Monday 7 August 2023

How To… make the most of your bacon

 My friend Cliffs of Moher, who you might know from her adventures in taste testing, told me that never a day goes by without me giving her some useful advice. She said I ought to write a book.

Apart from the fact that there are a million and one ‘how to’ books, and websites and Instagram accounts out there, I don’t think I have enough nearly enough life enhancing hacks to fill a book. However, I do have one or two pieces of advice that might help a random person searching the internet.

So, how do you make the most of your bacon?

If you eat meat, and that includes pork, you probably eat bacon. Yum yum - but obviously not if you keep kosher or halal, or are vegetarian. This is the wrong page for you.

Probably you’ve noticed that when you open a new packet of bacon with 8 or 10 or even 14 rashers (slices), but you only need 4 this evening, then however hard you try to wrap up the remainder or keep it in a Tupperware container it often goes a bit nasty. And you end up throwing some, or indeed all, of it away. My mother’s first fridge, bought about 1960, came with a large glass box specifically for keeping bacon fresh, but the box was so large and the fridge so small that it was usually left on a shelf in the larder. 

Anyway, here’s a way to keep your bacon fresh. No more rashers that have gone a funny colour and end up in the bin.

Line a baking sheet that will fit in your freezer with baking paper. Roll up each slice of bacon and put it on the baking sheet. Freeze until frozen… but don’t leave it in the freezer for too long because you want to avoid freezer burn.

Put your frozen rolls of bacon into a plastic box and store in the freezer until you need them. Don’t forget to write a label. The rolls of bacon won’t stick to each other once they are frozen so you can take out as many, or few, as you need. The bacon is quick to defrost and feels as fresh as when you first opened the packet. But make sure it’s properly defrosted before you cook it.

It’s that easy.