Overnight Sous Vide Bacon Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How long can you sous vide bacon? ›

Preheat a sous vide water bath to 145°F (63°C). Place bacon, still in its original plastic packaging, directly in water bath and cook for at least 8 and up to 48 hours. When ready to serve, remove from water bath and proceed immediately to step 2, or chill in refrigerator or freezer for later use (see notes).

The slow, low heat of sous vide cooking renders nearly all of the fat from your bacon strips, leaving behind meaty pieces that can be quickly crisped up in just a minute or two in a pan when you are ready to eat. Although sous vide bacon needs to cook 8 to 12 hours and then chill, that's all hands-off time.

Make sure to let the pan cool slightly before draining the fat. Depending on your desired doneness, regular sliced bacon will be ready after about 14 minutes and thick-cut bacon at 18 minutes. If you cook less than a full sheet of bacon, the strips cook more quickly, which is why we suggest checking after 12 minutes.

Shake off any loose flour and lay the strips on a parchment-paper-lined sheet pan in a single layer (if you need to stack the bacon, lay parchment between each layer), cover the pan with beeswax wrap or a final layer of parchment, and refrigerate overnight.

A steak cooked at a well-done 160°F, for instance, will be soft and shreddable (and dry) after only 8 to 12 hours. For best results, I don't recommend cooking any longer than the maximum recommended time for each cut and temperature range. Should I add butter, oil, or any other liquid or fat to the sous-vide bag? No.

After the food is pasteurized, if the food is hotter than 130ºF, the spores cannot germinate and multiply, regardless of time. One can hold / tenderize for 24 to 48 hours safely. This is also a major feature of sous vide. If the cooking temperature is 130 to 150ºF, there is an additional benefit.

As with other meats, allow some room between strips, about an inch, when placing bacon in the pan. Crowding creates steam and prevents the bacon from cooking evenly, giving you limp bacon instead of crispy strips. Cook in batches if needed.

Rare sous vide steak (120°F/49°C): Your meat is still nearly raw. Muscle proteins have not started to contract much and will have a slippery, wet texture. Chewier cuts, like hanger or flap meat, will be particularly tough at this stage. Fat has not yet started to render, so fattier cuts will have a waxy texture.

Crispiest: Wright Applewood Thick Cut Bacon

While some folks are fans of thick-cut, hearty bacon, others are looking for rashers that cook up thin and crispy. If the latter sounds more like your preferred bacon style, try Wright Applewood Thick Cut Bacon.

The easiest way to tell is by the color of the pork. Just like with many other types of meat, uncooked bacon will be light pink with white strips of fat. When it's ready to eat, those rosy hues will have darkened to a reddish-brown color, and the fat will morph into a tan or golden shade.

Can you eat slightly undercooked bacon? ›

The Horrifying Reason Why You Should Never Eat Undercooked Bacon. We all have different preferences for our bacon but eating bacon that hasn't been cooked thoroughly could have dangerous consequences. Just like steak, when it comes to bacon, everyone has their own preferences.

Even if your bacon matches the perfect Munsell color code remember that it needs to be at the proper temperature, 145 degrees for pork with a resting time of 3 minutes (yes a long time to wait for bacon, but well worth it), to be considered safe for consumption.

Bacon-Cooking Method: Baking on Parchment Paper

About This Method: Martha Stewart's technique promises a “spatter-free” way to get “perfectly crispy bacon.” You simply line one or two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper, arrange the bacon on top, and bake at 400°F until it is crisped to your liking.

Wrap cooled bacon in paper towels and place in a food container or plastic bag; refrigerate until ready to serve. Bacon can be baked 3 to 4 days ahead of time. When ready to use, wrap a few bacon slices in a fresh paper towel and re-warm bacon in microwave for approximately 10 seconds just before serving.

If you don't want to wait on your oven, you can easily reheat your bacon on the stovetop. Turn a burner on to medium-high heat and allow a frying pan to heat up. Once the pan is hot, place a single layer of bacon on it. After a few minutes, your bacon will be crispy and ready to eat.

Sous Vide Safety for 24-Hour Cooks

For food safety reasons, a long cook like this 24-hour sous vide should never be done below 130°F/54.5°C. That temperature is high enough to pasteurize the meat, killing harmful bacteria.

Once stored, thick bacon will also last for up to five days in the refrigerator. Bacon bits: Sliced-up, home-cooked bacon is a great addition to almost any meal, and with an airtight container, you can refrigerate them for a little under a week.

Longer is not always better You don't always get better results by keeping food in the sous vide machine for longer. For example, many chefs recommend that sous vide steak should not be cooked for longer than four hours because the connective tissue begins to break down and the steak can become mushy.

In the refrigerator, cooked bacon usually lasts for about a week. If you're going to place raw bacon in the freezer and it is still in its original vacuum packed package, then it should last for at least 6 months, and up to a year. This is the longest time period you can store bacon in any form.