When Oven-Cooking Bacon, Skip This Tip That Just Results In Extra Cleanup

Bacon really had a moment in the early 2000s, but by the 2010s, it almost became insufferable. You couldn't swing a BLT without running into a meme, a new recipe, or some food that shouldn't have bacon in it being infused with smoky, salty pork. Things toned down in later years, and today bacon has reclaimed its calling as a delicious food that complements many dishes without being overbearing. It's still beloved, and a majority of people enjoy having it extra crispy. The oven is a great way to achieve that crisp, especially for large quantities, but you can save yourself some hassle and clean-up by skipping the cooling rack.

If you look for recipes for cooking bacon in the oven, many recommend lining a baking sheet with foil and placing the cooling rack on top. Then, bacon is arranged on the rack. The idea here is that the fat will drip from the bacon onto the baking sheet and you'll get a crispier, less greasy end product. What you also get is a bigger mess to clean up.

You're going to have to clean the baking sheet either way. But cooling racks used for bacon are especially hard to clean. It's not just grease; the fat clings to the wires and can take a lot of scrubbing to remove. If you have ever tried to scrub into the little squares to get those bits off, you know just how long this job can take. It's an extra nuisance that you don't need.

Crispy bacon is definitely worth the extra effort, but you can get it to crisp in a skillet the traditional way, even when it's cooking in its own fat. The grease doesn't take away from the crispiness. When Tasting Table covered tips for cooking bacon in the oven, our expert pointed out why the cooling rack just isn't worth it. By allowing the fat to drip down, you're drying the bacon out. The trade-off in crispiness is negligible because it's going to crisp up just fine on a baking sheet without the cooling rack.

Another argument for using the cooling rack is that it allows the heat to circulate around the bacon, so you don't need to flip it. Again, this isn't always a concern in the oven. If you line a baking pan with parchment paper, or foil for even crispier results, and lay the bacon strips evenly so they don't touch, you shouldn't need to flip them. Bacon is so thin that circulating the heat isn't really a concern; it's going to cook just fine either way.

If you are concerned about the excess grease, then the standard procedure for cooking bacon applies. Have another baking sheet or a plate lined with paper towels that you can place the bacon on after it's done cooking. You can pat the bacon dry if you like, or just let it soak into the paper to get rid of the extra grease. You'll have crispy, juicy bacon without the extra time spent cleaning a cooling rack. Try our crispy oven bacon recipe and see for yourself.