How To Cook Bacon on the Stovetop

Step 1

Start with a cold pan. Bacon should be started in a cold pan, so before you turn on the heat, lay out your strips on the pan. You can place them so they are touching and crowd the pan a little as the bacon will shrink as it cooks but do not overlap too much.

Step 2

Cook bacon low and slow. Bacon cooks best slowly over low heat, so turn your burner on low. Soon the bacon will begin to release some of its fat. When it starts to buckle and curl, use the tongs to loosen the strips and turn each slice to cook on the other side. Keep flipping and turning the bacon so that it browns evenly.

Step 3

Pour off grease carefully. If the bacon is very fatty and your pan is filling up with grease, you can remove some by carefully suctioning it off with a bulb baster and squeezing it into a glass or metal container. Some people just spoon off the excess with a metal spoon. You can also pour off some of the grease but be very careful when you do this as spilled grease can cause a grease fire. I usually turn off the flame when I pour off the grease and I check be sure that none of it has dribbled down the sides of the pan. In any case, be sure that you pour it into a sturdy glass, metal, or ceramic container.

Step 4

Cook until the bacon is done. When is the bacon done? That depends. Some people like their bacon extra crispy and others like it a little loose and flappy. It's important to know that your bacon will continue to cook some when you pull it from the pan and will stiffen up a little upon cooling. In general you will want to see even browning and make sure that the meat part has lost some of its raw redness.

Step 5

Let the cooked bacon drain. Using your tongs, remove the pieces from the pan and onto your paper bag/towels or newspapers to drain.

Step 6

Cook the remaining bacon in batches. If you have more bacon to cook, you can simply drain the excess grease and add more bacon as you remove pieces. If the pan has developed a browned crust on the bottom, let the pan cool down and wipe it clean before continuing.