Bacon...

Oh Bacon of which angels sing....

I've worked out how we like our basic bacon, and how I like to not clean up after our basic bacon.  Oven roasting, sheet pan, one artfully folded bit of aluminum foil, and some seasoning.

I've tried frying in a pan, deep frying, microwaving, broiling, roasting on a rack, roasting on a plain sheet pan, and then... this.

Just line a sheet pan with one piece of aluminum foil.  I fold the edges of the foil up about 3/8" in, and lay out the bacon on the foil.  There it gets seasoned, then into a 375 oven.  For seasoning, we like doing some simple fresh black pepper and paprika.  It usually takes about 20 minutes in the oven, with a few more for crispier.  

There are several very useful advantages to preparing bacon this way.

• The cook level is completely and easily controllable. Set the oven to 425 and roast quickly, or set it 350 and go do chores or enjoy the coffee.  Either way, after one gets used to this method it's easy to judge when the bacon should be checked.  Unlike pan fried bacon which can go from done to burnt in moments, oven roasted bacon stays in that sweet range for quite a while.  
• Roasting the bacon on foil on a tray allows it to cook in it's own fat, which gives a superior tasting and crispy bacon.  Putting the bacon on a rack certainly allows the fat to render off, but much flavor is lost and it creates more things to clean later.
• Clean-up.  Clean-up!   So easy with the foil/tray/roast method.  Quite literally it's almost no bother at all and takes only seconds.  Once the bacon is cooked and removed from the tray, simply set the tray with foil and fat aside.  I usually shove mine right back into my cooling oven to get it out of my way.  The next day, all the bacon fat is congealed on the foil and can be picked up as is and dropped in the trash.  The tray is still clean.  A bacon grease saver can just scrape the grease up and put it in the can.

When the bacon looks like this, it's ready to pull.

Our bacon goes to a paper towel lined plate for de-greasing.

This mess?  Just set it someplace safe overnight and then lift the foil,
grease and all, and toss.  Cleanup is done!