Making the most-blah vegs (o.k. carrots & celery I'm looking at U) *delicious*!1

[UTUSN]

It has been decades since having my mother's pan fried (olive oil), peppered carrots. I had tried them about twice over that period and just got blah carrots. Yesterday I tried again, this time with celery and onions, all in grossly cut chunks, very appealing presentation. But beyond the pleasantly forceful flavors of all three ingredients, the result was just blah.

As I pondered what could be lacking in such a simple treatment that would make such a difference, it came to me: *BACON*!1

I called my sister, who is NO cook at all, and she confirmed that Mother did the bacon thing. So am trying it again as we speak.

And I've only done the bacon in the scarfing end of things, not cooking, and the saving internet just told me to BAKE the slices at 425 for 15 minutes, and these things came out CRISPY and DONE. What I wanted was the drippings to add to the carrots, so there it all went. Modifications?

[csziggy]

1. Bacon makes almost everything taste better!

And baking bacon is the easiest way to cook it. I like the way it renders the fat and makes it easier to save it to flavor other stuff. I have a couple of small stainless steel bowls with plastic covers that are perfect to save the bacon fat for later.

I wish I had the old stainless steel bacon grease thing Mom used to keep - it had a strainer to take out the solids and was a great size to keep around. Wow! You can still buy "grease keepers" very much like the one Mom used to have, or fancier stoneware ones with stainless steel strainers. Maybe they are used by all those people to re-use their oil from the deep fat fryers?

[UTUSN]

2. great post. yip bacon did the trick. then it took a torpid nap

And brushing teeth and tongue to deal with the saturated fat.

[csziggy]

4. I told my dentist some foods are good for my teeth

Since they force me to floss and brush right after eating them. Greasy stuff is one thing but for me it's chicken and pork chops that leave bits between the teeth that send me for my dental cleaning tools!

[trof]

3. Miz t. prefers oven baked bacon when she has the time.

Me too.
Less fat/grease.

[csziggy]

5. Baking bacon takes less supervisory time than frying it

I discovered it when I couldn't stand for any length of time. I could sit at the kitchen table, distribute the bacon on the cooking sheets, stick it in the oven, set the timer for five minute intervals and get it done without having to stand up for more than a few minutes at a time. And it all gets done at once, no having to tend batches.

My Mom buys pre-cooked bacon for her infrequent needs but we don't let her use the cook top or oven anymore. I pre-cook my own and always intend to freeze some - but it never happens. I always eat it in just a few days.

[mackerel]

6. Carrots sauteed with a olive oil, a little butter & honey is always yummy.

[sir pball]

7. Oven baked is the only "pro" way.

Twenty years in restaurants and that's literally the only way I've ever seen it outside of an utter emergency, and then it goes in the fryer. Lower is better though, we do 300 convection for 20 or so, at home I do 325 for about a half hour. Takes a while more than frying, but it's literally set it and forget it. And much better.

Outside of that, if any recipe ever doesn't taste how you remember it, add salt. The bacon does that, not that the extra goodness hurts...but dimes to dollars you're underseasoning almost everything you make.

[UTUSN]

8. Internet told me baking is for large orders nt

[sir pball]

9. Well yeah, I usually bake five to 20 pounds at once

At work. But at home, even a half dozen slices, still go in the oven. That evenly cooked, flat, perfectly chewy bacon you get at restaurants isn't a trick of cookery..

[mucifer]

10. Roast veggies with lots of oil in the oven. Yum. Bacon is gross.

[cwydro]

11. Never thought about baking bacon!

Gonna try it right now! Thanks!