How to Drain Bacon Without Paper Towels

Recently, we asked some customers what's stopping them from going paperless in the kitchen, and one thing we heard many times was, “Cooking bacon.” For many of us, paper towels are the things that we reach for before we take bacon out of the pan. Paper towels may seem to be the perfect thing to absorb all of that grease, but there are some alternatives.

Here are a few ways to soak up bacon grease without paper towels.

1. Substitute cut up paper bags from the grocery store. If you're bringing home groceries in paper bags, cut them into squares to place over your plate.

2. Use Bambooee bamboo paper towels. In our Bambooee kitchen road test, we saw how absorbent these towels really are, and they make a great substitute for paper towels when you're draining bacon.

3. Keep a stack of rags on hand. When you end up with a cotton shirt that is too stained or ripped to be donated, cut it into rags. You can soak them in water and detergent after use and then let them air dry to reuse again.

4. Buy a bacon-only dish towel. Purchase a cotton dish towel that you use exclusively for bacon draining. Just make sure to wash it by hand, as you don't want to put oil-soaked fabrics in the washing machine.

5. Oven-cook your bacon. You can make your bacon healthier and less greasy by baking it in the oven. Place the bacon on a broiler pan. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees and then turn and bake the other side to your desired done-ness. The grease will run off while it bakes, so there's no need to soak any up.

 

Do you have your own solution for draining bacon without the use of paper towels? Share it in the comment section!


7 Responses

Shannon
Shannon

August 16, 2015

I do the water method and it is wonderful. There is no mess with it and there is plenty of rendered fat left over for use later. I use the half of a tea screen to strain the hot leftover fat into a canning jar. For the issue of draining bacon before serving i was thinking a splatter screen might work. Placed over the pan with the bacon placed over top, maybe it will strain off the residual fat. It’s awful to serve bacon in cold fat.

Gale
Gale

May 17, 2015

We save our bacon grease soaked rags to use as fire starters.

Amanda
Amanda

May 07, 2014

I just used the lid of a rough cardboard egg carton.

Julie
Julie

March 03, 2014

I just saw a method of cooking bacon that involves covering the bacon in the pan with wáter and when the wáter evaporates, the bacon is almost done and the grease is rendered by then.

sue hanson
sue hanson

February 19, 2014

Breadworks well for draining bacon. Just line a cookie sheet with slices of stale bread and lay the cooked bacon on it. You can still use the bread to make croutons or for french toast.

ElizaVan
ElizaVan

September 20, 2013

You actually don’t even need a broiler pan… place a cookie cooling rack on a cookie tray, and lay your strips of bacon across the racks.

Momma Jorje
Momma Jorje

September 19, 2013

We occasionally pick up fast food. I keep the napkins from those trips for draining bacon. I used to use some unpaper towels (cloth), but I could NOT get the bacon grease out of them.

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