This is a great idea, K. 
For āmass productionā the papertowels speed things up, but I never thought of not using them, and next time Iām going with your suggestion.
I love bacon
Just_Juju
#22
Totally because of fat phobia and itās how we were always taught to do it in the microwave. What a waste of paper and grease. Lol. Iām starting to never use paper towels even when removing from a skillet. I just place it directly on a plate.
My husband thinks Iām gross because all day after making bacon in a skillet I sneak big finger swipes of the cooled grease in the pan. Itās sooooo yummy and flavorful. I just donāt understand why he think itās gross. But then he cuts away every speck of fat from any meat we eat and piles it in my plate. I love it because I love the flavor. He is missing out
Shinita
#24
As I wrote, I just fry eggs in it, needed for the super tasty bacon anywayā¦ But yep, itās lard. I donāt prefer it over the lard I render out of fatty pork but itās lard with extra flavor so of course I would use it up for cooking if I had any leftover bacon fat. I use all and every kind of edible fat for cooking except tallow (thatās for animals, yuck! hate the taste. except when itās together with its meat, somehow that works) and olive oil with cheese in it originally (very strong taste. I put Camembert cheese into it until it runs out).
Lard is my number one and almost only cooking fat 
One way (I just use some fatty pork item) or another (using rendered out stuff from earlier). I like lard. My SO donāt. Fine, he can eat tasteless coconut oil instead. But we have schmalz sometimes as well
By the wayā¦ Canāt one make bacon in an air fryer? Itās pretty rhetorical, of course one can.
I bought one lately and now I put nearly everything into it 
(It turned out I have a toaster nowā¦ Never had one.) Itās fun. I still would fry bacon in a pan, itās quick and easy, after all but I canāt imagine it wouldnāt work in the air fryerā¦ AND that way I would lose more fat and more salt. Both sounds useful to me though I could handle the fat but itās not necessary.
The microwave would be the last thing I would think about when it comes to making bacon but I never tried, just extrapolate from my experience with other things where I wanted a crunchy resultā¦ Pan simply worked wonderfully, I saw the happenings, could turn the pieces and admire them, itās quickā¦
But why? You donāt put it on someone elseās plate or somethingā¦ Itās yours Oneās finger isnāt gross to the same person (or if it is, they just shouldnāt do it)
Anyway, sometimes it feels good not to act like a lady AT ALL 
E_P
(E P)
#25
If you like small batches, air fryer takes 10 min and contains all the grease splatter. Then pour the drippings into the fat jar.
VirginiaEdie
(Edith)
#27
I save the fat from anything that ends up with rendered fat. For example, if I make pot roast, I save the extra sauce and chill it. Then, I save the fat that solidifies in the top of the sauce. Same goes for making chicken broth, Any fat that solidifies on the surface during cooling gets saved.
I braised some pork should a few weeks ago and it had quite the fat cap. I removed the fat cap and rendered it down into lard. It had quite the nice meaty flavor to it.
I have a jar to which I frequently add bacon fat. I just use a strainer and pour the fat into the jar.
I rarely use any oil for cooking on the stove any more. Itās mostly the rendered fat I saved.
Goldengirl52
(Denise)
#28
I havenāt been saving the fat, but I will do this with my roasts, bacon etc. I wonāt save a bunch as I donāt know how long it keeps in fridge, or whether or not I can freeze some. Iāve been questioning whether or not to stick with the olive oil. This could be an option, thanks much Edith Denise
Berta102
(Berta)
#29
Best way to make bacon I have found is to twist it tight and bake it. It is next level yummy 
then I freeze and allow myself 4 slices a day. 
Just_Juju
#31
Twist it tight? Can you explain a bit more because Iām imagining twisting it and having it tear apart or not hold the twist. LOL
ffskier
#32
I always cook at least 1-2 pounds of bacon in one sitting. The oven produces the best results with this amount. Very little shrinkage. 325F for about 20 minutes. Flip after 15 minutes. Perfect. If cooking on a stove, lower your heat. Most people cook bacon on too much heat, which leads to shrinkage and overcooked bacon. Bacon is cooked on the weekends when there is little rushing around. It is certainly worth the wait.
Berta102
(Berta)
#33
Lol! They are actually very stretchy you just take it between two fingers and stretch and twist in the opposite directions and then slam it down in the pan beside each other. Just squish them up. Or do them separated, even if they unravel a little bit thatās OK. Try to do them tight. They taste better that way. 
