I started doing this and it changed my life. My kids love breakfast again, they finally respect me and my wife came back. Thanks Andy

I’ve been doing this for years, but recently with thick cut bacon i found a way to simplify it. I use a skillet with a glass lid. The enclosed environment causes the fat to render quicker. Once you see foaming on top of the bacon it’s time to uncover and flip. I then cover and wait for foam on the second side. Uncover it and flip it back and forth until done to your liking. Another plus for this method is there’s less spatter!

I love that the closed captions took the bacon sizzle as applause.

I’m definitely trying this after Ramadan

It's obviously for bacon flavored water.

With the water in the pan, the surrounding environment of the bacon can't get above 100C/212F because at that point...the water evaporates. This means that the bacon is able to warm gently allowing the fat to render out without it actually browning too fast or potentially burning because in a dry pan, your pan would be quite a bit hotter than this. Eventually all of the water evaporates, the pan can now get to hotter than 100C/212F and a good amount of the fat of the bacon has rendered out and you're now frying the bacon in its own fat. So you're basically either starting the bacon in a dry pan, "cold" with none of the fat rendered out and in direct contact with higher heat....or....you get to kind of cheat the process a little bit and when the water is all gone....you gently pushed the bacon further along in the process and you can fry it quickly Making a caramel with water in the pan works pretty similarly. It's kind of a nice safeguard.

its spitting fat everywhere. putting bacon in the grill gives you crispy bacon plus you can cook it in bigger batches

I used the water method on American thick cut bacon and it worked like a champ! In addition to cooking more evenly it even has a better tendency to lay flat rather than curl up!

Thanks! Another method is to use no water, but cooking on lower temp, turning it around just as often. Same result.

Am I the only person that's never once had any problems getting my bacon crispy? For me this is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

Yep, this is how I prep my bacon whether its in full strips for breakfast or BLTs, or diced and made ready for a pasta sauce...its a great way to get the bacon into a place where it can be used without being overcooked and too crispy, or undercooked and too chewy. Nice presentation Andy! Nice to find your channel!

After seeing your videos, I started putting water in the pan to prepare the bacons and I never got them wrong anymore! Thanks Andy for this valuable tip.

I literally just tried this method for dinner and it works super well, the bacon was perfectly crispy and delicious. I definitely recommend trying it! Great tip Andy, cheers from Germany

I add water to everything now. Boiled beans, all my pasta preparations, boiled eggs, etc. It makes a significant difference.

I cook my bacon and sausages in the oven. Bacon gets crispy and sausages have a nice snap to the skin.

Yeah just tried this unless you like unseasoned bacon then do this. If you want flavor cook it in its own grease!

I’ve done this ever since I saw it in one of your videos! Works so well with streaky bacon 😋

Inspired by you, my 10 yr old lad cooked my wife and I ‘Flynn’s Bacon & Egg Brunch Barm’ with bacon cooked “the Andy way”. Cheers mate loving your work inspiring a new generation of chefs. He also walks round the house saying “hey babe! What do want for dinner?”

I always made my bacon the way my mother used to: in the oven with a perforated baking tray so that the bacon fat could fall into the tray. But I've just tried your method and it's brilliant. I've never made crispy bacon so well. Thank you for this technique and for your videos.

Thank you!!! My husband is a bacon addict, so I can't wait to try this method! We were both so terrible at cooking that during the pandemic, we spent three years eating takeout from the only couple of restaurants we both liked, which got very boring! I started watching videos about cooking, then found great folks cooking online, like you!! You are a particular favorite, because you're inspiring, humorous and expert, and now we both take turns terrorizing the kitchen, learning as we go! I'm going to try the bacon in water tommorow, can't wait! Another plus is that from learning to eat well made, fresh foods, we both lost a LOT of weight, no more mindless munching! I am 61 and my husband is five or ten years younger, so if we could get into shape and become decent cooks, anyone can! Stay healthy and happy, and thank you again for showing the celebration cooking for loved ones can be!

Ethan's chart / explanation is great, the water holds the temp in the range that turns collagen to gelatin for longer so it gets crispy while retaining !moisture

Bacon cooked in a airfryer is game changing.

