Hi guys,

I had a question about Bacon. We keep ours in a pan with a false bottom on the side of our griddle. We don't keep that side of the griddle on, so it gets some indirect heat but not so much that it dries out instantly. We than heat it back up on the griddle to get it crisp and warm.

I am not a hundred percent happy with this technique and was wondering how the professionals do it? We have learned alot from trial and error, but lack a lot of real world experience in actual kitchens.

Thank you,

Burger Jr.

 

 

 

 

Par-cooking and finishing it off is usually a pretty good way to go.  Just what about the end result is not to your satisfaction?

Obviously other options include batch cooking lesser amounts completely and doing so more often.  It depends on the time you've got to get the job done.

Welcome aboard and ciao,

We cook it so that it is still a little chewy and finish it off on the griddle, I suppose it works as well as any other way. Just wondering how other people were doing it? We usually cook up a batch of bacon, put a good amount to heat up in the pan on the griddle letting it warm up then move it away from the direct heat. Everything else goes in the fridge to be removed when we need to fill up what is on the griddle.

Thanks for the reply, and the welcome.

 

If you're worried about the food safety aspects of it, don't put too much thought into it. Bacon is a cured meat. It doesn't go bad as easy as other meats. Once cooked, sitting it over indirect heat isn't likely to make it go bad. As long as you are reheating it above 160 degrees, and the consistency of the bacon is to your liking, you should be fine.

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Sounds like you have it under control. There are purest I suppose that might object to pre-cooking bacon but the reality of service rarely make it practical to cook bacon to order.

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Thanks for all the prompt replies, it is really easy to second guess yourself.

We go through a lot of bacon on the wekeends for breakfast.
We are suing 18-22 lay flat

We par cook in the oven on sheet pans. cool, pull off the paper and hold in the reash in. We  finish on the griddle and then hold small amounts on the steam table.
Or we par cook and leave on the sheet pan and finish it off in the oven and hold on the steam table. 
Takes too long and takes us too much space on the giddle do go any other way.

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Depends on the application.

If I'm using the bacon for breakfast, I'll par cook it and keep it under refrigeration until needed, finishing on the flat top. The exception to this would be on Sunday Brunch, where we fly through it, so I leave it on the counter. It doesn't stay out more than 1/2 hour before serving.

If I'm using it for lunch, for burgers, BLT's, etc., then I cook it until crisp and leave it out at room temp. Once all of the moisture is gone you can leave it out nearly indefinitely with no health issues. Quality issues yes, but not health.

The Health dept bugged people for years about keeping the bacon on the back ledge of the grill. We cook ours off, hold it in the refer deli counter and put on the grill as needed. We us it for BLT'S bacon ch burgers and so on. For breakfast we have it cook,  put in the steamtable, making sure water doesn't condensate and get into it. We keep the extra crispy in a warner behind the line. It also depends on how much you need and how fast you need it. Most restaurants will keep it off to the side and use as needed. Bacon is smoke cured so when its cooked there isn't much that could happen. I never saw anyone get sick on Bacon. I would avoid keeping it undercooked in a Hot kitchen for a long period of time.....................take care.......Bill

As long as it's cooked to temp (160) when you serve it, you should be fine. Never heard of anybody getting sick from bacon, anyway.

It's normal practice to par cook it, then refrigerate it or keep it on indirect or low heat until it's finished off on the griddle. If it's an issue with health inspectors, refrigerate it or (if you need it closer) put it in a container and that container on ice.

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