Two celebrity food show hosts were discussing ways to cook bacon, and the world was listening in. Writer-chef Padma Lakshmi had set the ball rolling by asking what appeared to be a simple question, but clearly wasn’t.
“What is the best way to cook bacon? Oven, microwave, stovetop,” she asked on Twitter a few weeks ago. American celeb chef Alex Guarnaschelli suggested stovetop. “Lay out strips in a single layer. Add ½ inch water to pan. Cook out water and cook till crispy,” she tweeted. Padma Lakshmi’s question prompted more than 6,600 responses, with some urging her to let it stay on the pig.
Bacon, clearly, is a subject that excites passion. Two recent books are dedicated to the pork product, which has even spurred a movement called Bacon Mania. Released in 2021, For the Love of Bacon: The Bacon Cookbook by Nick Price and Bacon Everyday by Rita Rodden have some jaw-dropping recipes such as the one for deep-fried, bacon-wrapped asparagus. Bacon was inspiring as a topic of cooking and writing even back in 1824, when it figured in Mary Randolph’s The Virginia Housewife, one of America’s first cookbooks.
