How can I get my bacon flatter?

Question

When frying bacon, it tends to curl up. I don't like it because my bacon doesn't cook equally and it's hard to get it crisp that way.

Is there a technique or a tip so I can have flat bacon?

Answer 1

This is how I cook bacon, and also produce almost perfectly flat bacon. No special tools required (Well, I'm assuming most people have the following in their kitchen).

Tools

• Sheet Tray
• Cooling Rack (slightly smaller than the sheet tray)
• parchment paper (Optional, but makes for easier cleanup).
• BACON (I like the extra-thick cut).

Steps

1. Take the sheet tray and line with parchment paper.
2. Lay bacon down on parchment paper. You can fill the tray up, but I make sure the bacon stays in a single layer with no overlapping.
3. Place the cooling rack upside down onto the bacon. This should keep it from curling.
4. Place into oven and turn oven to 400 F. I don't find I need to pre-heat it, as, well, bacon isn't very complicated to cook.
5. In about 15 minutes or so, you'll have cooked, flat bacon. (Adjust cooking time depending on your preference of crispiness.
6. Take out of oven and remove from tray. (The tray and fat are hot, the bacon will keep cooking if you don't)

The cooling rack should keep it from curling while the fat slowly renders out. As a bonus, I don't need to clean my stove after.

Alternatively, the mention of the George Forman grill reminds me of an idea I saw somewhere (might have been Good Eats), use a waffle Iron! Use it just like the grill in Ward's answer.

Answer 2

This is specifically the reason for the invention of Bacon Presses

Answer 3

A George Foreman -type grill does a good job keeping bacon flat, and also lets the fat drain away as it cooks:

Answer 4

I've found that baking the bacon on a cooling rack (so the fat drips away) also results in flatter bacon.

Answer 5

This is very old practical way to get flat bacon - take your cold water bottle from the fridge, pour into a dish or pan, and let the strips of bacon lay in the coolness. In just a few minutes, the cool water will work its magic. Then cook. It will come out flat every single time. This is an old trick from my great grandmother. Don't dirty up a bunch of pans, or buy weights. Just use cold, cold water!

Answer 6

I just make incisions on the fatty rind before frying. I do however use a press to smooth the creases out of my morning newspaper...

Answer 7

If you only need a small amount of bacon, microwaved bacon tends to be very, very flat. Of course, it doesn't scale well to quantities for more than one or two people, in which case the oven method already mentioned is extremely effective.

Answer 8

If you are specifically frying them in a pan, I would turn the heat way down, and use a bit more oil. This cooks like it slowly, so the bacon doesn't curl. It does however take like, a good 30 mins to cook a strip of bacon. But you get nice orange color bacon that is ultra crispy.

Cutting the strip in half makes it curl less too.