Rachael Ray's Now-Deleted Bacon Recipe Lives On In Internet Infamy

Sometimes, the only thing more delicious than a recipe online is the comments it receives. When it comes to sarcasm, internet comment sections are often undefeated, and the one that formed under Rachael Ray's infamous recipe for microwave bacon lives on even years after it was shut down. If you're not familiar, you may want to sit down and prepare yourself for this one. In 2004, Rachael Ray's site published a recipe called Late Night Bacon. It tasked you with putting 8 slices of bacon wrapped in paper towels in the microwave.

Rachael Ray usually has great cooking tips, and this recipe tried to be as thorough as possible given its simplicity. "Place 2 sheets of paper towel on a microwave safe plate, lay the bacon out on the paper towel not overlapping the slices. Place 2 more sheets of paper towel on top. Place in the microwave on high for 4 to 6 minutes." For six years, this unremarkable recipe was ignored until Reddit discovered it in 2010. The comment section exploded almost immediately.

You can cook lots of things in the microwave, but this was presented as a unique recipe. If sarcasm is an art form, then Late Night Bacon's comment section became the Louvre. The people were merciless. Highlights included "Do I have to push any buttons on the microwave?" and "Tried this recipe last night. The bacon was great, but the paper towels tasted awful." Truly, the people were not taking any prisoners, and it became so overwrought that it was written up in Vanity Fair, The Hairpin, and more.

It's not clear when the Food Network deleted the recipe from their website, but it lives on in archival form. The Wayback Machine shows that the last time this recipe was archived was 2015. The final archived comments are from 2013.

It's not too hard to see why the Food Network wanted to shut down the comment section. While a few were just quick quips, others were remarkably in-depth and clever in their brutality. The user who said, "Made this. I crossed the strips and experienced total prosciuttic reversal. My hunger increased exponentially and every sodium molecule in my kitchen exploded at the speed of light," was clearly on their game.

After the recipe was discovered and people started making fun of it, the Food Network put it behind a paywall. Interestingly, the recipe was also edited at some point. The original text recommends microwaving it for 6 to 13 minutes, while the edit drops it to 4 to 6 minutes. Thirteen minutes in the microwave would be enough to destroy any bacon. So it wasn't just a silly recipe, it was a bad one too. Fortunately, internet commenters are always vigilant about such things, and even though the recipe is long gone, if you know where to look, the jokes live on. And if you want crispy microwave bacon, we have a better tip for you here.