This genius bacon hack will completely change your breakfast game

We can't believe we never thought of this bacon storage hack

By Lindsay Parrill April 1, 2023

You would think that, when it comes to bacon, everything has been done. After all, these days, anywhere you look, bacon is so popular that it’s everywhere in some form of cheap parody. It’s not just a breakfast food. I myself, at this very moment, have a tin of bacon bandaids in my medicine cabinet (they were a gift, okay?). Poor, delicious, exquisite bacon has been reduced to punchlines and tacky merchandise, and it’s just depressing.

Every once in a while, though, a new tip or trick comes along that has me questioning my entire bacon-loving identity. When I learned to flour bacon before frying it, my world turned upside down. As a teenager, I started storing my bacon grease in the refrigerator, using it for…well, everything, and it’s given me more delicious meals than I can count. And now, thanks to the phenomenon that is TikTok, I’ve learned the proper way to store my leftover bacon. Granted, it’s rare that there ever is any bacon leftover, but it has happened once or twice, and this trick would have been handy in those instances.

@yaya.kreates
#tipsandtricks #kitchenhacks

♬ original sound – Yaya.kreates

In this video, one clever TikToker demonstrates how to use and store a half pound of bacon at a time. Her clever hack not only saves time and plastic wrap, but creates smaller slices, perfect for layering in a sandwich or fitting into an air fryer.

Without ever fussing with the oh-so-frustrating “peel here” package, she cuts the entire thing, plastic and all, in half vertically. Now holding two pieces of the bacon package, she removes the bacon from one half, then covers the remaining half with the now empty plastic packaging. She is left with conveniently shorter bacon pieces to cook (perfect for that BLT or egg sandwich), and another half pound of bacon for tomorrow’s breakfast, perfectly and safely tucked away in a tidy package. Absolutely brilliant.

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Lindsay Parrill

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Lindsay is a graduate of California Culinary Academy, Le Cordon Bleu, San Francisco, from where she holds a degree in…

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Dry brined steaks

When the word "brine" comes to mind, you may imagine yourself the night before Thanksgiving, wrestling a 19-pound turkey, trying to fit the thing into a container large enough to hold it and the salty water bath you're submerging it into. It isn't always the most fun activity, sometimes resulting in slippery poultry skidding across the kitchen floor and spewing curse words that make your visiting pearl-clutching mother-in-law blush. Thankfully, today, we're discussing dry brining, a much easier, much less stressful way to tenderize and flavor your proteins, and a new way to cook steak.
Essentially, dry brining is just a fancy culinary term for salting, then resting meat. And it's certainly not just for turkey. When you salt a piece of beef, pork, or poultry and allow that salt to penetrate the meat, you're creating flavor magic. When a piece of protein is seasoned with salt, it draws the juices from the meat to the surface. After a few minutes, that juice will break down the salt, which creates a concentrated dry brine. When left to rest in this way, meat becomes far more flavorful and tender than if you'd merely seasoned the meat right before cooking.
Furthermore, everything you dry brine, from steak and chicken breasts to pork chops, will have a far more even, beautifully golden, crispy crust. This is because the moisture that draws back into the meat after salting creates a much drier surface. And a dry surface is a deliciously golden one when cooked.
The recipe below is a beautifully simple one from Omaha Steaks, walking you through how to dry brine a steak, but this method to make steak will work on just about any protein you can think of, so get creative! And maybe next Thanksgiving, skip the water bath.

Dry-brined New York strip recipe
(From Omaha Steaks)
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Food & Drink

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Man eating a big burger.

If you've grown up in the States, chances are, the idea of an "eat what you want" diet sounds too good to be true. That's likely because of the toxic, all-consuming diet culture we've been submerged in for the last several decades. Between fad diets, ridiculous "miracle" workout equipment, supplements that don't do a damned thing, and social media influencers making everything even more confusing, being told to "eat what you want" is, frankly, a little rattling.
The idea is a good one, albeit hardly a new revelation. Instead of restricting certain foods — which, most certainly, causes you to crave those particular foods more than you ever would have in the first place — indulge in them. Go ahead and enjoy that pepperoni pizza, those greasy french fries, or that bacon cheeseburger. Just eat less of it, then add in the healthy stuff that your body actually needs to thrive.
TikTok is full of videos setting examples of what this "new trend" might look like at mealtime. This example from user lizaslosingweight shows one thoughtful eater indulging in a favorite — instant ramen. Only, instead of making two or three packages and eating them solo, she makes one package and tops it with the good stuff — protein in the form of steak and eggs, and a variety of vegetables.

What's the TikTok "eat what you want" trend?