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Bacon, the main dish or a side dish, is both. Cured bacon needs care. Smoking is the high-alert word in this case. Cooking bacon without smoking is a success you would aspire to. But it doesn’t happen easily if you don’t know how to cook bacon without smoke. Cooking in a hurry or without attention would do you no good.
There are multiple ways to cook bacon without smoke. The following are the safest and most practical ways to cook bacon without smoke.
- Oven-baked bacon
- Cook bacon in a microwave
- Air Fryer Bacon or cook via Air Fryer
- Stovetop bacon
- cook homemade bacon
Whether the bacon is streaky, middle cut or short cut bacon, they have a higher quantity of fat that needs rendering. Here is how we will talk about how to do it well. Stay tuned and have a look.
How to cook bacon without smoke?
Bacon is a party dish and becomes the attraction to many meals. You may find ways to cater to it. Cooking it in the oven, stovetop, air fryer or microwave, is the fat that needs to be rendered to give bacon a perfect taste and perfect cooking.
But you need to be on the right track while dealing with different cookwares. I mean, keep the change in mind and handle it differently.
A few points or you say, information prompts you must have when cooking bacon.
- First, bacon has a low smoking point and absorbs heat easily, resulting in burning if not attended well.
- Second, the fat factor requires extra attention, like flipping bacon often to avoid grease splatters or overcooked, chewy bacon.
A Refrigerated Salsa in your house can enhance the specialty of tasting this special dish.
Oven-Baked Bacon:
Oven-baked bacon gives you no mess. Easy cooking provides you with many perks:
- Topmost, you need not face splatters or smoke like you have on the stovetop and can have the fat rendered by adding foil paper on the baking sheet.
- It helps you stay free of mess with clean hands and a clean pan. The bacon cooks in its own fat.
- You plan a party and can have loads of bacon cooked without the mess in less time.
- The bacon cooks evenly and there are no dried-up or chewy spots.
Note: If you want lighter and crispier bacon, place the cuts on the wire rack and then put the wire rack on the baking sheet. It will take time, though, but it comes up well with slow cooking.
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
- Line the baking tray with foil paper.
- Place the bacon on the sheet without making them touch each other.
- Cook until the bacon reaches the desired tenderness and color.
- Take the tray out and place the cuts on a towel-lined plate to remove excess fat.
Microwave Bacon:
It is free of smoke. It is way easier because of hands-free service, no extra cookware and only a few minutes of cooking.
Follow the certain tips or you say points to remember when you choose to cook bacon in the microwave.
- Use layers of bacon in the tray to have better, crispier cuts.
- Adjust the timing of the microwave depending on its voltage or power setting of it.
- Use paper towels necessarily to remove extra fat from the meat.
- Use any microwave-safe plate to cook the bacon. You need not have any special baking tray for this purpose.
Downsides of using microwave
Cooked bacon gets chewy when resting longer after cooking. It requires more careful setting of microwave voltage. The fat lovers would have no fat left in this method.
Too much use of paper towels increases the expense of cooking at home. Moreover, stickiness due to the use of ordinary paper towels may occur.
Air Fryer Bacon Vs Stove Top Bacon
It would be a good idea to see how they both differ and stay similar at the same time in their method of cooking bacon:
Air Fryer Bacon | Stovetop Bacon |
Less messy | Have splatters |
Fat free | Fats can be kept as you like |
More crispy | Less crispy if cooked on low flame |
Fast cooking | Adjustable flame |
Less serving | Less serving |
Low energy use | High energy use, |
To sum up, the talk about air fryer bacon and stovetop bacon, let us not ignore the fact that grease or fat in which the bacon is cooked is not really healthier. So if you talk about healthy bacon, the air fryer wins the game.
Yet, you have the tips and tricks available to cook bacon on the stove better. You could get smokeless, less chewy and tastier bacon even on the stovetop.
An air fryer gives you an efficient airflow to let the bacon become crispier. I suggest you use Nu Wave Brio 7-in-1 Air Fryer Oven for air frying. However, a Stove top like
Elite Gourmet EDB-302BF Countertop Double Cast Iron Burner is a good choice for adjusting temperature and portability.
Applewood Smoked Bacon: Things you need to know
It can be cooked in the air fryer as well. It has its own smoky aroma that is retained in the air fryer. It is cooked for 10 mins at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The tip is to take the slices out with the help of a tong to avoid burning.
How to cook homemade bacon without a smoke?
Yes, many different ways to cook smoked bacon, even without a smoker. Follow me down here and find the easy tips to follow:
- Pick a fresh meat piece.
- Wash and pat dry
- Cure it in pink salt, brown sugar and cure salt. (quantities vary with meat size)
- Rub the meat well.
- Put it in a plastic bag and refrigerate it belly side up. Keep on flipping the side. Keep it in for 4 days.
- Now put it out, wash it and prepare the smoker.
- Foil a pan, add black tea leaves, regular sugar and brown sugar and place the bacon over it.
- Now cook it on the stove till the smoke appears and cover it with another pot.
- Cook for 2 hours and flip it every 30 minutes.
- Your bacon is ready to be sliced and cooked in a pan.
Carrot bacon recipe without liquid smoke
Duration:
- Marinate: 30 mins
- Cook: 20 mins
- Prep: 5 mins
- Total: 55 mins
- Serving: 4-6 person
Ingredients:
- 2 carrots
- 2 tbsp soya sauce
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 1 ½ tbsp tahini
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- ¾ tsp smoked paprika
- ¼ tsp pepper
Method:
- Make long thin strips of carrot with a peeler
- Preheat the oven at 300-degree Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, combine soya sauce, oil, tahini, maple syrup, paprika and pepper and mix them with a whisk.
- Marinate the carrot strips in the mixture for 30 mins at room temperature.
- Now place the strips on a baking sheet and brush the carrot slices with marination.
- Bake for 20-25 mins and keep an eye on the carrots for the last 5 mins.
- Carrots are ready to eat.
Tasty Treat Tips: If you want to enhance the taste of bacon, you can use Parmesan Cheese.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
How to Make Tempeh and Coconut Bacon Without Liquid Smoke?
The recipe goes the same as that of carrot bacon, with slight differences in ingredients. Coconut is in the form of flakes which is the difference.
Tempeh is fermented soybean Indonesian food. The slices of tempeh are the same as that of carrot bacon.
How to Avoid Smoke in an Air Fryer Cooking Bacon?
Add a cup of water to the lower pan to avoid smoke from the air fryer. Adding rock salt to the bacon is also a useful tip.
Can You Cook Bacon in an Air Fryer?
Yes, surely you can cook bacon in the air fryer. It is a neat way to cook bacon with no smoke and less grease.
Conclusion:
Cooking bacon without smoke has a variety of methods to follow. The more you do it following pre planning tips, the better you get the bacon with less effort and a clean kitchen.
Your house will not smoke and your pans will be clean. Although there are fat lovers who may not like the idea, different styles of cooking give your taste buds a tickle that is worth enjoying.