Restaurants Do Something Genius to Keep Bacon Flat and Crispy

One pack of bacon, cooked the way a restaurant kitchen would, and it feeds you three times. The method is two trays: strips laid out on parchment, a second sheet smoothed over them, a second tray on top and any weight you own — a kettlebell, a brick, a pot of water — then 15 to 20 minutes at 200 °C. Fat shrinks faster than meat, which is why bacon curls in a pan; the weight holds every strip flat until the whole length has crisped evenly. That flatness is a prerequisite for the second dish, because a straight strip slides down a tall glass of yogurt batter and comes out coated in one dip, ready to cook like a pancake, three to five minutes a side. And the fat left in the tray becomes the third: poured into a jar, filled with water and chilled lid-down, it separates into clean white fat that fries an egg with the bacon flavor built in.