Bacon may be one of the few remaining foods that we use an overhead grill for. Grilling used to mean putting food under the overhead grill that was an integral part of every oven. Now the grill may be used for cheese on toast or even bacon but generally speaking, we now take it to mean barbecuing or using a ridged grill pan.

Bacon also pan-fries nicely especially if you want to fry a few fresh eggs in its residual fat. Bacon in the oven is simply lazy and will give you some bits overcooked and some bits flabby and undercooked. Go to any bakery that sells bacon butties and you will know what we're talking about. Bacon back and streaky needs about 2 minutes on either side; depending on how you like it.

To crisp up streaky bacon for crumbling into salads or serving cold, cook it until it is well browned and then remove it to a cold metal tray.