Got that from one of your previous videos. I tend to use a bit more water and medium heat, so the colagen gets in the play. I like it a little chewy, so I don't get them all that crisp, but they end up with a nice crust.

You can also preheat oven 200 C` flat tray baking sheet 8-12 minutes also perfect bacon, depends on oven, fan speed and size of the bacon of course. Cheers. Andy Cooks thumbs up mate.

I started doing it because of one if your old videos!! it works like a charm every time for a few slices of bacon when I don’t feel like waiting for the oven

Other option: roast at low temp in oven, then broil at the end. Flip occasionally. Takes a little longer but works especially well when you need to cook a lot of bacon at once. Like two sheet pans full of bacon. I also use a wire rack to keep it above the fat, but YMMV.

I Googled " cooking bacon with water " yesterday & watched a couple of videos .. N today I just happen to see a video by my favorite Chef on this subject... Thank you Chef .. You explain everything so well .. U R a Great Teacher as Well as a Great Chef ⚘

Good method, but I prefer using an oven putting the bacon into a cold oven while it preheats. Does a similar render and limits splatter and mess. To each their own.

Hey Andy, any chance you could make a video talking about fry pans? Use / care / preferences / cleaning / types etc? I have a cast iron fry pan, and I have tried to season it repeatedly, but my eggs always stick! I would be interested to hear what you say. Thanks!

Instead of using water, I use bacon grease from previous bacon. It works faster because the water doesn't have to heat up in order to render the fat in the bacon. Of course, if I'm all out of bacon grease, then this is the way to do it.

Cooking it on a cookie sheet in the oven on top of parchment paper while you’re fixing your eggs/pancakes and everything else works much better. Texture of the bacon is much better than water cooked.

I was expecting a man to cook bacon with water from a hose pipe. My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined.

I've seen this trick before but I have never been able to master it. Thank you for going through it step by step now I know where I was going wrong. Love these videos keep up the good work.

I freeze bacon, which does the same thing, as cooking from frozen causes water to soak into the pan as it thaws. I buy loads, lay the rashers out individually on baking sheets then they freeze individually rather than as one big lump, the put them all in a bag in the freezer and they stay separated. Take out as many as you need, put them in a dry pan over a high heat to start them thawing, then turn it down. The water that thaws out is easily enough to render the fat, and the low heat keeps the process going for longer so the bacon doesn't burn before crisping. There'll be loads of excess fat, which can then live in a jar in the fridge - great for fried eggs, roast potatoes, refried beans, Yorkshire puddings...

I can attest that this is method works. I learned it from the instructions on the back of the thick cut Costco bacon package and been doing it ever since. Creates a nice crust on the bacon

Bacon is proof God exists...and loves us.

Tried this ever since I saw Chef do this. It actually works really well and I kind of prefer it even though big batches take a long time lol

My preferred method is to bake on a cooking sheet cover in parchment. So easy, and you can continue to prepare other items as the bacon cooked. To clean up there is no oil splatter like cooking in the stove 0:28 .

♦♦♦♦In american Bacon, it is cured with salt, sugar and then smoked. Bacon gets crispy because of the sugar in the cured meat. The sugar is caramelizing. I never have had a problem frying good bacon. All I can see by adding water is getting a more even heating. I just cover mine and does the same thing. The water comes out of the bacon and is trapped under the cover.

I prefer just dusting them in flour or corn starch, it can also help also reduce the saltiness if you're on a budget and can only afford the cheaper quality bacon

Hi Andy! Thanks for this wonderful tip!! I really wanna know more about that wok burner stove you have outside of your house that you use for some of your Asian dishes! maybe a Kitchen tour one of these days! :)

I only recently discovered how little bacon is locally sourced. Was rather surprised. I bought an aussie one and it turned out to be the best tasting bacon that I've had.

any seasoned home chef can make perfect bacon, it's all about pan temp control. this kind of gets around that, which is fine, but learning how your stove and pans interact is tantamount to good home cooking. knowing how different temps are reached, what effect they have on different items, etc.

I love how all true chefs always use other stuff in their kitchens. He mentioned using a splash guard, but I don't think he has one, lol.

