Saturday, February 05, 2011

Grilled bacon

I've come to prefer to cook bacon in the bottom of a grill pan lined with foil. Pour in about a dstsp of oil (I use sunflower, mostly), and smear the bacon in it - the oil is both a conductor of heat and a protector from the flame. Set the grill to low, and turn the bacon when you start to hear it sizzling. Thereafter, and particularly if your grill is as hot as mine is, you need to turn the rashers with increasing frequency, because otherwise the rinds will burn. I usually cook them until they're crispy.

2 comments:

elwyn said...

Hello Nicholas,

Your bacon looks delicious. Does the oil smear on the pink part of the bacon flesh protect it from drying out and burning? The pink section always seems to cook first yet one wants to have the fattier part, requiring more cooking, crisped well. I had not thought to use oil when grilling bacon as I have always considered bacon to be a fat meat which almost bastes itself.

I like your idea of the foil. I would use it to keep the griller clean. Do you have an opinion on whether the foil should be shiny or dull side up?

Nicholas Clee said...

Yes, I believe that the oil does protect the bacon flesh, although I cannot claim to have tested the theory properly - with oil and without. I use only a little, because, as you say, the bacon rends its own fat.

Another theory is that the shiny side of the foil will intensify the heat, increasing the risk of burning. So I place it in the pan with the dull side up.