I am very familiar with the conditions that Cathy describes- not only from bacon, but also from some sweet-cured ham. Both at home in cookware and in commercial kitchens as when using the griddle/grill/flat-top (whatever cooks call it, wherever they are) to cook bacon or ham sometimes the sugars, honey, corn syrups, maple syurps and other things used in the products sludges-up the pores of the cooking surface and makes it all gummy and sticky. I see it often, in fact.
In restaurants, some meat products were so bad I used to hate grilling them for sandwiches, breakfast & such and always kept a vinegar or lemon-juice mister nearby to immediately spray and razor-blade that area of the griddle right after cooking the product so that spot wouldn't continue to caramelize and burn and get all gross and goopy.
Also, Cathy- I NEVER cook bacon on the stove-top at home anymore. I cook it in one of only two ways- 1.) the fastest and easiest for lovely CRISP bacon if that's how you prefer it, is actually placing on a paper-towel-lined plate (even paper-plates work) , then covering top of lined strips of bacon w/ paper-towel also, and zapping in the nucro-wave. Fool-proof. And 2.) If you have a larger amount of bacon to cook line a half-sheet pan (some call it a jelly-roll pan or rimmed cookie sheet) with parchment or foil and bake bacon in the oven at 400 degrees until desried crispness.
I ain't fried bacon on the stove-top in nearly 20 years and won't... the popping grease all over hell ain't worth it for me. I'd go without bacon if I had to wipe down that spattery mess everyday. That's just me, though. I have this weird mental-thing with spattery messes on my stove-top... have it at home and even had it at work. I can't even watch a pot of marinara bubbling and spattering all over the place... makes me pace like a penned-up horse and walk in circles like a drunken banshee! Ha!
In restaurants, some meat products were so bad I used to hate grilling them for sandwiches, breakfast & such and always kept a vinegar or lemon-juice mister nearby to immediately spray and razor-blade that area of the griddle right after cooking the product so that spot wouldn't continue to caramelize and burn and get all gross and goopy.
Also, Cathy- I NEVER cook bacon on the stove-top at home anymore. I cook it in one of only two ways- 1.) the fastest and easiest for lovely CRISP bacon if that's how you prefer it, is actually placing on a paper-towel-lined plate (even paper-plates work) , then covering top of lined strips of bacon w/ paper-towel also, and zapping in the nucro-wave. Fool-proof. And 2.) If you have a larger amount of bacon to cook line a half-sheet pan (some call it a jelly-roll pan or rimmed cookie sheet) with parchment or foil and bake bacon in the oven at 400 degrees until desried crispness.
I ain't fried bacon on the stove-top in nearly 20 years and won't... the popping grease all over hell ain't worth it for me. I'd go without bacon if I had to wipe down that spattery mess everyday. That's just me, though. I have this weird mental-thing with spattery messes on my stove-top... have it at home and even had it at work. I can't even watch a pot of marinara bubbling and spattering all over the place... makes me pace like a penned-up horse and walk in circles like a drunken banshee! Ha!