Bacon?

[The Halk]

Bacon is great. Everyone loves it...

However I can't seem to cook it to taste great, nor do I really know what I'm buying.

The last bacon I bought said on the packet it was 97% meat, yet there was a massive amount of water in it.

When I cook bacon it ends up burnt and too crispy on the outside by the time it's cooked.

The most reliable way I have of cooking bacon is actually in the microwave, I just stick it on some paper towels and it comes out good - not great, and not as good as I'd like.

I thought before I did my shopping this week I'd say what I can do to make better bacon.

I do have a george foreman, frying pan, microwave, decent oven with grill...

So... what do I buy and how should I cook it? I shop at Tesco so here's their bacons..


UPDATE

Since people have been very forthcoming and helpful, and I've just taken my painkillers and I feel all warm and fuzzy and happy... Here's an update on how THE BACONATION will proceed.

I've ordered a variety of bacon from Tesco.

Two types of Tesco back bacon, a pack of streaky, a pack of dry cure and a pack of wiltshire cure. I understand that normal bacon is Danish cure, which makes it have more water. (I may be wrong on that).

The streaky bacon will be cooked on the grill at ------- setting.

The back bacon will be cooked in the frying pan, at about 6/10 on a 2.2kW ceramic hob in a non-stick frying pan, I'll spray it with vegetable oil.

I'll also try some sandwiched between two oven trays, and baked.

And I'll report back here!

 

[The Halk]

I have no preference over it, but I don't like bacon crispy.

There are a couple of butchers near me, they just sell supermarket bacon, there's nothing special about it... I don't have the type of butchers I'd like.

Heat is too high... ok, I'll try a lower heat... I assume you mean to fry it.

As for the microwave, it works, it's better than any other method I have, but it's not great.

 

[The Halk]

Maybe it's just where we are Alex, the butchers in Hamilton that I've been to have been a big disappointment, there is one in the PR Coatbridge which does good stuff, but even their bacon was just out of a packet.

Everybody is saying frying pan so far though? In that case that's what I'll use tomorrow when my shopping arrives.

Anyone want to suggest what bacon I get from Tesco's though? Is it worth buying the expensive exotically cured stuff? What do the different cures do? Can I get bacon that won't fill the pan with water?

 

[The Halk]

I do prefer back to streaky.

However I noticed people were saying streaky were also saying grill.

So I'll grab some streaky too and try it in the grill - what kind of temperature do I want my grill at? It does low, med, high only...

Alex, I'll just try the standard smoked Tesco bacon.

 

[The Halk]

I'd find it hard to give you advice on cooking bacon if you don't like it crispy to be honest - it seems quite an alien desire to me

I presume you trim the fat off then as there's nothing more vile than soggy, stringy bacon fat?

I don't.. I do agree that I don't like stringy fat. I try to buy bacon without much fat on it.

I will try cutting some of the fat off the bacon that comes tomorrow. I don't like greasy food so I won't miss it.

 

[The Halk]

I've added a pack of dry cure as well, to see how that goes.

 

[The Halk]

On that note, have you considered making your own bacon? I can't find the thread on here where Johnny and several others of us have cured our own. It works out very cheap compared to store-bought bacon and only takes a few days. The end results are far far nicer and you also are guaranteed not to have any of the water/white cack that you get with store-bought bacon.

Hmm, I don't think it's wise until I can pull off cooking bacon properly, once I've got that mastered then making it is an option I guess.

I could make great bacon then ruin it cooking and not know what I'd done wrong.

 

[The Halk]

Here's what I'm ordering...

Thanks for all the advice folks. Hope I didn't make you too hungry!

 

[The Halk]

Sadly Morrisons don't do shopping online, people are always saying how good they are.

 

[The Halk]

I find shopping online is way more convenient. Aside from that it'd be Tesco this week any way, they've got coke zero at 24p a can

 

[The Halk]

I do prefer my sausages baked in the oven. MMMMMMM!!!!!

So I might try bacon that way.

