Cooking Your Bacon This Way Is Less Messy And Allows You To Save Your Grease

If you've ever cooked bacon on the stove, you've probably had to consider the messy and potentially dangerous grease splatter that might make a mess of your counters and backsplashes, not to mention impart a nasty burn to your hands or arms. The best way to avoid the mess is by baking bacon in the oven. Not only will baking bacon result in the crispiest strips while saving you the mess of grease splatter, but it will also allow you to save your grease. Furthermore, you can make a larger batch of bacon with one or two baking sheets as opposed to the 3 or 4 strips you can get into a frying pan. 

The best temperature to bake bacon in the oven is 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and cooking times range from 18 to 25 minutes, depending on how crispy you want it. One tip is to line your baking sheet with either tin foil or parchment paper before placing the bacon on top. Remove the bacon from the sheet to blot with a paper towel while the baking pans cool. Then, you can fold the foil or parchment paper into a funnel to easily and cleanly pour the remaining bacon grease into a storage container. Crispy, perfectly cooked bacon and a mess-free kitchen are priceless, and a jar full of bacon grease is the gift that keeps giving.

Bacon grease isn't just fatty refuse, so you should stop throwing it out and repurpose it instead. Fat is a key source of flavor and richness in most dishes, and bacon grease will bring one of the richest, most savory upgrades to anything you add it to. If you're making a large batch of bacon for breakfast, you can use the bacon grease you've drained from the baking pan to fry eggs.

In addition, bacon grease is a great alternative to the more traditional lard that makes refried beans restaurant-worthy. You can also replace butter with bacon grease for ultra-savory cornbread or buttermilk biscuits. Consider using bacon grease to fry up the most decadent grilled cheese sandwich instead of using butter.

The best way to store bacon grease is in a glass container with a tightly sealed lid. Ensuring that air doesn't enter the storage jar is key to maximizing the shelf life of bacon grease. Furthermore, you're going to want to store bacon grease in the fridge as it'll go rancid much faster at room temperature. Bacon grease has a shelf life of around 3 months in the fridge. Alternatively, you can use ice trays to portion and store bacon fat in the freezer to pull out and use in different dishes as needed.