I’ve had my sous-vide for years, and I’ve always skipped the bacon recipe. I do like the idea of cooking bacon in bulk though. I’ll cook all the bacon at once in the oven. However, now I’m tired of the cleanup, so I thought I might give the sous-vide bacon recipe a shot.
Best thing? It said I could just chuck the bacon into the water still in the package. I love doing that with the pork tenderloin.
The bacon cooked until the next morning when I noticed fat globules dancing about my sous vide water, and then I spotted the package seam that had opened up like the Deepwater Horizon.
I also read the ingredient list.
Sure. Bacon in STURDY plastic packaging. Now you tell me.
The bacon was still in the pack, just a bit soggy, so I just fished it out and started again with all the bacon sealed in a sous vide bag this time.
It never quite cooked, though. I decided that’s because I’d used thick-cut bacon. After a day or so I gave up and fried it all up in a pan.
First bite of bacon? Gah. Hideous.
I eventually realized that after the breach the bacon must have been simmering for hours in water infused with melted plastic. I suppose I should have thought of that, but I was so enchanted by the dancing fat globules I never considered the bacon.
I bought more bacon, thin bacon this time, and tried again the next day. This time the lean part darkened, and the fat part rendered, and then when I did the final “searing” step (often called “cooking the bacon”) it all disintegrated into Baco-Os. Tasty, yes, but not really bacon. More uses, though. I’m throwing it in everything.
I’m sure next time I do it, it will be easy, clean, and painless. This time was a nightmare though.