Try cooking your bacon in the oven

I had the opportunity to make up breakfast for a large crowd the other day. I chose this meal as I have finally gotten all of my chickens together into a coop and then went on one final egg hunt. Seventy five good eggs were found. I also had a few slabs of bacon left from a recent Zaycon Foods purchase.

Since I was going to use the eggs right away, I went ahead and washed them all. These are farm fresh eggs, so I didn’t want any bonus material showing up when it was time to start cracking. Also, I cracked them one at a time into a separate bowl, as I didn’t want any surprises spoiling the rest of the previously opened eggs. I did find there was one store-bought egg left and I marveled at how pale the yolk was compared to the fresh eggs. I used two large bowls; as I was going to mix them up by hand with two additional ingredients, then use my largest pan to cook in batches until I got through them all.

I don’t like to actually fry bacon in a pan on the stove, as that is smoky, they spit hot grease, and there is heat only from the bottom of the pan to cook the strips. I use a baking pan with sides to hold the released grease. I’ll put the bacon into the pan, not really crowding them, as they will shrink. This time I used a 350 degree oven temperature, instead of 400, as there was another baking project going on that needed the lower temperature. Also, my oven is a convection oven, so I try to always use the blower as it really speed up the cooking process. It took me two hours to cook 20 pounds of bacon this way.

You need toast for breakfast, right? I had a two-pound loaf of bread I wanted to toast, but my toaster only does two slices at a time. When the other baking projects were done, I placed slices of bread directly onto the hot shelf of the oven, after turning the blower off. I checked them after a few minutes for proper browning, and then turned them over to brown the other side. It really wasn’t that long until all the slices were lightly browned and ready to serve with butter.

I don’t think anyone wants a recipe calling for 75 eggs, so here is a much-reduced portion of the recipe I developed.

DAN’S SCRAMBLED EGGS

1 teaspoon butter

4 eggs

1/8 cup heavy cream (I used the 40 percent stuff)

Kosher salt, to taste

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, freshly grated

In a frying pan, heat butter until bubbly, but before it starts to brown. Crack eggs into a bowl and add cream and salt. Stir well with a fork to break open yolks and mix well. Pour into hot pan and allow the eggs to cook through a bit before stirring and scraping the pan with a wooden spoon. When the eggs are partially cooked, stir in the cheese. Finish cooking to desired doneness. Serve warm.

OVEN BACON

1 to 2 pounds bacon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make sure the rack is in the middle of the oven or towards the middle of the oven if you want to cook two baking sheets worth at once. You can line the sheet with foil if desired for quick clean up. Arrange bacon onto the sheet; the pieces can touch each other. Place sheet into the hot oven and allow to cook for about 10 minutes, then check and allow to cook for a minute more or so until your level of doneness is achieved. The bacon can get really crispy really fast. Remove the bacon from the oven and use tongs to transfer it to a plate lined with paper towels to drain.