The way to cook bacon for a crowd without a single splatter on the stovetop.

Pan-frying bacon means standing at the stove, dodging spatters, and getting one crispy strip and three soggy ones at a time. Oven bacon means twenty rashers, perfectly even, hands-off, no oil burns. Once you have done it once, you will not pan-fry again unless it is two strips for a single sandwich.

The method

Heat the oven to 200°C fan-forced (220°C conventional). Line a large rimmed baking tray with baking paper. Lay the bacon out in a single layer, edges touching but not overlapping. Slide the tray onto the middle rack. Bake 15 minutes for streaky bacon (thin), 20 minutes for short cut bacon (thick), 25 minutes for very thick bacon. Pull when the fat looks rendered and the meat is the colour you want. Drain on paper towels for ninety seconds before serving.

That is the entire recipe.

Why it works

The oven cooks both sides at once. Hot air circulating around the rasher means even rendering. The baking paper absorbs grease so the bacon doesn’t poach in its own fat. The single layer means no rasher steams another. Fifteen minutes for streaky is enough time to make coffee, butter toast, and crack eggs.

Three things that go wrong

Skipping the paper. Without baking paper, you spend twenty minutes scrubbing burnt-on fat off the tray. With it, you tip the paper into the bin and the tray is clean. Use the cheap stuff.

Crowding the tray. If rashers overlap, the overlapping part stays soft. Use two trays for a kilo of bacon, not one. The oven copes fine.

Pulling too early. Bacon crisps as it cools. Pull it when it looks slightly less crisp than you want. Five seconds out of the oven and it will be perfect. If it looks done in the oven, it is over.

What to do with the bacon fat

Pour the rendered fat off the tray into a heatproof jar. Cool, lid, fridge. Use it for roast potatoes, fried eggs, popcorn, sauteing onions for soup, or rubbing on a roast chicken. Bacon fat is the most useful by-product of breakfast.

For a crowd

For 16 people at brunch, bake two trays of 10 rashers each on different racks, swap the trays halfway. Done in 18 minutes.

Pair with our buttermilk pancakes, eggs benedict, or a proper Bloody Mary.