at 375 for 15-20. Lean towards the shorter cooking time and check frequently! I hope this has helped a little, and here is a picture to show you what I mean on how the bacon turns out, left is the baking rack, right is the tin foil :) Good luck with your bacon adventures and I hope you check back for more of mine!

Tomorrow: Candied bacon - We started savory, going sweet tomorrow!