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.
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.
