How to Cook Bacon on the Stove

Cooking bacon on the stove is an easy, classic way to crisp up those delicious strips of smoky goodness. Read on for our step by step guide, including tips for choosing a good pan, dealing with splattering, and getting rid of that lingering fried bacon smell.

Not only is cooking bacon on the stovetop pretty quick (you don’t have to wait for the oven to preheat), but you can also tailor it to your liking. If you like it loose, pull it off sooner; if you like it super crisp, cook it a little longer.

Cooking bacon on the stovetop is also how we did it when I was growing up, so it’s the method most familiar to me. My mother had a long, rectangular cast iron griddle pan that fit over two burners and could cook up a whole pound of bacon at once.

Frying up the bacon was often my job. The griddle had a trough etched into its perimeter which caught the grease and channeled it to a corner where I would suction it out with a bulb baster. It was the perfect bacon cooking pan and I’m still recovering from the fact that my mother sold it at a rummage sale a few years ago.

Barring the perfect griddle, these days I use a wide, flat-bottomed 12″ frying pan. Though some recipes call for nonstick, I find that once the bacon starts releasing its fat, it will pretty much stop sticking to the pan and can be moved around very easily.

A cast iron skillet is another great choice for frying up bacon. Some pans come with raised ridges that allow the fat to drip through and away from the bacon. If you have one of those, it’s great but not necessary.

Bacon needs a fair amount of turning, so a decent pair of tongs is very helpful. You can certainly spear each piece with a fork, but I find it’s easy for the bacon to slip off and fall back into the pan, which can cause painful splattering.

People have their favorite kind of bacon. Some like it fattier than others, some like it cut thicker, or smoked. Much of your choice is about how you’re using the bacon: a good recipe will specify if the bacon should be smoked or not, or if it requires a thick cut.

In general, thicker cuts will produce chewier bacon while thinner cuts will produce crisper bacon. When I choose bacon, I look for a nice blend of meat and fat, with a little more meat than fat. I also look for natural or nitrate-free bacon and have had good luck with Niman Ranch.

Nope! All you need is the bacon and a sturdy pan. Bacon is a fatty cut of meat, and while it might initially stick to the pan, there’s no reason to worry. As it cooks, the fat will render and the bacon will naturally release from the pan.

When you remove your bacon from the pan, it needs to drain and shed some of its fat so that it doesn’t end up too greasy. Many people use paper towels but I prefer a cutup brown paper bag. Newspapers are also a popular choice. In either case, the paper should be placed on a plate as it will absorb a lot of grease and get messy quickly.

You will likely have some leftover fat in your pan (also known as drippings) when you’re done cooking the bacon. This is pure gold and should not be thrown away. Let it cool slightly (to prevent the risk of the glass shattering), pour it into a glass jar or metal can, and save it for future kitchen projects.

If your bacon is especially fatty, it might splatter rather heavily, which can cause a mess on your stove and actually hurt if some of that splattering fat touches your skin.

Some people like using a splatter screen which cuts down on some of the splattering problems by offering a layer of protection. However, it does not eliminate the problem completely as you will need to lift the screen to turn the bacon. And then, in the end, you have to clean the screen.

Wearing an apron will protect your clothes and oven mitts can protect your arms if you don’t want to get splattered.

If your pan got super messy from the bacon and especially if it got a decent crust on the bottom, here’s an easy way to deal with it:

1. After pouring off and reserving the extra fat, wipe out your pan with paper towels or newspaper and place it back on the stove.
2. Fill a pitcher with water and fill your bacon pan about half way up the sides of the pan.
3. Turn the heat up high and bring the water to a boil.
4. Using a spatula, gently scrape the bottom of the pan to dislodge any bits of stuck bacon. Some people add dish soap or baking soda to the water but I’ve never had to. The browned bits just lift right off.
5. Let the pan cool before bringing it over to the sink to dump out the water.

Some people don’t like to cook bacon at home because it can smell up the kitchen and indeed your whole house. Frying bacon is a good time to use your oven’s exhaust fan if you have one and of course you can also crack open a door or window.

I have found leaving a dish of plain vinegar on the counter for several hours afterward really does help to keep the smell away. (A tip from Jodi Liano

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