What is the best temperature and method to cook bacon in a grill pan?

Question

Weekend mornings is always a breakfast feast in our house. When it comes to the bacon it's a war zone in the kitchen with hot fat drops shooting everywhere, and sometimes I get hit.

The texture of the bacon is never the same from soft to crispy, probably because I play with the heat so much that its never consistent. I am only doing that because I am trying to eliminate the hot fat drops.

I use a cast iron grill pan to cook the bacon on medium heat (most of the time) on a gas stove. I do preheat the pan, and use about 3 teaspoons of olive oil per 300g of bacon.

I presume I am missing a trick here or my heat is wrong. SO: What is the best temperature and method too cook bacon in a grill pan?

Please help me bring back the peace to my kitchen. :)

Answer 1

Cast iron is great for bacon, but not a grill pan. The bacon really needs to be floating on its own grease for nice even heating.

The best bacon is cooked slowly. Preheat the pan so it is an evenly heated cooking surface, then slide you bacon on to the hot pan. By slide, I mean move it around on the pan before you drop it so the pan gets a coat of grease before dropping the bacon and getting it stuck on the hot pan.

Let it cook at medium low heat, it will take longer but you'll get less splatter, the bacon won't burn, and it won't dry out either, you also have a larger window of opportunity to pick up the bacon while it's "just right" whatever that is for you.

Answer 2

I use two methods for bacon, depending on how much I am trying to make:

1. For small batches, I use a cast iron pan. I place the bacon on the pan cold, and cook over medium heat, turning and swapping strips around as necessary to cook evenly. I find it easier to control sticking with the cold pan over a preheated one. I do not add oil because there is so much fat in the bacon already.

2. For large batches, I prefer the oven where you can cook more at once. I place the bacon in a single layer on a large pan(s), and cook at 300F for approximately 30 minutes.

I find people can be very particular in their bacon preferences for fatty, crispy, and degrees in between. This may change your cooking time substantially.

Answer 3

I know that you are specifically asking about using a grill pan, but a grill pan seems like a bad place to start for bacon. You'll usually end up with less-cooked bits where the fat is chewy, and there is nothing to contain the splatter.

A regular pan will contain the splatter better and cook more evenly, but my preferred method is in the microwave on a plate with an inverted plate covering it. This contains all the splatter and cooks the bacon much more evenly. Also, I can't think why you would need oil to cook bacon on ANY surface. It's got plenty of fat by itself.