Baking Bacon Is Better Than Pan-Frying It

As part of our year-end review, we're revisiting some of the most popular stories of 2014. Here, a trick for cooking big batches of bacon in one fell swoop.

It’s another workday. You may be daydreaming about that feeling you get on lazy fall Saturday mornings, standing in front of the stove in your flannel PJs with your cast-iron skillet on high, tongs in one hand and coffee in the other. We were, too, until we remembered that time a quarter-sized drop of bacon grease launched from the hottest part of the pan and dug into the most delicate skin on our forearms. 

Avoid this scenario. Bake your bacon.

Here’s why you should default to the oven:

* You can cook a pound or more of bacon in one fell swoop. In a sheet pan, it all fits!

* You can avoid crowding. A little bit of space between each strip allows the heat to circulate evenly, ensuring crispy bacon.

* You don’t have to monitor the cooking. Put it in the oven, set the timer, and go slump on the couch for 15 minutes.

* Or scramble your eggs, since you now have the burner space.

* You can achieve perfectly flat pieces of fatty pork this way—no nibbling around curlicued edges.

* You can easily save the bacon fat. Set a cooling rack in a sheet pan, which will collect the juices, and you can tip the whole pan, pouring the fat from one spout-like corner into a jar.

Watch the video for instructions. Then check out some of our other Yahoo Food original videos here.