Cook 'tastiest and crispiest' bacon in minutes by swapping oil for 1 ingredient

Bacon is something everyone adores cookingalongside creamy scrambled eggs, runny poached eggs in the morning, or as part of an omelette for lunch.

The most popular methods for preparing this kitchenstaple appear to be in a frying pan with oil, in the oven, or perhaps the air fryer. Having recently tested whether bacon crisps up properly in the microwave, writer Angela Patrone was keen to discover alternative cooking methods that don't require oil.

Searching social media for clever tricks, she stumbled upon TikTok's @chefkevin's page where he's revealed the "best way to cook bacon" - and that's to swap oil for water.

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The concept behind using water rather than oil to cook bacon is to maintain tenderness on the inside whilst achieving a supremely crisp exterior, reports the Express.

For this hack, Angela began with a cold frying pan and arranged the bacon out flat. She chose streaky bacon as the higher fat content works best with this technique.

Next, Angela poured water into the pan - just sufficient so that the bacon was submerged. She positioned the pan on the hob on high heat to reduce the water until it had completely evaporated - this only took a few minutes.

Once the bulk of the water had evaporated, it was time to begin flipping the bacon over three to four times. At this stage she observed that the bacon had begun to crisp up beautifully, so she reduced the heat slightly.

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It's crucial to monitor the bacon closely at this point as it can rapidly burn in a matter of seconds. In his TikTok video, Kevin claimed that the bacon is going to be "super crispy" and "beautiful" when using this method "because you cooked the fat first" - and Angela can confirm it was exactly that.

After cooking the bacon, Angela left it to sit and drain for a while on some kitchen roll before tucking in. The bacon still had its smoky flavour and had a great crisp to it.

Whilst this method was successful, she would have to say that she still prefers the microwave method as it's far quicker, the mess is minimal, and there's no need to keep a close eye on the cooking process.