The Best Way To Cook Bacon? | Techniquely with Lan Lam

Summary by Krater

Lan Lam from America's Test Kitchen demonstrates two methods for cooking bacon in a skillet—the traditional way and a water-added method—and compares them to oven-baked bacon, concluding that adding a quarter cup of water to the skillet cooks bacon more evenly and prevents buckling and uneven browning.

From the video

Answers: How do you cook bacon in a pan or oven so it turns out crisp and evenly browned?

• pan-fried bacon
• oven-fried bacon
• bacon cooking techniques
• water-added bacon cooking method
• bacon rendering
• thick-cut vs center-cut bacon

Ingredients

• 5 slices bacon
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 pound bacon

What it concludes

• Adding a quarter cup of water to the skillet heats the bacon more evenly and keeps parts touching the skillet from browning too soon.
• Water-added skillet cooking prevents buckling and uneven browning while rendering the fat evenly before frying.
• Baking bacon in a 400-degree oven on a sheet pan is the best method for cooking a large batch evenly and freeing up stovetop space.
• Thick-cut bacon takes longer to cook because of its higher water content, and works best when you want thicker slices and are less worried about maximum crispiness.
• Adding water to skillet-cooked bacon helps render fat and results in a more friable texture rather than dense and dry meat.