I’ve had a lot of people asking me to do a tutorial on how to weave bacon. I know the youtube videos go by pretty quick and it might be difficult to see exactly what you need to do.
A few recipes I’ve done so far with a bacon weave include: Low Carb Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf, the beautiful Crispy Stuffed Bacon Baskets, and of course the Cheddar Bacon Explosion.
The MOST IMPORTANT part of bacon weaving is the pattern that you weave. Make sure that when you lay your strips, there’s always an opposing pattern. What I mean by that is the way the fat lies. If you have fat pointing to the right hand side on the side slice, make sure the fat points to the left hand side on the second slice. You want fat touching fat, and meat touching meat.
The pattern will allow for a more even cook through the whole bacon weave, and if you do it correctly, the weave will tighten up as it cooks and won’t leave you with any holes you don’t want. Let’s get started, shall we?
The Exeuction
Excuse me for the picture, but I’m low on bacon right now! I layed out 6 strips, but I removed the 6th strip when I was weaving it. Lay your 5 strips of bacon down on to some foil.
Start off with your plan of action. You’ll be weaving alternatively underneath and over each piece of bacon. I prefer to let the first piece lay over the first slice of bacon. Fold it back so that you can weave the bacon underneath the next slice.
Fold the second slice of bacon down so that you can weave underneath it.
Pull the piece of bacon you are weaving through the hole.
Lay the original slice back to its original place – now we have one slice over, one slice under.
Continue with this method. Let the bacon go over 1 more slice and fold it back.
Pull the original slice of bacon you want to weave under.
Lay the “weavable” piece of bacon back flat.
Pull the folded original piece over the weaved piece of bacon.
There we have it! Our first piece of bacon is now weaved. We’ll continue this throughout the next and following slices. Make sure that with the horizontal weave, you still keep the pattern in mind. You want fat touching fat, and meat touching meat. Alternating the way your bacon pieces face each strip you weave.
Here’s the picturs to weave the second slice of bacon:
Now, we’re done with the second slice! Continue with 3 more slices until you have a square bacon weave. You want this to be as neat as you can, but a few holes don’t matter too much. I tend to press the palm of my hand over the bacon to flatten it and make it wider. This helps fill any excess holes or gaps there might be.
Once you’re finished with the bacon weaving, you can cook it like it is. I put this one in the oven for 25 minutes at 400F. It should turn out crispy once you lay it on some paper towels.
Enjoy!
