“Just when you thought bacon couldn’t get any better, this happens. Millionaire bacon.” That is how Laura Ashley Johnson, who posts as @dinnerin321, opens a 50 second TikTok while holding up a long, dark red, glazed strip of finished bacon to the camera. She wears a white sweatshirt with “holly jolly” in colorful script, and the rest of the video walks backward from that first shot to show how the bacon got there.
The method starts with the pan. “First, you’re gonna line a sheet pan with foil, and then put an oven safe cooling rack right inside,” she says, then lightly sprays the rack with nonstick oil. She holds up a package of thick cut bacon, takes a slab out and lays the slices on the rack “in a single layer, not touching.”
The topping is a dry rub in a small glass bowl. She names the ingredients as brown sugar, black pepper, paprika, garlic powder and cayenne pepper, and stirs them together with a spoon. “If you want to adjust the cayenne pepper or the black pepper, you’re welcome to do that too,” she says. The video gives no measurements, so the amounts are not part of what she says on camera.
Then the sugar goes on. She adds the mixture to each slice and says to “kind of press it in an even layer down the bacon slice.” The frames show her palm flattening a thick, sandy coat down the length of each strip, covering the whole pan. “And now we bake,” she says, and the temperature she gives is 375 degrees. The footage jumps to the pan in the oven, where the strips are dark and shiny.
The payoff comes at the end. A tray of finished strips comes out of the oven, and the sugar has turned into a deep, glossy glaze: “Look at that bacon glisten,” she says. She picks up one piece and tastes it, calls it “the perfect amount of spice,” and says everything is perfect. She does not say how long the bacon baked, so anyone copying the method has to judge doneness by sight.
That leaves the question of what to do with the results. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, in its leftovers guidance, cooked food must go into the refrigerator within two hours, or within one hour when the air is hotter than 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The same page says leftovers keep in the refrigerator for three to four days, or frozen for three to four months, and should reach 165 degrees when reheated. A tray of sugared bacon set out as an appetizer follows the same two hour clock.
A few choices in the video are easy to borrow. The rack lifts the strips off the pan, and the foil lining catches the drippings, which makes cleanup simple. Cayenne and black pepper are the dials she says to adjust, so start small if you are cooking for people who do not like heat.
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