The Big Bacon Blunder That Can Happen When You Freeze Your Strips

Freezing bacon is a great way to make the deliciously savory, salty meat last longer and reduce food waste. While you absolutely can wrap a whole unopened packet of bacon in foil and store it in the freezer, the problem is that it all tends to freeze together in one big block. This means that you have to defrost the unwieldy mass in its entirety, when you might only want to use a few strips for your BLT or sweet-savory bacon breakfast waffles. Luckily, there's an easy fix: You just need to freeze the bacon in individual slices.

There are a couple of ways to freeze bacon slices, and the key to both is keeping the strips separate. The first method is to lay a strip of meat onto the edge of a piece of wax paper, then fold the paper over to cover it, and pop another slice on top of that. Repeat the process until you've got an accordion effect, then put it all into a freezer bag and label it with the date.

Alternatively, line a baking sheet with wax paper or parchment, lay a piece of bacon on it, and roll up the strip of meat into a little spiral shape. Keep rolling however many strips of bacon you want to freeze, keeping a bit of space between them, then pop the whole tray into the freezer for about half an hour. Once they've hardened up, you can put the spirals in a freezer bag, and they won't all clump together.

You should use frozen bacon within a month or two for the best quality. If you're wrapping the meat around other items — for example, to make bacon-wrapped dill pickles – it's easier to thaw the strips before cooking them. It's best to do this in the fridge overnight, but you could use the defrost setting on your microwave if you're in a hurry. Make sure to cook the strips right away if using the microwave method, to keep the meat's temperature out of the danger zone.

Alternatively, you can cook strips of bacon straight from the freezer. This is much easier when the slices have been frozen flat individually rather than in a big slab, as you can take the number of pieces your recipe requires from the freezer without needing to defrost them all. Cook the meat using your preferred method, whether that's in the oven — the best mess-free way to cook bacon — or in a skillet or air fryer. Just allow extra time to ensure the bacon is fully cooked.

If you've got leftover cooked bacon, you can freeze that, too. As with raw bacon, it's best to make sure it's frozen in individual slices rather than one solid mass. Use a sheet pan lined with wax paper to lay the strips out, and cover each layer with more paper before freezing for a few hours. Then pop the lot in a freezer bag, and use it within a month.