The Fulton Market area of Chicago where I work is filled with food wholesale companies – fish, meat, eggs, butter, …and (xoxo) bacon. This week I walked into Meadow Brook Egg Company and walked out with a twelve-pound box of premier restaurant quality bacon.
I’ve been dreaming about trying Megan’s famous bacon cups since Shane passed along the link last spring. Megan creatively made her cups in the oven using upside down muffin pans covered in foil. While they turned out lovely, Megan reported some smoking and fat burning by using the oven so I decided to see if I could make them 100% in the microwave. And as a tip of the hat to Shane’s 2007 Mac and Cheese Cooking Championship victory, I filled the cups with mac and cheese.
Supplies:
- Bacon
- Glass Prep Bowls
to make small bacon cups (see mac and cheese photo above) or ramekins
to make large bacon cups (see salad photo below)
- Glass baking dish
- Lots of paper towels
- Rachael Ray Moppine Kitchen Towel – Orange Stripe
(not required but pictured below …Shane’s mom got it for me and I really like it)
- Mac and cheese (Shane’s not quite ready to pass along his winning recipe so I recommend Elise’s quick mac and cheese)
I tried two variations of cups in the microwave: solid bacon cups and open bacon cup.
Method 1: Solid bacon cup using glass prep bowls
This method creates a tighter, more solid cup that’s great for holding mac and cheese.
First line your Pyrex baking dish with a bunch of paper towels. Set your glass prep bowl in the middle of the dish. Fold one paper towel into quarters and set on top of the glass bowl to help catch some of the grease and make it easier to remove the finished cup from the bowl. Drape three strips of bacon across the top.
Now weave strips over and under the three core strips, covering the entire glass prep bowl and overlapping slices so to ensure it cooks with few holes in the cup. Cover with more paper towel and microwave for up to 4 minutes. Check it midway to see how it’s doing. When it’s ready, slip the bacon cup off of the glass prep bowl. Peel back the grease-soaked paper towel while it’s still warm and pliable. Fill with mac and cheese.
Method 2: Open bacon cups “baskets” using 10-oz ceramic ramekins
This method ended up creating large open spaces which look really cute when filled with fresh green salad. I didn’t overlap the pieces on this try and used fattier pieces of bacon which shrunk up more and created larger spaces in the cup.
Line your Pyrex baking dish with a bunch of paper towels. Then take two sheets and fold in half or thirds depending on the size of your ramekins, joining to make a single long rectangle. Wrap it around the ramekin and tuck under the paper towel on the open edge. Set it back in your baking dish, open end down, on top of the paper towels.
Put two pieces of bacon across the top with one piece perpendicular. Next, wrap the bacon around in a basket weave, over under the three pieces.
Cover and microwave for up to 4 minutes. Gently lift the cup off of the ramekin and peel back the paper towel. Thanks again to Megan for the original oven-baked inspiration!
So what about my 12 pounds of bacon? Well, I used about 1 pound making cups, froze 6 pounds for later and gave three pounds away which leaves 2 more pound sitting in my refrigerator …I’ll be trying more bacon-centric recipes soon. Viva la bacon!
Posted by Kathy on October 10, 2008
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January 1st, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Mine for the mac and cheese ones held up pretty well …I actually had to break them on purpose to eat them. The salad ones were a bit more fragile. My guess is that it may be based on the type of bacon you buy and the amount that you overlap them, so if you’re wanting a sturdier bowl I’d go with the overlapping and smaller prep bowl base. Yum!
December 31st, 2009 at 3:24 pm
How well do the cups hold up? I’m afraid that they’ll get very crispy and whenever I poke my fork in to eat, I’ll crack the bacon cup and the whole thing will fall apart in a (delicious) mess.
June 21st, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Cool! Thank you for the follow. I have a recipe for mac’n cheese with truffle oil and bacon, I should send it to you, imagine it in a bacon cup, drool.
June 16th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
@HeatherHAL, why yes I am. I just added you. I’m @MerrimentDesign and love your biscotti!
June 16th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Any bacon fan like you is automatically a friend! Are you on Twitter? I’m @HeatherHAL.
May 24th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Heather in SF, this is a fantastic idea! Can we be friends too??
May 20th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
I recommend pig candy for one of your pounds of bacon: liberally coat bacon with brown sugar and fry up in a large nonstick pan, turning frequently. The pan will become a seething mass of bubbling sugar and bacon fat. When the pan begins to get quiet the bacon should almost be done, remove to a silpat or tin foil. Immediately pour remaining sugar onto another silpat in a jelly roll pan. The fat will separate off and you should spread the remaining sugar as flat as possible. This makes a bacon hard candy that’s pretty tasty for snacking in the kitchen. The pig candy is awesome as is or crumbled to top donuts, in maple ice cream or in toffee instead of nuts. For obvious reasons I only make this about 3 times a year as my friends and I can go through about 3 pounds in one sitting. !!!
February 21st, 2009 at 11:41 pm
brilliant idea. great photos.
February 12th, 2009 at 10:15 am
This is such a wonderfully creative idea! I think I might have to work this into a Valentines Day lunch. Thanks for sharing!
November 15th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Thanks, Andy! You are the sweetest.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Bacon cups! You are an inspiration. I love this. I’m sending this link around. The world is a better place.
The picture of the cup with mac and cheese is now my desktop wallpaper. Which reminds me: great photography.
Well done!
October 20th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
un-be-lieve-able. my fiance would love this and I’d love to show it off at a dinner party! very cool.
October 15th, 2008 at 7:29 am
You temptress! What a great idea…those baby tomatoes are beeeeautiful.
October 12th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I am such a bacon fan, what a great idea!
Have you ever tried Martha Stewart’s Brown Sugar Glazed Bacon? BEST bacon I’ve ever had, without a doubt.
Heat oven to 425.
Line baking pan with parchment paper. Arrange bacon on paper and sprinkle brown sugar liberally over the bacon (1/2 c dark brown to 1 1/4 lbs bacon…but I probably used a bit more). Bake for 10 min, remove and drain fat. Return to oven until bacon is crisp, 6 to 7 more minutes. Transfer bacon to wire rack to cool.
It’s like candy, amazing!
(ooh, how about a Vosage-inspired pan of brownies? With bacon pieces throughout??)
Ok, I’m hungry now.
October 11th, 2008 at 7:28 am
This is such a great idea!!! Something I’ll have to save for a special occasion for my husband…. he loves bacon…. but whose husband doesn’t??