WineLovers Discussion Group

OK, this might not be a revelation to anyone but me, but I have just discovered microwaved bacon for myself.

Always on the search for "bachelor vittles," i.e. fast, filling with little or no clean-up, I decided to put some bacon in the microwave. I laid two sheets of unprinted paper toweling down in a plate; placed the individual strips of bacon (not touching one another) on the toweling; covered these with another two sheets of toweling; and microwaved on high for four minutes. (I'm still experimenting with times.)

Well, lemme tell ya'! I have never had such crisp bacon in my life. I have rarely had such greaseless bacon. And all the strips lay perfectly flat next to one another ... no curling and evenly done on both sides. All the fat ended up pretty much in the toweling and could be disposed of easily. The plate wiped off in a sec.

Maybe I should have bought myself a "Microwaving for Dummies" book early on in life and spared myself all the trial and error!

Gary Barlettano wrote:OK, this might not be a revelation to anyone but me, but I have just discovered microwaved bacon for myself.

This is one of the very few things I use my microwave for. Agreed.... nice to make just a couple slices with no fuss or mess.

Did you have trouble with the bacon sticking to the paper toweling? This is a major problem for me. I use the same method, but always have a few that stick so bad, it leaves bits of paper on the strips of bacon. Maybe I am over cooking the bacon, not allowing for the few minutes it will continue to cook once I take it out of the microwave.

Karen/NoCA wrote:Did you have trouble with the bacon sticking to the paper toweling? This is a major problem for me. I use the same method, but always have a few that stick so bad, it leaves bits of paper on the strips of bacon. Maybe I am over cooking the bacon, not allowing for the few minutes it will continue to cook once I take it out of the microwave.

So far I have not encountered that problem. I'm away this week so I cannot continue the experiment until next week, but I have done this at six, five and four minutes with no sticking to the paper at all. There is, however, a lot of fat in the paper which probably inhibits the sticking. Is your bacon very lean? The bacon strips will indeed stick to one another if they touch.

Karen, two thoughts:

1. The type of paper towel can make a difference -- I use store brands without the fluff that you find in Bounty, for example.

2. I also found that cooking it at a lower heat setting and longer helped reduce the stickiness, that and putting only one sheet of paper underneath the bacon -- all on a plate of course.

Microwave bacon saved my, uh...bacon.

My wife hates the mess the real stuff makes on the stove top so for years we never had bacon in our kitchen. When the microwave stuff came along we compromised and I get to have the occasional BLT sandwich again

TimMc wrote:so for years we never had bacon in our kitchen

Grounds for divorce, surely.

Shhhh....


Don't let my wife hear you.

This is AMAZING!!
For the last several years I've been cooking bacon according to Jenise's method in the oven. I thought that was revoluntionary. But Microwave?? Had some this morning - bacon smoked and sliced at the neighborhood butcher - perfectly crispy, non-greasy, not curled just delicious. If I didn't have a microwave, I'd buy one just for this.

Howard wrote:This is AMAZING!!
For the last several years I've been cooking bacon according to Jenise's method in the oven. I thought that was revoluntionary. But Microwave?? Had some this morning - bacon smoked and sliced at the neighborhood butcher - perfectly crispy, non-greasy, not curled just delicious. If I didn't have a microwave, I'd buy one just for this.

It was a revelation and epiphany for me as well. That's why I started the thread ... out of pure jubilation!

I loved microwave bacon. But it's time consuming and labor intensive when you need enough to serve a family. For that, the oven method excels IMO.

For that, the oven method excels IMO

I had never tried the oven method until this weekend when we had 10 family members over for brunch. Wow, I love it! Quick, easy cleanup (I used toss away pans...for shame!), and very very tasty.