Cook your bacon in the oven!

No matter how it's prepared, bacon is awesome. The smell created when it's cooking is phenomenal, but the mess it leaves behind isn't. This is why I always make my bacon in the oven. It's a simple process and doesn't create a mess at all if you follow the steps below:

• Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, taking care to ensure there's a lip around all edges so grease doesn't spill underneath the foil
• Put your bacon on the cookie sheet

My cookie sheets aren't big enough to hold a pound of bacon, so I use two cookie sheets. To maximize space, I cut each slice of bacon in half, although that's totally up to you.

• Put your oven rack in the middle
• Put the bacon in the oven and set the oven to 400 degrees and your cooking timer to 20 minutes

My oven reaches 400 degrees after 7 minutes. Thick cut bacon takes the whole 20 minutes until it's done to my likeness. Non-thick cut bacon takes about 15 minutes. I recommend watching the bacon the first time to ensure my times jibe with your oven's performance.

• When the bacon is cooked to your likeness, remove it from the oven on to a paper towel lined plate. Cover the top of the bacon with paper towels and press down firmly to absorb grease from the top of the bacon

As mentioned previously, I use two cookie sheets. When the first sheet of bacon is done, I put the next sheet in. Because the oven is at the desired temperature already, this sheet won't take as long to cook. Non-thick cut bacon takes about 12 minutes in my oven.

• If you're not going to eat all of the bacon right away, put it in a container of some sort and put it in your freezer. You can reheat the bacon by putting it in the microwave on high until you hear it start to sizzle, about 20 seconds in my microwave

• If you're saving the bacon grease, pour it in to your bacon grease holder
• Carefully fold up the foil so no grease spills on to the cookie sheet

Congratulations, you've just created bacon goodness without any mess!