The Parchment Paper Hack For Storing Bacon Is Beautifully Tidy

There are a couple of contenders for the title of most frustrating grocery packaging, but bacon might top the list. In the United States, bacon is almost exclusively sold by the pound or half-pound in vacuum-sealed plastic. And once you've opened the package, you're sort of committed to eating it all, because nearly all packaging isn't resealable.

While cooking and eating a pound of bacon is a delicious prospect, a lot of times you'll only need a slice or two for a recipe. The problem is then what to do with the rest of the bacon so that it doesn't dry out and go bad. There's no elegant way to reuse the bacon's original packaging, which is designed to keep the air away from the surface of the meat and keep it looking fresh and pink for sale in the store. Once air gets in, the bacon will start to look a little tired and gray, and the surface will dry out.

Thankfully, an inventive TikToker has found a way to store bacon so that you can use only what you need while keeping the rest fresh. All you need is a sheet of parchment paper, a Ziploc-style bag, and a pair of scissors.

If you use bacon in recipes regularly or you just like to have a slice or two around for breakfast, you don't have to come up with creative ways to eat the whole package. Save your cholesterol levels and try TikToker Ceddie's Kitchen's ingenious method of packing bacon individually so that you can store it in the freezer and pull out only what you need when you need it. This technique requires a bit of front-loading when you bring the bacon home from the store, but it pays off when you want a little bacon later.

@ceddies_kitchen

Now this is a hack I can get behind!! #bacon #hack #foodstorage #gamechanger #fyp #foodblogger #ceddieskitchen #seasonedwithlove #foodtiktok

♬ original sound – Ceddie's Kitchen

The first step is to open up the package of bacon and grab the parchment paper. If you're using parchment on the roll, pull a long piece out. Don't rip it off just yet; you might need a little extra length. If you're using pre-cut sheets of parchment, place at least two pieces on the counter.

Next, place the slices of bacon on the paper side by side, leaving about an inch of space in between each slice. This space will be where you cut the pieces apart, so resist the urge to crowd the bacon together.

Once you have the bacon laid out, carefully roll the sheet of parchment from the bottom — perpendicular to the bacon slices. Try to get a nice, tight roll so that you keep as much air away from the bacon as you can.

Once you have the bacon all rolled up and snug, use kitchen scissors to cut in between each slice. Now you can store individual slices in a large freezer bag and take one or more of them out at a time when you're ready. Try to get as much of the air out of your freezer bag as you can each time you open it to prevent freezer burn, wrap the slices tightly to keep crystals from forming on the food's surface. Just be sure to write a date on the bag with a permanent marker and use the slices within around four months for the best results.

The best part of this trick is that you don't need to thaw the bacon before you use it, as you would with other defrosted meats. You can cook individual frozen slices any way you'd cook raw bacon; it just takes an extra minute or two for them to come to temperature.