ULTIMATE SOUS VIDE BACON GUIDE

소개

Sous Vide Bacon Basics

The idea of bacon that is crisp and moist at the same time is appealing, but in practice it ends up being crisp in some areas and rubbery in others, which is why we generally prefer bacon cooked completely crisp. But overnight sous vide bacon is the first bacon we’ve tasted that delivers on that moist-crisp promise. It’s crispy on the exterior as you bite into it, but it quite literally melts in your mouth like the finest confit pork belly as you chew.

Like bacon, sliced breakfast ham or Canadian bacon is not one of the meats you’d think would benefit from being cooked sous vide. But when cooked low and slow overnight, it retains all of its juiciness, but gains an incredibly luxurious tenderness that gives it an almost buttery softness. It’s also convenient: Once cooked, all you have to do is sear it off in a hot skillet or on a griddle to crisp up the outside and give it browned flavor, and it’s ready to serve.

Traditional sous vide bacon consists of an easy, two-phase cooking process:

1. 씰링 the bacon in a plastic bag using either a vacuum sealer or the water displacement method (or using the vacuum-sealed package it came in) and cooking it to the desired final temperature in a temperature-controlled water bath.
   1. The temperature of the sous vide bath during the initial cooking phase is what determines the final texture of your bacon.
2. Searing the bacon to develop color, flavor, and textural contrast.

If you’d prefer to introduce new sous vide techniques into your arsenal, you can also use the Anova Precision™ Oven to prepare sous vide bacon. Because of the way we’ve designed the temperature sensors and humidity control, the oven will precisely maintain the cooking temperature you set.

You can choose to bag and cook your bacon in the Precision™ Oven just as you would with an Anova Precision® Cooker, or you can skip the bag altogether.

Just like traditional sous vide, using Sous Vide Mode in the Anova Precision™ Oven typically is a two-stage cooking process: First, hold the bacon at your desired temperature, then use the oven to crisp and sear before serving.

What’s great about this method is that you can cook the bacon directly in the package that it comes in, and searing takes only a matter of minutes, which means after dropping it in the water bath the night before, breakfast the morning after is lightning fast, faster than cooking raw bacon from scratch on a griddle or in a traditional oven.

If you’re working with an already-opened package, you can, of course, seal your bacon in a fresh vacuum-seal bag before cooking. And if you’re using the Anova Precision™ Oven for American bacon, you can skip the bag entirely. (We still recommend bagging for Canadian bacon, which will prevent the top of the bacon from drying out.)

온도 및 타이밍 차트

For testing, we cooked bacon at temperatures ranging from 135°F (57°C) to 165°F (74°C) for times ranging from one hour all the way up to two days.

Anywhere above 155°F (68°C) and the leaner sections of the bacon start to dry out and stay dry no matter how long you cook it. At 135°F (57°C), the bacon takes the full two days to fully tenderize.

As for timing, you do need to let it go at least 6 hours to get the tenderizing effect. More than 10 hours and the bacon will start to fall apart. This timing makes it easy to drop the bacon into the water bath the night before then sear it up for breakfast.

The key is to keep the temperature relatively low. Any higher than 145°F (63°C) or so and it’ll start to dry out and turn stringy. But cooked overnight right at 145°F? It’s perfect. If you’re cooking Canadian bacon in the Anova Precision™ Oven for more than 1 hour, we recommend keeping it in its original packaging or placing it in a vacuum-seal bag.

온도 및 타이밍 차트

Sous Vide Bacon, Step by Step

1단계

Attach a Precision® Cooker to a water bath and heat to your desired final doneness temperature or preheat the Precision Oven to your desired temperature.

2단계

If using a Precision® Cooker, vacuum seal the bacon or leave in its original vacuum-sealed packaging. If using an Anova Precision™ Oven, spread the bacon in a single layer on a sheet pan.

3단계

Drop the bag in the water bath or place the sheet pan into the oven. Cook according to your desired time and temp.

마무리 단계

Separate the bacon into individual strips if you haven’t already done so. If you’re cooking American bacon, you can finish it either on the stovetop or in the Anova Precision™ Oven. If you’re cooking Canadian bacon, we only recommend finishing it on the stovetop; it will overcook in the Precision™ Oven.

1. Place a heavy cast-iron or stainless steel skillet with 1 tablespoon (15ml) of neutral oil over medium-high heat.
2. When the oil is shimmering, carefully place the bacon into the skillet. Use a spatula or grill press to flatten the bacon against the bottom of the pan. Cook on the first side until crisp, about 2 minutes. For American bacon, flip and cook for 15 seconds on the second side. For Canadian bacon, do not sear the second side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain briefly. Serve hot.

1. Heat the oven using the Broil Cooking Mode (or top heat) to 400°F (204°C) with a rack in the 5th position.
2. Place the bacon in a single layer on a clean sheet pan. Broil until browned and crisp, 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain briefly. Serve hot.

A Closer Look at Finishing Sous Vide Bacon

We tried searing at various temperatures, as well as on one side or both sides. Medium-high heat (around 325°F / 163°C if you have a temperature-controlled cooking surface) produced the best results. American bacon works well seared on both sides. But for Canadian bacon, searing on one side is definitely the way to go — if you sear on both, you end up over-crisping the bacon and it loses any of the advantages that sous vide offered in the first place.

To sear, use a hot skillet with a little bit of oil, which improves contact with the pan and provides better browning. Use a stiff spatula or a griddle press to keep the bacon in firm contact with the pan for optimum searing.

American Bacon

When it came to American bacon, all of these temperatures produced browned bacon. However, we found that the bacon cooked too quickly at the higher temperatures. It wasn’t able to turn crisp enough before the edges began to burn. At 375°F, too much fat rendered by the bacon had crisped, losing that ultra-tender fat layer you earned through sous vide cooking.

The sweet spot turned out to be 400°F, which gave us the crisp-tender texture that we were looking for. And it allows for browning a larger batch of bacon than on the stovetop, making this a great option for entertaining.

Canadian Bacon

Unfortunately, we were not happy with any of the Canadian bacon we seared in the Precision™ Oven. Because it is so thin and so lean, it overcooks by the time the oven is able to get a nice amount of browning on the exterior. All of the tested slices were dry and brittle by the time they turned even a light golden brown. If you want to sear Canadian bacon after cooking it sous vide, we recommend doing so on the stovetop.

미리미리 식사 준비하기

You can cook an entire pack of bacon (or up to as many as will fit into your water bath) all at once, then chill and refrigerate for up to one week. You can also freeze for long-term storage. When you’re ready to eat, just open the pack, peel off the par-cooked bacon, sear it, and serve. It heats up in about the same amount of time that it takes to sear, which means that you get the best bacon you’ve ever had on your plate with just minutes of work in the morning.