I wondered why I hadn’t thought of this one myself. It’s an offbeat application of a classic ‘crisping’ technique, I’ll admit. But it’s also obvious – once its been pointed out to you! And it produces perfect, luxe, tasty, crispy bacon…
__________________________
Popularist chef-legend Jacques Pepin says his mom used to cook bacon in the oven, dredged in flour, all the time. (As in his photo, left.) And it’s his fave way, too: “Cook around 375 F, flip bacon after about 10 minutes. Then cook another 10 or so until it’s as crispy as you like it. Hardly any shrinkage. And the bacon has a delicious crust on it.”
__________________________
There’s a movement afoot in the social media to revolutionize how we all cook bacon. I’m intrigued and enthused at the same time. And that’s something that doesn’t happen with me a lot!
Don’t fry it, dredge it!
The foodistas – which is what I call the foodie undergrounders – have been popularizing a simple way to9 upgrade and enhance your bacon experience. It involves dredging your strips in flour and baking them in the oven.
My first exposure to the technique came in a dissenter’s post. Foodie Nancy Mock, writing at Simply Recipes, said she tried it but got results that were, at best, ‘unexpected’.
Turns out she floured her bacon as instructed, but cooked in the oven on a parchment-lined baking sheet. You might think that wouldn’t make much of a difference. She certainly didn’t. But it sure does, in this case.
Nancy’s folly…
That’s what I’m calling this incident – with no malice aforethought or prejudice. But it was immedi-ately clear to me that there is a factor native to ‘contact’ cooking that makes it incompatible with flour-crisping.
When bacon cooks in direct contact with the pan, it’s in contact with the rendered fat. That means you’re likely to get gummy flour and texture, not a crispy coating. Especially if you set the oven to too low a temperature and don’t pre-heat it.
Sure enough, that’s what Nancy says she got: “The flour added an unpleasant texture to the bacon. I believe this is because the flour absorbed oil in some places on the strips, creating a pasty consist-ency.”
The answer…
… Is to cook the bacon in the oven on a sheet pan to collect the rendered fat, but also on a wire rack to keep the flour out of the liquid.
My take
I like the results that four-dredging produces – when cooked properly. But Nancy unknowingly made a good point when she noted that the flour can absorb grease that might otherwise have dripped off the bacon. So we’re looking at a fattier end product than we would get if we just cooked bacon the usual way and drained it on some paper towels.
I don’t eat bacon that often, but when I do I want to enjoy the treat to the max. So I’ll be using the oven-rack method with flour dredging whenever I want an amped-up dining experience and have the extra time it takes.
But there may be dark dietary implications for folks who (unwisely) consume bacon regularly and/or frequently…
~ Maggie J.