Freezing Bacon
As I mentioned previously, I like to buy bacon when it's on a buy one, get one free kind of sale. Of course, this is way more bacon than I would normally use all at once, and so I freeze it. I used to throw the whole package in the freezer, but this was a problem because I rarely need to thaw and cook a whole package of bacon. So, I'd end up partially thawing it and trying to take off just a few slices, which never worked very well.
Now I separate the bacon into groups of two strips, fold them in half, and put them on a baking sheet. I then put the whole sheet in the freezer and leave it there until the bacon is frozen solid.
The frozen bacon pieces go into a plastic bag and back into the freezer. When they're frozen this way, I can easily remove the quantity of bacon that I need and the rest can stay frozen.
This is so handy when I need just a little bit of bacon for something, like to top a salad, or a pizza, or a hamburger or two, and since the bacon is easy to use, I'm far less likely to let it get freezer burnt than I'd be if it was frozen in one big chunk.
What a good idea! In all my years, I never thought to do that with bacon. I do it with just about everything else, but I always just tossed the entire package of bacon in the freezer, then I had to use up the entire package when I defrosted it.
See, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!
Annie's Granny
excellent advise - when it comes to freezing things I rarely know what to do, so this is wonderful. All I need to do now is look out for bacon on sale. 😀
This is a great tip. I used to have the same problem. It became more like delaying the inevitable, because I'd end up throwing away half a package of bacon, in the end, whether I'd frozen it or not!
Brilliant!
Bacon is on sale this week at the local grocery, but I was holding off because with only two of us in the house (I refuse to cook breakfast for the cats!) some always goes to waste. Looks like the extra couple of bucks I have in my grocery budget this week just got spent. Ahh well, the hubby will be thrilled. In fact.... I may just have to reshuffle my meal plan and make pumpkin pancakes and bacon for dinner tomorrow. (Gotta check the quality of the bacon afterall, don't want to save what isn't worth saving! lol)
Oh good! I'm glad you all found it helpful. As I was typing it up last night, I almost thought better of it because I figured a lot of other people out there probably had thought of this already.
That's a great idea! I hate trying to get it all used within a few days after I thaw it.
Like Annie's Granny, I do this with all sorts of things, but hadn't thought to do it with bacon. thanks for the tip!
This seems a much more manageable way of freezing the bacon in small quantities than other methods I've read (rolling it up in was paper, etc.). Thanks for the tip; I'm going to try to remember.
--Mary
You know, I have been just freezing the WHOLE package. I did not even think about separating it and THEN freezing it! Great Idea!
A great tip! I'm going to use this idea for sure... A pound of bacon is just too much for us to eat up...
This may be a late comment...but I cook up the whole pound of bacon at once and then just leave it in the fridge. It reheats beautifully in the microwave, I only need to clean bacon grease once. It's just like buying the precooked bacon for a small fraction of the price!
There are a couple more things you can do with it. If you don't have space for a large cookie sheet in the freezer, make a bacon accordion. Lay out the end of some saran wrap, tin foil, or butcher's paper. Lay two pieces of bacon on that. Fold the wrap over the two pieces of bacon, which are now covered underneath and top with the wrap. Put another two pieces of bacon on top. Lather, rinse, repeat with all your bacon. Wrap up the whole thing in wrap, store in freezer.
You can also use separate bits of saran wrap, etc, just as with premade hamburgers. But who wants to mess with all that separate stuff, especially saran wrap?
For bacon you use in cooking rather than eating by the slice, you don't have to freeze the pieces separately. Freeze the whole thing and cut off slices from the end; you end up with 1/2" off each piece of bacon in the package). Put that frozen "stick" of bacon bits in the pot and cook just like that.
Many recipes say they use bacon but really use bacon fat. Bacon I use in recipes never seem to make it into the recipe - a bowl of bacon bits on the counter never stays untouched for long enough - so I just save bacon fat and use that.
I'd rather eat a lot of bacon rarely than a slice every week. So when I do cook it it's by the half pound in the oven. I put the frozen chunk on a broiler pan in a 350F oven. After a while it's warm enough that I can peel off some of the strips and lay them out. Repeat till all the bacon is out in one layer. Cook till you like it (chewy) and pour out the fat into a container for future use. There's so much less mess than on the stovetop, you can combine the cooking with something else, and fat never gets burnt.
Thanks for the broiler pan tip! I have tried it in the oven on a cookie sheet, and it just wasn't quite right. I'm sure the broiler pan will work much better!
Where we live we don't have a lot of options for natural and organic foods. No specialty stores or anything of that nature. The bacon we buy is uncured, no hormone, no antibiotics, from vegetarian fed pigs and it only has approx. 12 slices per package. With 4 in the family and the kids are teens that package goes by super fast. If I make bacon and eggs or blt's it will take the whole package. So no freezing for us. However when the girls have moved out and there are only 2 off us this is for sure something we will need to do. 🙂
I have been cooking all of it on my broiler pan, then freezing it. I hate touching raw bacon, and frying it makes such a mess, so this way I only have to do those things once.