You can also use this method in an oven cook, it does add significantly more time to the oven cook but serves the same purpose to start to render the fat and collagen at a lower temperature before starting the browning. Do not use very much water.

I always wonder why Andy kept putting water on the bacon 🥓

It produces more evenly cooked bacon. I noticed this when the first few pieces of bacon would be burned, but undercooked, until there was enough rendered fat in the pan to cook the later pieces. Bacon is usually too wavy and uneven to cook well in a flat pan with no liquid (the quality of American bacon has dropped, significantly, in the last few years. Even "thick cut" bacon is transparent and tears like tissue paper now). Pork is "cooked" at about 160F, but the Maillard reaction doesn't happen until around 300F. The water keeps the temperature at or under 212F until it evaporates, then the crisping can begin. It's a 2-step process; cook it, then crisp it.

sort of like cooking 'Gyoza' first cook it through in shallow water then fry it dry and you get golden crust on the bottom of the dumpling,

I have wondered this on every single video... THANK YOU so much. PS... nobody in the comments of those videos seemed to know either and it was actually quite funny seeing so many people ask what the heck watering the bacon does lol

I'm wondering if you've ever tried it without water. Because I get the same results without water. I cook mine slow. I put the burner on about lowmedium, or between 4 and 5 on a gas stove. I also get a lot of grease from the fat.

I broil my bacon in the oven on parchment paper on a baking pan, on the lowest rack. Halfway through I pour out the bacon fat in a bowl (throw it in the food recycling once it’s hardened) and use this time to flip the bacon just once. This is done so that you don’t let the bacon burn in it’s own fat. Put on paper towel and super crispy. Plus I don’t have to stand over the stove top.

Last year I was cooking a single strip of bacon in broth to give the broth some extra flavor but that piece of bacon turned out so freaking amazing I started doing it on the regular and it’s sooooooo good If I want to really up it, I sprinkle some brown sugar on top towards to end.

Great videos, Andy! I would request a great and simple CREPES as you like!

I've never used the water method but still get super crispy bacon - all i do is frying the bacon over low heat without adding anything else to the pan and once they're browned, I put them on a paper towel and pat off the excess fat and the bacon stays super crispy :)

I tried this and it changed my life too. My kids now love BLTs , my wife stopped smoking crack and now is a pediatric nurse. My dog came back from the dead and my yard never needs mowing.

Why do people always talk like "super crispy" bacon is the ideal? Anyone can make crispy bacon...just keep cooking until it's overdone. The sweet spot is cooked with all fat rendered and browned, but still slightly chewy.

I total thought this was bull but I was so wrong. This is how I make my bacon all the time now. So good. Thanks Andy!

I tried this today for breakfast and the bacon was absolutely crispy and less oily than putting it in the oven. Loved it!

A I do is put the bacon in a dry pan on the lowest heat. Let it cook for about 5 minutes, it will seem like it's taking ages to cook, but it's slowly rendering it's on fat out, so no need to add oil. As soon as the bacon starts popping and you can physically see the spots of fat piping and changing colour, flip it. Leave it another few minutes until the popping starts to subside. Do not increase the heat leave it on low right up until the popping subsides, then turn the heat off and flip it one last time. The bacon might not look brown enough or cooked enough, and if you were to pick it up now, it will probably be soft and floppy, but leave it about 2-3 minutes after turning the pan off, and then pick it up. Perfectly crispy, golden in colour and no acrid burnt taste or black bits on it. That's my favourite way of cooking bacon. Unless I'm doing liver, bacon Lincolnshire sausages with mash, onions and gravy. Then I just brown everything and whack it in the slow cooker with the onions and stick/gravy and let it cook for a few hours before serving with a plate full of mash. Proper comfort grub. (Even though normally I cannot stand liver, it tastes amazing in this with the bacon, good quality sausages and fried onions and a rich gravy to top it all off).

