How to Fry Bacon in a Pan | Uncle Bill's Kitchen

Welcome to Uncle Bill's Kitchen. Today, we are going to show you a simple method on how to fry bacon in a pan. Bacon is used in many recipes. From a side with eggs, to an ingredient in a club sandwich or cobb salad. It's a great product to understand how to cook.

I hope you enjoy my version!

Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically from the pork belly or from the less fatty back cuts. It is eaten on its own, as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), or used as a minor ingredient to flavor dishes (e.g., the club sandwich). Bacon is also used for barding and larding roasts, especially game, including venison and pheasant, and may also be used to insulate or flavor roast joints by being layered onto the meat. The word is derived from the Old High German Bahho, meaning "buttock", "ham" or "side of bacon", and is cognate with the Old French bacon. It may also be distantly cognate with modern German Bauch, meaning "abdomen, belly".

Meat from other animals, such as beef, lamb, chicken, goat, or turkey, may also be cut, cured, or otherwise prepared to resemble bacon, and may even be referred to as, for example, "turkey bacon". Such use is common in areas with significant Jewish and Muslim populations as both religions prohibit the consumption of pork. Vegetarian bacons such as "soy bacon" also exist.

Curing and smoking

Historically, before the advent of cheap and widespread artificial refrigeration in the modern era, the curing of pork was necessary for the safe long-term preservation of meat. However, the flavor imparted to the meat by the various curing processes had become much prized, and although the curing process is in general no longer necessary in the developed world, it continues in wide use due to the flavor and other properties it imparts to the meat.

Bacon is cured through either a process of injecting it with or soaking it in brine, known as wet curing, or using plain crystal salt, known as dry curing. Bacon brine has added curing ingredients, most notably nitrites or nitrates, which speed the curing and stabilize color. Fresh bacon may then be dried for weeks or months in cold air, or it may be smoked or boiled. Fresh and dried bacon are typically cooked before eating, often by pan frying. Boiled bacon is ready to eat, as is some smoked bacon, but they may be cooked further before eating. Differing flavors can be achieved by using various types of wood, or less common fuels such as corn cobs or peat. This process can take up to eighteen hours, depending on the intensity of the flavor desired. The Virginia Housewife (1824), thought to be one of the earliest American cookbooks, gives no indication that bacon is ever not smoked, though it gives no advice on flavoring, noting only that care should be taken lest the fire get too hot. In early American history, the curing and smoking of bacon (like the making of sausage) seems to have been one of the few food-preparation processes not divided by gender.

Bacon is distinguished from other salt-cured pork by differences in the cuts of meat used and in the brine or dry packing. Historically, the terms "ham" and "bacon" referred to different cuts of meat that were brined or packed identically, often together in the same barrel. Today, ham is defined as coming from the hind portion of the pig and brine specifically for curing ham includes a greater amount of sugar, while bacon is less sweet, though ingredients such as brown sugar or maple syrup are used for flavor. Bacon is similar to salt pork, which in modern times is often prepared from similar cuts, but salt pork is never smoked, and has a much higher salt content.

For safety, bacon may be treated to prevent trichinosis, caused by Trichinella, a parasitic roundworm which can be destroyed by heating, freezing, drying, or smoking. Sodium polyphosphates, such as sodium triphosphate, may also be added to make the product easier to slice and to reduce spattering when the bacon is pan-fried. (wikipedia)

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