I love bacon. I mean, I really love bacon.
For years—and probably because it's how my mom taught me—I thought the only proper way to cook bacon was in a skillet. Funny how much influence our parents have on the little things. You don't question it. You just assume that's how it's done.
About ten years ago, I found myself needing to cook a mountain of bacon for an event I was hosting. Standing over a skillet for what would have been hours wasn't exactly appealing, so I decided to try baking it in the oven.
I carefully laid strips of bacon across several sheet pans, slid them into the oven, and waited.
The results were fantastic.
Perfectly cooked bacon. Even color. No grease splattering all over the stovetop. I thought I had found the answer.
Then it came time to wash the sheet pans.
Not so fantastic.
As I stood there scrubbing baked-on bacon grease, I had another thought: What if I line the pans with foil first?
That worked. The pans stayed clean, and cleanup was dramatically easier.
Problem solved...or so I thought.
The bacon had a habit of sticking to the foil, and pulling each strip loose wasn't exactly graceful. It wasn't a disaster, but it certainly wasn't ideal.
Back to the drawing board.
Then I discovered non-stick aluminum foil.
Now that was the answer.
The bacon released beautifully. The pans stayed spotless. Cleanup took seconds. For years, that's been my go-to method whenever I cook bacon in the oven.
Then today, purely out of necessity, everything changed.
I had run out of non-stick foil.
Rather than making a trip to the store, I grabbed a roll of parchment paper, lined the sheet pan, and hoped for the best.
Wow.
The bacon cooked every bit as well as it had on the non-stick foil. It browned evenly, released effortlessly, and when I peeled the parchment off the pan afterward, the cleanup was just as easy.
As I was putting the now-clean sheet pan away, another thought occurred to me.
Is parchment paper actually cheaper than non-stick foil?
A quick search answered the question.
Yes.
On average, parchment paper costs roughly 30% less per square foot than non-stick foil.
Now, does that matter in my home kitchen?
Not really.
Saving a few cents on one sheet of parchment isn't going to change my life.
But that's not why I'm doing all of these kitchen experiments.
Every recipe I develop, every technique I test, and every process I refine is ultimately aimed at one goal: making G&C Sandwich Company as efficient as possible.
Right now, I'm testing recipes in my home kitchen.
Someday, I'll be producing hundreds of sandwiches, sides, desserts, and prep items every week.
At that point, pennies start turning into dollars. Dollars become hundreds of dollars. Hundreds become thousands over the course of a year.
One of the biggest lessons I've learned from this entire recipe development journey is that running a restaurant isn't just about making great food.
It's about building repeatable systems.
It's about reducing labor wherever you can without sacrificing quality.
It's about finding little efficiencies that your guests will never notice—but your bottom line certainly will.
If parchment paper gives me the exact same cooking performance, the exact same easy cleanup, and costs about 20% less than non-stick foil, that's an easy decision.
Sometimes innovation doesn't come from spending weeks researching the latest culinary techniques.
Sometimes it happens because you ran out of something in the pantry.
Those accidental discoveries have become some of my favorite parts of this entire G&C test kitchen journey.
It's one more reminder that every experiment—even the unexpected ones—can teach you something worth carrying into the future.
Tell us what you think.
The conversation links are coming soon.