Truth be told rendering the fat out with water and then making it crispy dries it out. Better option is to make the pan SUPER hot, as fat then turns into crispy crackling

I saw you do this once a long time ago, learned why and been doing it ever since. You’re the ultimate pro Andy - thanks from 🇨🇦

I just throw it in the oven for 10 mins, dry with a paper towel 🤷🏽‍♂️

You know what I do sometimes miss about American bacon is the really thick cut slices that have crushed black peppercorns stuck to the outside edge of the bacon. It makes for a super tasty anytime food but my Cajun ex mother-in-law used to sprinkle a tiny bit of sugar on one side during cooking. It made for the tastiest and most crisp bacon I've ever had.

You don't need water. Put bacon in a cold pan and bring it up to medium heat. The slow process of the pan heating up causes enough fat to render out and you get the exact same effect.

Top tip 🙌🏽 Thank you for the detailed walk through. I’m going to try this out asap 🥓

I accidentally did this by putting a cover on the pan to have the bacon kind of steam itself with its own water content (I guess). Same effect was observed... removed the cover after a few minutes... water evapourated off and bacon crisped up very nicely! :) Love your videos, Andy! Inspiring cookery! :)

I put on a metal tray in the oven at 425F for about 12-15min. Use a single piece of nonstick foil and cleanup is super easy. Makes great bacon without all the attention as stove top bacon.

Lay strips of bacon flat on a cookie sheet. Place in cold oven. Turn oven on to 400°F Come back in about 12 minutes. Perfection.

Or, just cook it in the oven at 218C/425F. Don't have to worry about curling, sog, etc., etc. Jelly roll pan lined with foil for easy clean-up, and you don't end up damaging the bacon grease - easy to drain off for later use. Cook time varies by thickness, but 11-17 minutes works well enough.

The difference maker is whether the bacon has been injected with water or not by the producer. It's common in the EU to inject bacon with 3-9% salt water in order to increase the weight (and thus affecting the per pound price). With water in the muscle fibers the bacon wont crisp up like the way it should. As far as i can tell this method only lead to additional pops & splashing when the water tries to escape the rendered fat. Just look at the package for additives.

I just throw the bacon in the microwave 1 minute per strip and comes out perfect every time

I can't wait to try this for my next bacon breakfast. I'm absolutely obsessed with watching Andy Cooks. He makes really informative videos while being extremely fun to watch. I binged a bunch of his shorts one night, and I literally had to create a profile to sign into youtube so that I could subscribe for future videos of his. So many tasty looking dishes, and just one of the best cooking shows you can watch. My partner and I just love how funny Andy is. He's super amusing and instructive.

Hey mate, congrats on all the deserved success. I may have accidentally found and alternative approach with a similar outcome. Two pans. Render the fat in one gently and then move the bacon to the other pan (and use the first one for Bacon Fat Eggs). Might be wrong, it was an accident as I was in too small a pan when I started (without water).

Right after you remove bacon from the pan put a sugar powdered on it….just a small pinch….It will blow you head away! It is important to do it when bacon is still hot. That will help sugar powder to “melt” and caramelize

how to get a really nice splatter from your bacon despite usinga non-stick pan also you are not using the correct stove top section, one of the medium ones would have been correct. the flames of the big one are (or would be if you positioned the pan more accurately) pointed at the edge of the pan, so you are heating the edge hotter than the center.

Simple. Use an oven. Great results every time. No water needed and no oil splatter all over the stove top.

I have never in my life not been able to make crispy bacon, seems completley unnesscary to me but you do you!

The pops and sputtering is from the water being super-heated and exploding, thereby pushing fat up and out of the pan. Less hassles by starting with bacon only and on low heat. Takes longer, but rendered fat and super crispy bacon without the explosions and the additional cleanup requirements is the result.

Been doing this for a while. Also works well when doing onions. I put a lid on for a while to trap the steam, then remove to finish. Thinking about it and going back to science in high school, I always remember the teacher showing us that steam has 100 times the energy of water at the same temp. So maybe that extra heat energy is what helps make this work.

I'm surprised not a lot of people do this. I've always added water to cook my bacon, it's the best thing ever.

I laughed when I first heard about cooking Bacon in water. Then I watched a video that explained what was happening. The water prevents the bacon from getting above 212 degrees F (boiling point of water, I'm American, sue me). Allowing the bacon to be held tat this temperature for longer allows fat to better render and the collagen in Bacon to cook longer resulting in a more tender final product. YUM!