Berta102
(Berta)
#34
Interestingly enough, you donāt have to cover them in your oven and they wont splatter everywhere it was the question that I asked when I first made it and it was fine.
Berta102
(Berta)
#35
Iāve always heard that you need to flip them, but I donāt. I just cook them for a really long time until theyāre a darker well cooked color.
Janie
(Jane)
#36
I always drained my bacon on paper towels becauseā¦ā¦ reasons. And it was how we were taugt to fear saturated fat.
Fast forward to the Covid paper-towel shortagesā¦ā¦ I realized how silly it was and stopped doing it. No more wasting paper towels or losing bacon grease to something I was going to throw away!
Shinita
#37
I was taught not to waste food So I donāt. I am quite serious about it. Our food waste is almost zero, sometimes a veggie gets partially rotten, itās painful so we do our best to avoid even that few times per year (and now I donāt even eat vegs and my SO eats less too).
If itās edible, I eat it, no matter what. I understand if someone isnāt THAT extreme but I canāt and donāt want to help it. For carbier things I have my SO, I am good at putting almost anything into something else so it wonāt be noticeable (he knows itās in it as I tell him, itās not the reason to mask and hide but the not desirable taste and texture. sometimes we buy something really bad and we must use it up. good thing most things lasts for very long, we may need the years).
But animal stuff (except tallow but I gave them to animals when I had it)? Precious!!!
Mom never used a paper towel and I donāt do it either. We always, always ate all the fat in the food. I mentioned somewhere that when we fried potatoes, we ate all the fat along with it (we made it an art form to fry potatoes in super tiny fat in a pan). I am not like that anymore, I mean, I often donāt eat the rendered out fat when I cook fatty meat but of course, itās too fatty. Poor potatoes and vegs needed all the fat they got! (One reason I ate so much fat. My huge amounts of vegs brought an insane amount. They needed more. Potatoes are edible even without fat. WAY better with some fat, of course. Vegs without fat wasnāt my style except eating some raw alone.)
I donāt believe in overcooked bacon. That is probably what I call perfect or near perfect that needs some more frying. Except if itās charcoal, that is too much even for me but itās not hard to avoid. If the bacon has any flexibility left, itās undercooked for me.
I have this with most food. Boiled eggs are impossible to overcook too (unless one puts REALLY much effort or absent-mindedness into it. eventually it becomes charcoal too but even we couldnāt do that. the most was evaporating the water and the eggs got a bit burnt spot, still good. itās another matter I donāt like hard-boiled eggs very much but itās still okay and useful and at least I can peel them). And I am very sensitive to undercooked liver. They need 30-60 minutes except beef (and probably other ruminant) liver. Of course much depends on the heat, cooking method, I need 30 minutes in a pan and used 60 in an oven.
Each to their own I know many likes their non-crunchy bacon, there is nothing wrong with that. I have some items where I strongly prefer even a raw state (of course when itās pork, itās well-smoked therefore safe).
Erm I wrote almost nothing about baconā¦ But I eat it so very rarelyā¦ I have a package in my fridge right now, I should use it at some pointā¦ Whenever there is a sale and half a year passed from the last time I ate some, I buy a package and then I forget about it. This time I didnāt, I just had too much smoked pork to eat firstā¦ (I have two cured pork belly piece too, I prefer those over bacon BUT the crunchy thin frilly strips have their charm.)
PaulL
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?)
#38
This sounds about right. However, you mention ābetween two plates,ā and this method will get china plates really hot. Be careful! I us a sort of oval casserole dish with a glass top, big enough that the handles donāt get excessively hot (and if they do, pot-holders will take care of them). The casserole also allows me to pour off the liquid fat into a container for later use, without spilling it all over the stove, lol! 
kib1
(KM)
#39
I basically always use a second plate rather than plastic wrap to keep things from splattering in the nuker. But I can see your point, a small amount of food and almost no water could definitely overheat the wrong crockery. (Corelle is excellent in the microwave, otoh I have some cups that simply canāt go in.)
OldDoug
(Doug)
#40
Paul, that too sounds like a really good idea.
A plate and paper towels are good for āmass production.ā I used three plates; as soon as one batch was done, in goes another. While that one is cooking, the others are cooling, being unloaded, having the paper towels changed if necessary, and being reloaded for the next go-round. The microwave almost never stops. Each batch was around 2/3 of a pound or 300 grams.
Butā¦ I really have no reason to be in a hurry, and why use up a whole bunch of paper towels and lose the nectar?