Epic Local Bacon

The fellas over at Epic Meal Time (youtube.com/epicmealtime) have taught us a lot about cooking since they started their Internet cooking sensation back in the summer of 2010.  
 
If you need to deep fry a 30 lb egg roll, assemble a 20 lb meat loaf or just generally find inspiring ways to get many more gallons of whiskey into your family's daily meals, they're the guys with the ideas.

They're also all about the bacon.  They surely didn't invent the idea of baking bacon but they've certainly made it more popular.  Baking bacon is likely more of a restaurant-diner practice, used when you need to prepare a lot of bacon in a controlled way.  But baking rather than frying those strips of cured, smoked pork belly has some key advantages as well.  The result is definitely more evenly cooked and fat-rendered, making for better texture.  You can make a lot more than you would otherwise be able to fit in a frying pan, which means you can feed more people or have some leftovers for use in salads, on pizza or any of the other million things that are made better by bacon.

Local bacon has been showing up more in our local markets and the product is improving. For years I found it hard to find a local bacon that stood up to the mass-produced commercial stuff but now it's easier to find some stellar local bacon.  Kuinshoeve Meats in Rothesay carries its own bacon, a uniquely-flavoured bacon that's not nearly as salty as the big company bacon, which I think is great.  It cooks beautifully, especially when baked and has a wonderful tender-chewy texture.  You can also find local bacon at Cochran's Market in Rothesay and I'm sure you'll see more of it at more of the smaller markets around the Saint John region as it grows in popularity.

Baking (or roasting) your bacon couldn't be simpler.  Just cover a cookie sheet tightly with foil and lay on your bacon. A slight overlap will make your epic bacon flips easier but I usually like the strips separate, and I just flip one by one.  Heat your oven to 375 F, or use 350 F with a convection oven. I use convection heat usually as the oven pre-heat and cooking time is much faster.  Bake the bacon for 8-9 minutes (around 6 if using convection oven) then remove and drain off what should be a substantial amount of fat.  You can save this fat for use in other cooking (great for searing roasts, adding a dash to salad dressing, etc). Flip the bacon and put back in the oven for another 8-9 minutes (again, 6 if using a convection oven).  Watch closely, especially toward the end of the cooking time to ensure it doesn't overcook.