Let me understand you correctly though.. I put the bacon on a baking tray... and put another baking tray on top... so the bacon is sandwiched.... and then after 20 minutes or so I'll check to see if there's "spit" and it's done? Sounds nice and simple.

As for supermarkets for meat and veg... I've just started getting veg delivered from Homefresh today, they delivered about an hour ago and while I can't say it's great value for money (it's ok) the stuff appears to be far, far higher quality than what I could get myself by hand picking it in the supermarket.

 

[The Halk]

I have just had a delicious bacon sandwich.

Tesco order arrived, they didn't have dry cure so I got 2 packs of wiltshire cure. I thought I'd start with that.

In the frying pan, at 5/10 heat (2.2kw ceramic burner).

Not anywhere near as much water as the other bacon I've bought. Still a bit of mess in there, but not anything like as bad. When I was taking the bacon out of the packet it felt firmer - much as sliced wiltshire cured ham for sandwiches does compared to normal cheap ham.

Then onto Mother's Pride plain loaf, lightly warmed to help the butter melt... with tomato sauce (as they didn't deliver the brown I ordered!).

A delicious sandwich. I could have cooked the bacon a bit longer, but I was worried it'd dry up. However it was nearly perfect! This sandwich is the product of your advice folks, and I very much appreciate it.

I'm also tempted to go and make another one.

Edit : I made another one.. it tasted even better. This time I only used spray oil on the pan to clean it, once I'd wiped all the mess from the previous 3 rashers away I just cooked the next 3 on the pan as it was, nearly free of oil. It tasted even better. Something I did notice was that the bacon stopped cooking, so it seems to reach a certain point and then not cook much more - at least not very visibly. That point happens to be perfect for my taste.

I've still got lots of bacon to get through... I've got a couple of Angus burgers... so there may be a couple of bacon cheeseburgers being made over the weekend.

 

[The Halk]

Update 1!

Tesco smoked back bacon.

This is the 'standard' bacon from Tesco. 10 in a pack and not expensive in comparison. I've steered away from anything cheaper, and I suspect in the past I've been a cheapskate and bought bad bacon.

There was far more white gunk, and more water with this bacon. I had to use several paper towels during cooking to remove the water from it. I used no oil when cooking this bacon. My frying pan doesn't need it to be non-stick - I can fry eggs without oil.

As for how it tasted? Well, surprisingly it was good, not as good as the Wiltshire cure, but none the less it was tasty bacon. Not too salty either which I had feared.

I cooked all 10 slices of this with nothing else to report other than the pictures of the mess in the pan.

It's fairly tolerable to just use a sheet of kitchen roll to dry the pan midway through cooking, although not ideal. The question I guess is if I'm actually saving money because of the weight of water that's lost or not.

 

[The Halk]

Next up is Tesco's butcher's choice bacon.

This is a bit more expensive than the other stuff - less rashers in each pack. Not as expensive as the Wiltshire/Dry cures.

I cooked this up in two batches, 4 rashers in each. For both I made a nice BLT sandwich.

The first batch I used no oil, the second batch I did use oil to see what difference it makes. As I've said I don't need it for the pan to be non-stick, however I'm aware it may help heat conduct better so it may affect things.

It's clear to say that there was far less water than the bacon before. There was a fair amount in the pan but it was gone by the time it was cooked. The sandwich tasted ok, but the bacon tasted about the worst so far, surprisingly.

So another batch was done today, and this time I used oil. This time the bacon was very salty, and my lips have been irritated by it. It still didn't taste as good as either of the two previous packs of bacon and I will not be buying this kind again. It would seem that by removing the excess water I remove the excess salt, but with this stuff there's no excess water by the time they're cooked - that's my guess anyway. Far too salty!

Next up is the streaky bacon which is going to get cooked between two oven trays, baked, and also on the grill rack grilled, and maybe baked. If there's bacon left I'll do it in the microwave just for comparison's sake.

 

[The Halk]

when i was living in the middle east we had beef bacon

How was it?

 

[The Halk]

5 rashes of bacon in a frying pan?! No wonder you are getting water. Not enough room at all, and as soon as you have so much in there you'll drastically bring down the temperature and stew the bacon.

