Whenever i fry bacon in my cast iron skillet, i get this sticky residue left in my pan that i have to scrape off...

whenever i fry bacon in my cast iron skillet, i get this sticky residue left in my pan that i have to scrape off. It also happens with a few other meats.

am i doing something wrong? is it my skillet? is it the liquid smoke on the bacon?

It's the jews (notice how I didn't capitalize jew there. It's because I don't respect them enough (which is the opposite of how I treat women as long as they aren't a feminist))

You're buying wet-pack bacon. The sticky residue is the liquid that was injected into the bacon to fake the curing process.

Get real bacon, not the shit injected with flavored brine.

not OP but thanks for the info, been asking myself the same question for some time now

how do i know what is real bacon and what is not?

i'm buying a locally produced smoked bacon that i thought was high quality. the cheaper stuff usually does better in my pan though.

good post

They're both real bacon. One is wet cured and the other is dry cured.

>Get real bacon, not the shit injected with flavored brine.

Still, how do i know what i'm buying

The dry cured doesn't need to be refrigerated and it's dry. The wet cure is wet and is refrigerated in plastic with a small amount of the brine.

>how do i know what is real bacon and what is not?
It will nearly always be sold dry, not packed in a plastic bag. When you handle it it should not get your hands wet. I usually see it sold at the butcher counter or the deli. You ask for it by weight. It will be sitting out, clearly looking "dry". I'll see if I can find a pic and post it in a moment.

There are a few exceptions to that though. For example, Benton's is dry-cured (and god tier), but they do pack it in plastic for mail order.

...

thanks!

i wonder if i'm able to find the dry-cured one without going through too much trouble though.

Here's the best pic I could find. Find a deli or butcher counter that looks like this.

Dry cured bacon has many other advantages:
-it doesn't splatter in the pan
-it doesn't shrink or curl nearly as much when you cook it
-you aren't paying for as much water weight so you get more bacon flavor for your money.

You can always just mail-order Benton's. That's what I usually do. I can get other brands locally but theirs is so much better I just order it in.

What about something like pic related? That's not very expensive where I live and every decentsized store has it in the meatcooler.
Definitely better than the presliced stuff and you can dice it for cheap inauthentic carbonara and such.

it's kind of hard to tell given how small the photo is and the background has been cut out, but the stuff sold whole and sliced to order is usually dry-cured. You can tell when you look at it: if it looks shiny and wet then you don't want it.

thanks dude

Yeah, the bacon in that pic isn't dry cured, but it's still a step up from the presliced stuff. You did imply you were on a budget.

Pan not hot enough. Sprinkle water on pan. If it “dances” around in little droplets it’s hot enough

Balanced parantheseses

When you cook bacon in a pan, you're supposed to put it in a cold pan precisely because it does stick more when you preheat the pan. A gradual temperature rise will render a small amount of fat on the surface, allowing the bacon to hover better. Top cooking temperature is how you determine how much difference you want between the surface browning and the overall render. A high heat pan will eventually let the bacon go with some tugging as the fat renders, but you are much more likely to have to scrape those bits off because your pan was so hot. Don't believe me? Try both ways.

Today user learns how to deglaze his pan.

I just pre grease the pan with old bacon fat. Never done a cold start before.

Yeah. That would work, too. I've never had bacon fat before cooking fresh bacon since the primary purpose for me is to render tasty cooking fat. Secondarily, I get to eat bacon.

do you have maple bacon? or is there sugar in your bacon's ingredients? it's probably that

i feel like deglazing is more of a cooking technique, and not a cleaning technique
although similar in function
i guess

Everyone once and awhile I go buy bacon ends and render all the fat into a jar for cooking. So I usually have some around.

I'll have to see if any of my local grocery stores will sell me bacon ends.

No, This seems normal when my family makes bacon. I would suggest baking it in the oven instead. Much crispier.

These days you usually have to grate the pig yourself