Roasted Bacon

I have a favorite place for brunch and the primary reason it is my favorite is that they serve roasted bacon. When bacon is roasted, all of the fat is rendered and you end up with wonderfully crisp strips of bacon. The operative words here are "render the fat"...that is the key to perfect bacon.

Roasted bacon works best for a crowd....when you need to cook 10-12 pieces at once. If you are looking at making just one or two servings, I recommend frying it up in a pan. My first recommendation for frying is to use a cast iron pan. Steel would be my second choice.

Most people heat the pan up first and then add the bacon. Dumb. Dumb because the bacon cooks too fast and the fat doesn't get rendered, leaving you with limp bacon. The correct way to do it is to start with a cold pan, then add the bacon and then crank the heat to high. This method will render the fat and give you nice crisp bacon. It takes about 8 minutes in a cast iron pan...11 minutes for steel.

But the tastiest way to get crisp bacon is to roast it in the oven. Start with a foil-lined baking sheet with a wire rack. Lay the strips out on the wire rack and pop it in the oven. The temperature is high enough to render the fat. And thanks to the wire rack, the fat drains away and you don't have to flip the bacon while it cooks.

For the best roasted bacon, you want to buy thick-sliced bacon. If you are going to cook store-bought bacon, I recommend Hormel Range Brand Thick Sliced Bacon. Great product with a big hearty bacon taste. If you want to taste the most extraordinary bacon on the planet, try wild boar bacon. It's pricey at $15 per pound, but it is absolutely the best tasting bacon ever. I get mine here: http://www.buffalogal.com


Ingredients
12 strips thick-sliced bacon


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425º.
2. Wrap a baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack on top.
3. Place strips of bacon on wire rack.
4. Slide pan/rack into oven and cook for 20 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and serve.