I'm sure everyone on earth knew this, and I had heard it several times but finally had opportunity to try making bacon in the oven as opposed to fried on the stove. It is wonderfully easy, less messy, and much less smoky to bake it. Turns out flat and perfect. Use thicker bacon, the thin just doesn't stand up as well to any type of cooking, really.
Fit a cookie rack on a jelly roll pan. Place bacon on the rack so it is sitting above the base of the pan, so air can get to the top and bottom of the bacon. Try not to stretch it out. Do NOT preheat your oven, I repeat: NO PREHEATING. Place the bacon in the baking sheets on the oven rack (I use two sheets fitted with racks for one pound of bacon), If you are using two baking sheets, place one on each oven rack. Close the oven door and turn oven on to 400 degrees. Bake bacon for 16-20 minutes, watching it close after about 15 minutes to make sure it doesn't burn. My top rack cooks the bacon faster so it should have come out at about the 16 minute mark, it got a tad crispy, and then the bottom rack took a bit longer, I had to extend that slightly over the 20 minute mark, I just checked it each minute.
Remove when the bacon edges are starting to get golden, keep in mind it will still continue to cook as it cools so don't overbake it. Also, remove the bacon immediately to plates lined with paper towels, don't let it sit on the rack in the pan because the grease in the pan will have enough heat to continue actively cooking and the strips will burn. Then, of course, scrape the fat drippings into a jar so you can make soft ginger cookies with it later. Mmm. Bacon.
