How to Keep Baked Bacon From Sticking to the Rack

I cook a lot of bacon. Sometimes I fry it (starting in a cold pan, of course), but most of the time I bake it on a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet. It lays flat, crisps evenly from end to end, and I never have to worry about grease splattering on my pale, sensitive skin. This hands-off approach is safer and easier than frying (which is great for a lazy coward like myself), but I’ve noticed that some bacon — particularly thinner bacon — has a tendency to stick to the wire rack it rests on.

There is, however, a very easy fix to this. You just have to give the bacon a little nudge — just one! — during its time in the oven. Lifting it off the wire rack for just a tiny moment is all it takes to make sure there’s enough grease underneath the meatier parts of the bacon, ensuring they don’t fuse to the wires while crisping.

I usually do this about five or 10 minutes in, depending on how thick my bacon is. (I try to move thin bacon closer to five minutes in, as it cooks quite quickly.)

Once the bacon starts to curl and the fat has begun rendering, I take a pair of kitchen tongs or a fork and gently lift the strips away from the rack, then set them back down again. The rendered grease drips down the strip of cured pork, ensuring everything is coated, including the spots where meat meets metal.

After that, I leave it alone until it’s crisped to my liking, then serve it right off the wire rack, which it comes off of with ease. (I also pour the grease into my grease jar, yet another benefit of baking bacon over a baking sheet.)