/ck/ - Food & Cooking

My first step is to prepare the cooked ingredients. I don’t want my almost completed sandwich to sit idly by while my bacon and prosciutto cooks. If I get started on the cooked meats first, by the time I’m almost finished assembling my sandwich, the bacon and prosciutto will be finished.

So first, the bacon. This might be one of the most controversial parts of my sandwich, mainly because of the price, and honestly, rightfully so. The total cost of my meal was approximately $5.77, and the two slices of bacon cost $1.40. This means the two strips of bacon I used is just about 25% of my entire meal. I got the bacon at Whole Foods, and in my defense, there’s a location right next to my house. But is the bacon any better than the cheap stuff you can get at any old grocery store? I honestly don’t think so.I probably won’t buy it again; the price just doesn’t justify the purchase.

To cook it, I’m using a Lodge carbon steel pan, of course if you’re emulating my preparation you could use any pan, but I like this one because it’s large enough to encompass the entire strip of bacon without needing it to fold on itself. Why am I cooking it in the oven, you ask? Bacon fried on the stovetop heats unevenly, causing it to curl. If you heat the bacon in an oven, the heat is distributed evenly, preventing curling. The downsides of course are that bacon grease tends to splatter when cooked, and you’ll have to clean your oven to prevent burnt oil from accumulating. Obviously I’m in-between oven cleanings, so please, no judgements. I don’t find preheating necessary, I’ll pop the pan and the bacon into a cold oven, and I set the temperature at 500 degrees, checking now and then to see that it’s not burning. I’ll flip the bacon once to ensure even crispiness. After I finish eating, I’ll collect the bacon grease into a jar, let it cool, and put it in the fridge. A bit of bacon fat when sautéing food in place of traditional cooking oil improves the taste of foods immensely in my opinion.