Making a Bacon Weave

What is a Bacon Weave?

Just as the name suggests, a bacon weave is strips of bacon that are woven into a mat or lattice pattern that is either forced to cook flat or wrapped around other foods such as burgers or ground meat (meatloaves), chicken or beef roasts and so much more.

The weave is created or completed before the baking or cooking process begins, on your kitchen counter. in your oven or on your grill. Bacon weaves look terrific and bacon usually adds an incredible amount of flavor to everything it touches or so my husband believes.

Making an Easy Bacon Weave

At your workstation, lay 6 slices of bacon, just touching, side by side, with fatty edges touching the meatier edges. Do your best to leave no spaces or as the bacon shrinks your weave will not bake properly or as a square.

Fold up every other slice of bacon, a couple of inches up the slice. You should now have 3 slices up and 3 slices down.

Place a strip of bacon across the three slices down to create a row, leaning right up to the top of the three flipped over bacon slices or the top edge.

Next, unfold the three slices of bacon so they now lie on top of your horizontal slice and lift the other 3 slices of bacon upwards. Lay another slice of bacon across the three slices that are folded downwards or are straight and no longer folded over.

Unfold upwards bacon slices again and lift the opposite or other three slices and add another horizontal slice and again, unfold the slices of bacon on top of the horizontal slice. You get the idea!

Keep going until there are the same number of bacon strips down as there are across.

Cooking time and temperature will depend on thickness of bacon and how many slices you used. Just baking the individual bacon weave, as it is, all by itself, will take 15-20 minutes in a 400 degree oven, depending on how crispy you desire your bacon.

Tips to make the Best Bacon Weave

The key to making the best bacon weave is buying bacon that is of better quality or comes in thicker slices. If using the cheapest bacon it tends to tear and is sliced too thin to make a sturdy bacon weave.
That being said, if you use store bought thick bacon your weave will be too thick and take so long, actually too long to cook. Your goal is to find a mid price range bacon where you can see each slice in its entirety.
You must always remember to use a rimmed baking sheet with a rack lightly coated in cooking spray to cook the bacon in the oven. You do not want the bacon, or whatever it surrounds, sitting in the accumulated fat from the bacon.
Allowing air to circulate all around the bacon will cause the bacon to cook evenly and you won't end up with raw bacon or bacon that is only half cooked in some spots.
If cooking the bacon weave on your grill the fat just burns away even if you are cooking on a flat pan or grate. More often than not the grate has holes in it for the fat to drip through.
Fatty sides of the bacon should all face one direction and meaty sides should all face the other direction. The width should match the length of the strips. There should be the same number of bacon strips going down as there are going across.
Don't hesitate to use toothpicks to secure bacon ends to whatever you are wrapping in the bacon weave. As long as the bacon slices are overlapped the toothpicks will secure the slices so the entire protein or vegetable is covered with bacon.
Bacon shrinks as it cooks and if there are spaces anywhere between the bacon slices they will worsen as the bacon shrinks.

Can you use a Bacon Weave in a Sandwich?

Usually a bacon weave is wrapped around a potato or meat of some kind but you can easily make a bacon weave perfect for a sandwich or to serve on top of a hamburger!

Cut your bacon strips in half and weave half slices together, as big or small as you desire, I usually use 4 or 5 half slices. Prepare a rimmed baking sheet with tinfoil and a rack lightly coated in cooking spray. The spray will prevent the bacon from sticking to the rack.

Just preheat your oven to 400 degrees and cook for 15-20 minutes

or 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes

or 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes

Remove bacon from oven when it is as crispy as you want it!

Allow bacon weave to drain on paper towel and place inside sandwich or on top of each burger.

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