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this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2025
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I'd rather back bacon than this and I'll take a 0 on this chart.
2-3, anything more just tastes like dry crackly dust
1 or 2. Bacon shouldn't snap if you bend it.
I'm a fan of 4 or 5
for anyone else who likes it crispy-but-not-burnt, the best trick that I've found is to cook it relatively low and slow to start off with, to boil away most of the moisture, and then turning the heat up to get it to the level of golden-brown you want.
there's two variables to play around with. one is the temperature reached by the cooking grease, especially how long it spends in the 140-160 C sweet spot for the Maillard reaction. the other is the final water content once it's done cooking. the former controls level of brownness, the latter is chewy vs. crispy.
in theory, you could get #2 but crispy with an extended low & slow cook, or #5 but still chewy if you preheated leftover grease and then fried it quickly in that.
Why is bacon that would be considered burnt if it was any other meat considered the norm? I'm genuinely asking because I don't get it.
Probably because of the high fat content. The fat needs to render properly, which means cooking it more than the meat would otherwise need. If you've ever had a rare steak with a large piece of fat in it, you'll know what that unrendered fat is like.
In addition, the high fat content keeps the meat from being dry, so "overcooking" it doesn't have the same effect as less fatty cuts (this is also why you can slow cook ribs and some other cuts all day, while leaner cuts tend to dry out in a slow cooker).
Correct. 4 is perfect. Baked in the oven or pan fried?
I've always microwaved mine.
PAN
Air fryer at 350 for 10-12 minutes does a pretty good job at crispy bacon, more if it's thick bacon. It gives you time to work on the rest of breakfast without needing to think about it.
3-5 are good. Ngl, Iโve still eaten 6 before. I hate remaking bacon. Itโs so messy.
I used to prefer 5 as a kid. Now I prefer 2-3. Only one I wouldn't eat is 6.
Only one I won't eat is 1
Somewhere in the 3 - 4 range. Crispy but not burnt
Probably 3. I want it mostly crispy, but if the fat parts are still chewy that's okay.
I don't eat it anymore but when i did I thought 3 was ideal.
One thing about watching food prep videos on little red note that never ceases to give me a little culture shock is that the preference over in China would be more like a 0 or -1 on this scale. They start using it in eggs and wraps when i would consider it still raw! When they see our 1+ on this scale the XHS users would call it dry or burned.
am not a huge fan of bacon but when i do eat it for by itself 2-3 is good. when using in burgers, baguettes etc 4 is optimal but 4ยฑ1 is acceptable range in those applications.
when i was in culinary school the best bacon was the burnt pieces at the bottom of the serving pan :3
As a young adult, in fact I 'OD'd' on bacon and Rocky Road when I first had the financial means, given that my family didn't consume each of those things very often as I grew up. Plus, because they tickled my taste buds at the time, specifically.
So, yeah, every once in a while I'll have some of that ice cream, because... well, it's delicious ice cream, plus it features chocolate!
But the pork-belly stuff? Oh man, I get nauseous now just smelling it, in which it takes me right back to eating all those many pounds of fried, greasy pig-flesh strips when I was ~19yo. Haha, in a way it was like the 50's dad trope of catching his kid smoking behind the garage, then forcing them to chain-smoke on the spot until the kid puked.
BONUS: "Seared strips of swine-flesh? I will enjoy it!"
https://skipcut.com/watch/2rCTuXAbyTI
yes
Thereโs a restaurant in Montreal that have this chart on their place mat (?)
For steaks, yes. A few restaurants.
We got tired of clients asking and naming a specific cooking while not knowing what they were ordering.
Looking at you, self-proclaimed "important food critic" who loudly and tear-eyed-ly threatened me to demolish my steakhouse on your little blog back in 2011 after insisting to get a "mii-diumm" after being served a perfect textbook medium filet mignon.
It's not a proper steakhouse if they can't nail medium-plus on the first try. I got spoiled by Ruth's Chris for birthdays as a teen.
Oh we could nail any cooking. The issue was the self proclaimed food critic, when he asked for a medium expecting a rare, and then cry-screaming threateningly at the Maรฎtre Dโ for not receiving his steak rare when he asked specifically for a medium. Twice.
If you ask for a medium and get a perfect medium, donโt threaten the Maitre Dโ for receiving a perfectly cooked medium steak.
Oh, well that's a bunch of bullshit. If you're a "food critic," you know damn well the difference between rare and medium!
He clearly didnโt.