Nice to see an Australian who can cook bacon right. That blew my mind almost 20 years ago that floppy half-raw stuff served in most hotels

I think the real gem here is how easily we forget that it takes so long to cook the food we watch in these short clips…

What's the difference to cooking in the oven? I get crispy bacon with rendered fat every time. You have to remove any liquid when you flip half way. Takes 15mins.

The actual action of the water while the bacon is cooking is keeping the temperature in the range where the connective tissue and fibers in the meat break down. Having it in this temperature range for a longer time produces a less 'stringy' end product versus just frying in its own juices and rendered fat.

I just throw bacon on a non-sticky hot frying pan without anything, bacon grease is more than enough to work with. And fry it on high heat till it has some burn marks, this way most of grease stays intact. Not a huge fan of bacon chips, this way I get mine flexible and chewy. But crispy chips can be made the same way, you just start with a cold pan, that way most of grease will melt. Frying any kind of bacon is as easy as it gets, I'd say it's very intuitive.

Funny thing...my bacon turns out crispy no matter what I do. If its not crispy, you haven't cooked it long enough.

I now wear glasses whenever cooking bacon.

The water is great cause it essentially limits the amount of heat that's on the bacon, keeping it from "cooking" but still letting that fat render out. Then once the water is gone, there's loads of fat to pretty much shallow fry itself in.

I have absolutely no problem getting my bacon perfect without water. I just turn on the stove, put the bacon in the pan and flip it when it's done on one side, turn off the stove and it's done within a minute after turning the stove off. No need to complicate things.

Good advice. When I cook bacon for large amounts I do the oven method. Works well. Use a sheet pan.

I've found the best way to make crispy bacon is on an electric George Foreman grill. Just put a few slices down and plug it in. All the fat drips down into the tray, and after about 10 minutes you have perfectly cooked extra crispy bacon. You don't have to flip it, don't have to do anything at all apart from take the cooked bacon off and put fresh strips on. Then go back to whatever you were doing before. Over the course of an hour you can cook up a whole package of bacon perfectly, and it only takes maybe 3 minutes of your actual attention.

if you want large amounts of crispy bacon you can bake it in the oven. everything comes out crispy and perfect.

I do this same thing using two soaked paper towels in the microwave on a microwave bacon plate. The wet paper towels act to steam the bacon fat off quickly & the bacon crisps up in half the time. Just remove the paper towels for the last 3-4 minutes of microwave cooking. Another plus is saving all that bacon fat for another meal & cleanup is a breeze.

I get a similar result by cooking the bacon on a really low temp on the hob. Put it in cold then just turn on low and leave for a lot 30 mins. You get so much fat coming out of the bacon, and it goes really crispy. I keep the fat to cook with.

That's exactly how we render lard in Chinese cuisine; pork fat, a slice of ginger or 2, maybe some salt and enough water in a cold pot, let it cook by itself. The lard rendered will be aromatic, the cooking time is reduced and the crisps at the end are crispy and not hard. It is a method I highly recommend for any type of high/pure fat meat if you are looking to render lots of fats and/or having crispy crisps at the end.

Starting out with a little rendered bacon fat from the prior batch of bacon also works quite nicely - just have to keep the heat on low-medium. This would probably be a bit faster, I'd imagine.

I do it low & slow. No water needed. Basically I render the bacon and pan deep fry it in its own grease. Crispy %100 of the time!

I cook my bacon on a heated pan at about a low medium. It takes longer, but I always get my bacon to come out exactly how I like it, tender with a bit of crisp to it as well. I'll have to play with the water trick. The one time I tried it, I had issues. I also had a much more vauge understanding of how to use it properly.

I cook mine in the oven, use a big all metallic frying pan that can go in there and I put the lid on it at 360, don't preheat the oven, the fat will gently melt down before the real cooking start, the lid retains the humidity needed long enough, flipping the meat halfway is optional, I don't,... no mess no stress. I never ever add oil, it changes the taste, use something more neutral like Crisco (vegetal shortening) if you have too (strict minimum).