Save Your Bacon—We Found Yet Another Genius Hack for Storing Bacon

Nothing gets people running to the kitchen like the aroma of bacon sizzling on the stove or baking on a sheet pan in the oven.

Maybe you like a few strips with fresh eggs for a weekend breakfast or atop a burger fresh from the grill. No matter how you like your bacon, or the variety you prefer, from hickory smoked to applewood, turkey bacon or vegetarian, you've probably encountered a common conundrum when it comes to bacon leftovers: How should you store uncooked bacon so it lasts long enough to be used when you're ready to indulge again?

Bacon is usually sold in a 12-ounce plastic package with 12 to 14 slices per pack. The best practice for storing unopened bacon is in its original packaging in your fridge's meat drawer. Bacon can generally be kept in the fridge for up to two weeks or until the expiration date listed on the package.

But once you open the package? The shelf life begins to shorten for cooked or uncooked bacon.

How to Store an Opened Package of Uncooked Bacon in the Refrigerator

Traditional options for storing the remainder of an opened package of uncooked bacon include placing it in a plastic bag or wrapping it plastic wrap or aluminum foil and storing it in the fridge. Even if you are careful to reseal your bacon well, the initial exposure to air has begun when the package is opened, and the chemical reactions that lead to spoilage have begun.

But on TikTok, arbiter of some pretty helpful food hacks, a new way to store opened bacon was recently revealed. The hack, shared by @yaya.kreates, involves cutting an unopened package of bacon in half, straight down the middle, with a pair of kitchen scissors. She then removes half of the bacon from the the package to cook and slides the empty part of the packaging over the leftover pieces to store in the refrigerator, where they can stay fresh and ready to cook for about one week. This method does cut the bacon strips in half, which means they are smaller in size than a typical strip. But this means they actually fit better in the frying pan, air fryer, and even on a sandwich.

How to Store an Opened Package of Uncooked Bacon in the Freezer

If you know you won't be using an entire package of bacon for a while, consider this genius hack from TikTok creator @ceddies_kitchen, which can keep uncooked bacon fresh in the freezer for up to two months.

In the video, she shows how she preps and stores individual slices of bacon in parchment paper to use whenever she needs a slice or more. Using this idea of a quick prep step, you can have full strips of apple bacon, turkey bacon, or veggie bacon ready and waiting in the freezer when the mood strikes.

Here's how to try this hack at home:

1. Spread a large piece of parchment on the kitchen counter.
2. Lay each strip of bacon from the package in a row on the parchment paper with about one inch in between each slice.
3. Lay a second, equal-sized piece of parchment on top of the bacon strips and flatten it with your hands to remove any air bubbles.
4. Roll the parchment-sealed bacon from the bottom as you would a pastry roll and continue rolling until you have one long log.
5. Cut the parchment-and-bacon roll-up into individual slices, place them in a plastic freezer bag, seal it, and store it in the freezer. Now you have individual slices of bacon ready to go for breakfast, an afternoon snack, or dinner recipe.

This genius method means you can prep and freeze an entire sheet pan worth of bacon strips and there is no thawing or pulling apart strips when it is time to get cooking.

You can also skip the step of cutting the single pieces of bacon and freeze a rolled log in the freezer. Wrap the log of rolled bacon in parchment paper with a single layer of aluminum foil and store in the freezer.

When you are ready to make a batch of bacon for a hungry group, simply pull it from the freezer, roll out on a sheet pan, and bake from frozen in the oven. Or if you prefer, thaw overnight, then bake it first thing in the morning.

Use these methods to prep your bacon and have individual slices ready or a big batch for brunch!