Making bacon better

Yeah, you fuckin read that right. Bacon is already perfect, isn't it? Nope. It can be better. It doesn't need much, and you can customize it however you want, so it's a great way to start experimenting if that's been an intimidating premise for you. Don't be intimidated: it's bacon. As long as you don't burn the shit out of it, it's going to be fine.

It's a simple enough process. Since I was experimenting, I cut all of my bacon in half so the pieces would be smaller and I'd have twice as many to share with others (i.e. my coworkers). Just lay that shit out on your pan; some folks say to use a wire rack on top of a cookie sheet, but I just rolled with my broiler pan. Basically, you want some kind of drainage so the bacon doesn't just sit in its rendered fat and get all greasy and shit. Now, I'm a fan of greasy anything, especially bacon, but for candied bacon, you want it to dry out a little bit.

After the bacon is on the pan, put a "healthy" portion of brown sugar on top and smear it all around. Once you've got the sugar on there, add whatever else you want to it. For my first batch, I did one half with just brown sugar and one half with some black pepper added, too. For the second batch, I added cayenne and ghost pepper to each half respectively. Like I said, experiment. Next time, I'm going to grate some garlic and put that on just to see what garlic candied bacon tastes like. I'm also going to melt some dark chocolate and dip some of the finished bacon pieces into that. Who knows what other dumbass ideas I'll come up with by then? Only time (and the blog) will tell.

When your bacon is prepared, just slip it into the oven at 375 for about 20 minutes or so. Keep an eye on it; it may need a little more or a little less time. The only thing you want to make sure of is that the bacon comes out mostly crispy. It'll finish crisping as it cools for some reason. Probably science. I don't fucking know.

Once it's cooled, you can eat it. Or you can store it to take to work the next day to force onto coworkers to get their opinions on which is the best. My favorite was the black pepper, but all the dudes at work preferred the cayenne, so I'll definitely be making more of that, maybe with smaller pieces so more people can have some. Quick, simple, open to experimentation, and inexpensive snacks right here. I won't say it's necessarily "healthy," but it probably isn't too bad for most people. Enjoy!

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