Sous vide bacon has become increasingly popular as people want the best of both worlds - crispy bacon pieces with a tender bite of bacon. The process allows for perfect, repeatable results every time.
Looking for a way to cook bacon that gets rid of most of the fat, this is it. The technique melts away the bacon fat effortlessly and without any mess!
⬇️ Table of Contents
What Is Sous Vide Bacon
Sous vide, in French, means "under vacuum," which involves sealing food in a plastic bag and submerging it into a heated water bath to an exact temperature. This allows the meat to cook evenly for hours with no risk of overcooking or burning. Sous vide bacon cooks up crispy and delicious every time!
Have you tried making your bacon? > Home Cured Bacon
How To Sous Vide Bacon Video
🧰 Equipment
- Sous Vide Machine (suggested machine | amazon Anova)
- Plastic food saver bag
- Temperature-safe water tub (suggested tub | amazon: Anova Culinary)
🥘 Ingredients
- Package of Thick Cut Bacon
Sous Vide Machine Settings
Step 1
Fill the temperature-safe sous vide tub with water to the fill line. Tip: Use the bathtub for super hot water and fill-up speed.
General sous vide tip, always place the water tub away from kitchen cabinets. The machine will release a small amount of steam during the process that could be harmful to wood.
Step 2
Attach the sous vide machine to the side of the water tub and secure it. Then plug the machine in. The screen will light up, displaying the temperature from the last time you used the machine.
Change the temperature to 145 degrees Fahrenheit or 62.7 Celsius.
Per the USDA Pork is safely cooked at 145 degrees F / 62.7 C.
Cooking Bacon Using Sous Vide Machine
This technique allows the bacon to be cooked perfectly at a low temperature and over an extended period of time.
When shopping for bacon, look for packages labeled thick-cut; they have the most meat and least fat (the white stuff is the fat).
Over the cooking duration, the amount of bacon fat will be highly reduced.
Step 3
Cook the bacon for 8 hours at 145 degrees Fahrenheit or 62.7 Celsius
Step 4
After 8 hours, remove the bacon bag and open it and pour out all the fat that has melted away. You'll notice a lot has been removed.⬇️
Step 5
Close the sous vide bag and place it into the refrigerator to set up and cool down, ie, firm up.
The chilling process is helpful since the bacon is hot and very soft. That makes it hard to handle each slice of bacon. You can use the freezer to speed up the chilling process.
Ways to cook sous vide bacon:
- Oven (on a wire rack)
- Stovetop
- Air Fryer
- Grill
- Smoker
- Deep Fryer
- Microwave
After the sous vide bacon has been set up in a refrigerator for several hours, it will look like this. Now it's time to cook bacon up to crispy perfection!
We tested two cooking methods:
- Oven, cooked on a wire rack
- Stovetop using a cast-iron skillet.
Test #1 Oven Baked Bacon - The Fatty Slice
To my surprise, the fatty cut of bacon cooked up awesome. Super crispy with bite-through texture. One of the best pieces of bacon.
Test #2 Oven Baked Bacon - The Thick Cut Slice
I would describe the thick-cut bacon cooked in the oven as crispy and meaty. I give this 10 out of 10 stars ⭐.
If I had to pick between the thick cut and the fatty cut, my choice would go to the thick cut.
Why❓ Who doesn't love a bigger piece of bacon...
Cooking the bacon on the stovetop provides high direct heat, which renders out more of the fat in less time. The bacon cooks twice as fast on the stovetop and results in a very crispy piece of bacon, more so than in the oven.
Faqs
Can I Freeze Sous Vide Bacon
How To Use Sous Vide Bacon
With sous vide bacon, you can now wrap food items like beef tenderloin, asparagus, or scallops and cook the bacon perfectly. The reason is this bacon cooks quicker after being sous vided.
Is Sous Vide Bacon Safe To Eat After 8 Hours?
It is suggested to perform a second cooking method to improve the texture of the bacon. The main idea of sous vide bacon is to remove a large amount of the fat, so when cooking a second time, the bacon becomes super crispy with a tender bite.
Bacon Recipes To Try
- Bacon Wrapped Texas Jalapeno Poppers
- Bacon Pepperoni Sticks with Homemade Buttermilk Ranch
- Candied Bacon Recipe | Plus Bacon Onion Rings
- How To Make Bacon Popovers
- 41 Types of Figs: (A-to-Z) Photos
📖 Recipe
Sous Vide Bacon
Suggested Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 package Thick Cut Bacon
- 1 package Normal Cut Fatty Bacon
Instructions
- Bacon Preparation: Use either a Food Saver machine or a large zip lock freezer bag and secure the bacon inside of the bag and seal the bag shut removing as much of the air as possible.Do not remove the bacon from the original air-tight sealed package, add the bacon package to a second bag and seal. Removing the air from freezer bags: remove the air by lowering the bag with the bacon inside into the water tub. The water pressure will force the air out of the bag. Then seal the top. Make sure to do a good job sealing.
- Sous Vide Machine Settings: Fill up the temperature-safe water tub to the fill line.Secure the sous vide machine to the side of the water tub, then plug it in.Set the temperature to 145 degrees Fahrenheit or 62.7 Celsius.Set timer for 8 hours.
- Setting Up The Bacon To Be Cooked: After 8 hours, or longer, remove the bacon from the water. You are going to notice that the large majority of the fat has rendered, melted away. Looks unappetizing at this point, but do not worry, simply pour out the fat and reseal the bag.Then place the resealed bag on a tray and place it into the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight to chill, set up, firm up.
- Cooking The Bacon: We suggest cooking the bacon either in the oven, stovetop, or air fryer.Stovetop: Cooking the bacon on the stovetop provides high direct heat and will cook the bacon quicker than the oven. Oven: The bacon turns out crispy and tender to the bite. You can make a perfect bite mark with your teeth. Which is the gold standard for perfectly cooked bacon.Air Fryer: Enough said, air fryer
Leave a Reply