Stop frying bacon in a pan as 1 cooking method is far more crispier and tastier

Few things beat a leisurely morning spent preparing a proper breakfast. There's something deeply satisfying about the sound of bacon sizzling away. Yet while frying bacon is the most popular cooking method, it can actually leave your rashers limp and greasy — and the truth is, you don't need oil at all.

Bacon is perfectly capable of cooking in its own fat, and adding oil to the pan causes the fatty white parts to cook far too rapidly without rendering correctly. The result is that the white edges begin to burn before the pink meat has had a chance to cook through properly, leaving you with rashers that are simultaneously charred and chewy.

Lori Yates, a cook and founder of Foxes Love Lemons, shared that during her time at culinary school, bacon was never cooked in a pan, as reports the Express. Instead, the oven is the preferred method for achieving a superior texture.

She said: "Going to culinary school certainly introduced me to fancy kitchen techniques like making French pastries and hollandaise sauce. "But it also introduced me to something so simple, so basic, so obvious, that I was left scratching my head as to why I hadn't thought of it before: how to cook bacon in the oven."

Using oil causes the fatty portions of bacon to cook at an excessive rate, resulting in meat that is both burnt and overdone, while also causing the pan to reach dangerously high temperatures. Both the fat and oil will cause grease to splatter everywhere and burn the pan, leaving you with considerably more washing up once you've finished cooking the bacon.

Preparing bacon in the oven isn't just simpler, but it envelops the rashers with heat from every angle, which allows the fat to render gradually, cooking the meat without requiring any oil. Oven-baked bacon emerges crispier and boasts a deeper flavour because it hasn't been drenched in oil, making it an effortless way to enhance a breakfast butty with minimal fuss.

How to properly cook bacon in the oven

Start by preheating your oven to 190°C, then line a rimmed baking tray with baking parchment or tin foil.

Arrange the bacon in a single layer, ensuring the rashers don't overlap, as this will prevent them from cooking uniformly. Then, pop it in the oven for approximately 20 minutes.

If you prefer chewier bacon, remove it once it's just turned brown, while for extra crispy bacon, leave it for two to three additional minutes. There's no need to turn the bacon as it should cook evenly by itself, but do check on it a few minutes before the cooking time finishes, as bacon can rapidly go from perfectly done to overcooked. Once the bacon is ready, transfer it onto some kitchen paper to absorb any remaining grease, and the bacon should be crispy, golden and more flavourful than the pan-fried alternative.