3 rashers, max! I'm enjoying your travels through the bacon world though, and I read elsewhere that you're a new cook but it's good to see that you're trying!

It's a massive pan - I wish I'd got a smaller one. Although normally I wouldn't cooking 5 strips at a time.

Yeah, I've decided to eat a bit better now (bacon excluded) so I'm getting a box of veg and fruit delivered every week, and I'm going to eat every single bit of it, meaning I'll have to do lots of cooking.

 

[The Halk]

A decent butcher should be able to advise you on how much water is in their bacon and they'll sell it with the rind on. On a side note; they should also tell you how long they hang their meat for and where it comes from.

The best meat I have found in a supermarket has been Waitrose and that is on their cut price deals on a sunday.

I'm in Scotland so Waitrose is out...

As far as a decent butcher, as I've said there's none nearby. Additionally the Tesco bacon which filled the pan with water said it was 97% bacon, and less than 3% water.. so I don't know if it's added water that's the problem.

In any case though, I think I've ruled out normal bacon and it's dry cure/wiltshire cure from now on. The streaky bacon might be ok in the oven though... I'll update the thread when I've tried that.

 

[The Halk]

I finally got around to the streaky bacon. Just tesco's own brand.

I put foil on a tray, put the bacon on it, covered the bacon in foil, and then forced the other tray down as tight as I could on it.

Preheated fan oven at 200, 15 minutes and it was amazing.

This is the first and only bacon I've cooked that comes out looking like what I view as bacon.

Sadly I didn't take any pictures, however there's still half a pack left.

I wanted the trays to be clean afterwards, the bacon fat though managed to get around them. Addiitonally I'd laid one slice vertical, while the rest were horizontal, that one was cripsy while the rest were just firm. Next time I'll be more liberal with the foil so that they don't dry out.

The bacon itself tasted good, however it looks like it was cut by Stevie Wonder. I'll see if Asda or other places have better bacon. I suspect it'll just be chance and in all honesty it made no difference.

I should also add that I made bacon chowder last week and used Asda lardons. It tasted great too.

So a summary? For back bacon I found that thick sliced didn't cook well, and that spending a little bit extra resulted in worse quality bacon. I found that the basic back bacon could be cooked in a pan fairly well, I just needed to remove the muck. The more expensive bacon had less water and cooked better and tasted better - however it wasn't as good value for money.

The king of the castle is the streaky bacon in the oven. It tasted great, it was simple, it was cheap. A full pack of it will do 4 BLT sandwiches. The more expensive bacon only does 3 sandwiches. I can cook it without any effort or worrying about it burning.

Next steps in the bacon adventure will be to try the other half a pack of bacon more tightly wrapped in foil. Following that it'll be to try back bacon in the oven - dry cure and normal cure.

I'd also like to see how middle bacon turns out between trays, and "cooking bacon" which I think is the offcuts. I think they might work out nicely if I just layer them.

I'm also keen on the oven method because it means I can buy some packs of bacon, set them up in the foil on the trays and shove them in the freezer. That way I can freeze bacon without having it come out in a frozen unusable lump. I could just fire it straight into the oven and have it ready fast.

All things said though I don't eat a great deal of bacon. It'd lose the appeal if I did - plus it's not the most healthy of foods and I'm trying to eat properly now. So it'll be in a meal I have once a week most likely.

 

[The Halk]

Interesting that you find baked bacon the best, Halk.

Perhaps you're used to the American stuff rather than what we have over here, that's the only justification I can find for you preferring that.

But hell, if you enjoy it then so be it!

It certainly matches the American stuff better - but I'd hardly say I'm used to the American stuff. I've spent perhaps a little under a year in America in my life, the rest in Scotland so I don't think I'd really get used to it. The pre-cooked stuff over there is convenient, and for a sandwich ideal, but it's not great.

The baked streaky bacon comes out tops because of ease, and cost, and predictability, pan fried dry cured bacon is probably the best out of the lot.