Cooking Berkshire Bacon

Someone knows the answer to this question.

I received a gift of Berkshire pork bacon. The problem is, the fat in Berkshire pork is really soft, and so when you cook it, it all renders, and I end up with a few small strips of meat floating in a sea of pork fat. Not a bad thing, really -- but a bit disappointing if one wants a crispy strip of bacon. Is there any way to cook Berkshire pork bacon so that one gets a strip of crispy bacon? Or is their no other option besides melting all that fat--and I just have to rejoice in having a large amount of pork fat to cook with?

Any advice appreciated.

Fat renders at lower temps and crisps at higher temps.

So the only way to render less fat and crisp more fat is to cook it at a higher temperature ( I am assuming you are cooking in a fry pan on the stove top ). You will need to turn it more often to keep from burning and I would recommend you add a little veg oil at the beginning to jump start the frying / crisping process and not put the bacon into a cold pan.

lougord99 wrote:Fat renders at lower temps and crisps at higher temps.

So the only way to render less fat and crisp more fat is to cook it at a higher temperature ( I am assuming you are cooking in a fry pan on the stove top ). You will need to turn it more often to keep from burning and I would recommend you add a little veg oil at the beginning to jump start the frying / crisping process and not put the bacon into a cold pan.

I’m sold on the oven method for this—preheat the pan when you preheat the oven. Crisp bacon that still retains some fat if you want it to (you can keep going if that’s your preference). Works every time (thanks mbh!!!!)

Thank you, all. I received 4 half-pound packages. The first one is how I discovered the issue. (I did know that Berkshires had a lot more fat, just didn't know how soft that fat was.) So now I have a couple of approaches to try with the suggestions above. And if nothing works, cooking with bacon grease is not a hardship.

https://www.berkshirepork.net/blog/2019/8/19/bacon
That Posted, I think you are trying to accomplish something that Berkshire Pork was not designed to do i.e crisp bacon.
USDA Hogs are raised to a common low fat standard to make it cheaper for farmers to raise. The standard was sold to the Public as ‘healthier’.
Many consumer want a higher fat pork, hence breeds such as Berkshire. Cooking until crisp will indeed render all the fat but at a cost.
US Commercial bacon is water logged and sliced thin.
What you end up with is small shrively pieces of bacon.
We ran out of both Scott’s and Benton’s Country Bacon a few years ago and I purchased a package of Patrick Cudahy bacon.
Big mistake!!!!!
Common bacon is water cured whereas Country Bacon is salt cured.
Cook your bacon until it just starts to crisp and enjoy the calories.
The calories will not kill you despite what has been written and become Urban Legend for decades.
-Richard

Softness or hardness of pork fat has much more to do with pigs' diets than breeds. Pigs that were grown in woods with nut trees or finished with many peanuts in their diets have soft to almost oily fat. Small-scale farmers often timed gilts' first litter for spring then as sows farrowing in spring and fall. Another common pattern was gilts farrowing in spring and then sent to slaughter after their offspring were weaned. These approaches minimized the number of pigs carried over the winter and also required little shelter. A-frame farrowing/nursing sheds for individual sows spaced out in woodland pasture were somewhat common into the middle third of the last century in general farms where pork production was a sideline. Finishing pigs by pasturing in harvested corn fields to salvage ears dropped by mechanical corn pickers is another practice that has gone away. Commercial pork production now is very different from the way much pork was produced as recently as 50 or 60 years ago. Small packing houses and livestock markets are mostly history although there are efforts to bring back smaller packing houses and make marketing more artisanal meats practical.

Thanks all for tips and info.

Very low heat did the trick--plus a couple of tablespoons water suggested by another foodie friend. Not crisp, but still in whole pieces (instead of bits of meat floating in liquid). And delicious. Still have enough melted fat to use it in cooking later, but also have bacon for tonight.

Another thing I did was layer it so the meat was in contact with the pan and the fat was on top of the meat. So meat was cooked through before fat was all melted.

But glad to know there is a trick.