Bacon has turn out to be a mainstay on American breakfast plates. This cured, often-smoked pork product, minimize largely from a pig’s stomach, provides a one-of-a-kind crunch and savoriness to breakfast, offering a salty counterpoint to different signature dishes like scrambled eggs, pancakes and oatmeal.
All of us have bacon preferences: charred and crisp, mushy and chewy and, for many of us, someplace within the center. Whatever the consequence, a trending TikTok cooking hack claims to at the very least assure even cooking, stop harmful, soiled oil splatters, and hold the meat from burning past recognition. However does it maintain up? I put the viral video tip to the take a look at.
The water-cooked bacon course of
Although I’m a fan of the fast, straightforward, CNET-approved oven-baking method and even speedier air fryer methodology, the water-cooked methodology allegedly renders the bacon’s fats slowly and constantly, leading to uniform cooking, fewer splatters and even decreased sodium.
Right here’s the way it works.
The stovetop course of is easy:
- Place bacon slices in an outsized skillet in order that they lie flat.
- Add ¼ cup of water to the skillet and cook dinner over medium warmth.
- Permit the water to steam and evaporate. As soon as the water is gone, decrease the warmth to medium-low and cook dinner the bacon till it reaches your required crispiness.
- Take away the cooked bacon from the skillet and place on a paper towel to take in extra oil.
Finally, the water is alleged to suppress sizzling grease from popping violently and touchdown on stovetops or, extra importantly, your pores and skin. It additionally lets the meat cook dinner low and gradual earlier than it fries in its personal grease, somewhat than crisping instantly because the skillet heats up.
Water can even draw out a few of the bacon’s sodium, which is right for individuals who discover it too salty.
The outcomes
Coloration me shocked by the outcomes: This cooking tip was executed flawlessly and lived as much as the hype. The bacon strips have been chewy but crispy, with no bitter char, and cleanup took mere seconds with a fast wipe with a sponge and towel. (Professional tip: Reserve the leftover bacon grease to cook dinner all the things, from greens to rice, for added taste).
My solely gripe was that it took a couple of minutes longer than utilizing an oven or cast-iron skillet. And, frankly, the clean-up of pesky splatters would far surpass the time it takes to cook dinner with water, at the very least with the latter software.
In an trade filled with gimmicks and unverifiable shortcuts, it’s good to sift by the culinary fluff and discover one thing that really works, particularly with an ingredient as universally beloved as bacon. The truth that this trick has trended on TikTok is only a footnote and proof that social media typically will get it proper.
Hungry for extra ideas? Right here’s find out how to recycle frying oil, plus a neat trick for degreasing a frying pan earlier than washing.
