Survivalism goes Mainstream

**Rick** · 04-14-2008, 07:59 AM

Don et. al. - A survival tactic for the in-law visits. Prior to the visit cook up a lot of bacon and crumble it up. Place it in any container that you can hide on your person. (the longer the visit the more containers you will need). When you think you can't stand it any more just excuse yourself to the bathroom and chill out on crumbled bacon. Hmmmm.

By the way, if you want a real treat, instead of frying your bacon, try baking it in the oven. I use a cooling rack placed inside a baking pan (cookie type with sides). Spread the bacon on the cooling rack and cook on low heat. Just like making jerky.

**Riverrat** · 04-14-2008, 09:32 AM

Now I am hungry, gotta go....

**Alpine_Sapper** · 04-14-2008, 12:47 PM

Originally Posted by Rick

By the way, if you want a real treat, instead of frying your bacon, try baking it in the oven. I use a cooling rack placed inside a baking pan (cookie type with sides). Spread the bacon on the cooling rack and cook on low heat. Just like making jerky.

Sweeeeeeet. I gotta try this.

**Rick** · 04-14-2008, 12:50 PM

You'll wind up with bacon but without the grease. It will drip down into the pan beneath the rack. My wife put me on to this and I love it. Just keep an eye on it and don't let it over bake or it will turn to powder when you pick it up.

**Aurelius95** · 04-14-2008, 02:26 PM

Originally Posted by Rick

You'll wind up with bacon but without the grease. It will drip down into the pan beneath the rack. My wife put me on to this and I love it. Just keep an eye on it and don't let it over bake or it will turn to powder when you pick it up.

How long does it take, and I assume you put it in about 150 degrees?

**nell67** · 04-14-2008, 02:27 PM

We do this with our bacon at work,325* for 8 minutes does the trick.

**Alpine_Sapper** · 04-14-2008, 02:28 PM

Originally Posted by Rick

You'll wind up with bacon but without the grease. It will drip down into the pan beneath the rack. My wife put me on to this and I love it. Just keep an eye on it and don't let it over bake or it will turn to powder when you pick it up.

I've baked it before quite often, and I use a rack as well. But I do it at ~300-350. I've used deep fryers when I was in a hurry and out of pre-cooked in a restaurant, too.

Sooo, what you're saying is, I can't really turn this into bacon jerkey???

You are such a tease.

**Rick** · 04-14-2008, 02:29 PM

I set the oven at 200 and it needs to bake for a couple of hours. The exact time will depend on the amount of fat in the bacon. I generally check on it after an hour just to see how it's doing then about every 1/2 after that until it's done.

**Rick** · 04-14-2008, 02:31 PM

Oh, no. Not bacon jerky. Sorry. I just meant you can bake it LIKE jerky.

I gotta try that 325 thing. 8 minutes is better than 2 hours. The sooner I can eat bacon the better!!

**nell67** · 04-14-2008, 02:34 PM

We have convection ovens at work rick,dont know if that will make a difference as to how long it needs to cook in a normal home oven.So just check it after 8 minutes,then adjust accordingly,if that isn't done enough for you.

**Rick** · 04-14-2008, 02:37 PM

I wondered how they whipped out bacon so fast. That makes sense. I'll try it and see what happens.

I would think there would be to much fat in bacon to make jerky out of it. But....if you don't plan to store it I don't know why you couldn't make some. I might even try that. It won't last more than a day or two around here anyway. By then it will be just a memory.

**nell67** · 04-14-2008, 02:41 PM

Yep,we cook 10 lb. roasts in 3.5 hours,at 250 degrees,so it has got to be the forced air from the oven,if you over load the oven,and the can't circulate,then the roasts do not cook as fast.