Review on 🥓 EaZy MealZ Bacon Rack & Tray Set - Specialty Tray with Grease Catcher for Even Cooking - Non-Stick and Healthy Copper Material - Enhanced & Customizable Cooking Experience (XX-Large) by Laurie Fitzgerald

I received my Eazy Mealz Crisper and Bacon Crisper Basket in good condition. I couldn't wait to try this. I had a lot of bacon, so I experimented to see what I needed to do to get the bacon exactly how I wanted it. I had another branded bacon coaster that I used that was supposed to be non-stick, but it wasn't. However, I started using the suggested temperature and time. So I started with a convection oven at 450 degrees Fahrenheit and 20-22 minutes. I put thick-cut bacon fat-side down. It worked pretty well, but some of the bacon was burnt and the fatty part of the bacon wasn't quite what I wanted. I then tried the bacon fat side up and it worked better, but it still burned the top of one side of some slices. I continued fat-side up but reduced the cook time to 18 minutes but flipped the whole pan after 9 minutes. That was the trick. Now I can get great crispy bacon that doesn't burn. Well, almost everything has not burned down. Even if it is thick slices of bacon, the ends of the bacon sheet are sometimes significantly thinner. The thin slices burned a bit as a result, but that was to be expected at this temperature and time. Throughout the experiment, the bacon never stuck to the pan or grate. That was great. Cleaning was a breeze. I really love this pan. And now that I know the parameters to cook bacon the way I like it, I should have been successful in the future. I bought the smaller drip tray because the review I read said the large rack had a smaller drip tray. The one I had had a fairly deep pan that caught any drips. I love reading good reviews. Now that I see how well this pan works, I'm not sure if the negative reviews I read were from the same pan brand. I saw a review that showed people lining the pan with aluminum foil and burning their bacon. This pan does not need to be lined. It doesn't stick. And the aluminum foil might have contributed to the bacon burning. I also bought a gray skillet, not a copper skillet. So I can't comment on how well the copper works, but the gray is great. I saw a review that said their bacon was too long for the skillet. I bought the regular size, chopped bacon I think, but the chopped ones are about a foot long and fit great. Due to the design of the grate, the bacon fits very snugly and needs to be upright during the cooking process. This really affects how many discs you can get in a rack depending on which side of the rack you have. The first time I couldn't put as many slices on the grate because it was moving in the wrong direction. Next time I think I got 12 discs in an inverted rack. The reason I'm trying to debunk some of these negative reviews is because I almost didn't buy this product because of them and I'm glad I took the risk and got it anyway. I hope this review is helpful to all the bacon lovers out there. UPDATE: 06/03/2020 - I'm still madly in love with this bacon pan. I've cooked at least 18 pounds of bacon in three cooking sessions on this grill. When I'm done, I just drain off the fat, drizzle with some white vinegar, some Dawn and place the pan on the rack. I only use nylon brushes and cleaning pads. I used a nylon brush with a nylon scraper on one side of the brush and loosened the bacon residue covering the bottom of the pan. Then today I found that I can use a stiff nylon bottle brush to get into the grooves of the rack and scrape off any bits of bacon covering the rack. Then I just use a sponge wrapped in nylon cloth to finish cleaning the pan. Note that I used the word "coat" instead of the word "stucco". The coat is what spaghetti sauce does to pasta or fat to stock. I would use the word "stuck" if the bacon bits were being caramelized in a pan. But they still aren't. In fact, the word "scrape" I used above is really harder than it should be because I don't actually have to peel the bacon bits, I just have to pry them from the coating on the bottom of the pan. The photo of the pan above is not the one I brought brand new. This is how it looks today after cooking all the bacon. So my definition of a nonstick pan is that you can easily remove any food covering the pan. If you're looking for a pan that you just spray on the Dawn and then spray it with a sink sprayer then I'm not sure there is such a pan. But if you're just spraying the pot and grate, and using nylon brushes and pads to loosen food coatings, you can spray everything with a kitchen sink sprayer. I didn't have to spend hours with a bottle brush to clean the rack, but I did have to run the brush through one of the rack's loops that had something on it just to separate the bacon bits. My previous frame is from a different brand, I could work for hours and still not separate the parts from the frame. It wasn't really a non-stick rack. It really is like that. I also wanted to pass on some of what I've tried in cooking. I still preheat my oven to 450 degrees but use a convection oven. This means that hot air circulates inside the oven during cooking. I've found that my best results so far have been putting the bacon fat side up and mostly lean side down. Since the sides of the bacon may not be perfectly parallel if one end is wider than the other, I alternate each side so the wide side is on the right for one slice and on the left for the next slice. When I put the baking sheet in the oven, I position the rack so the fan's air blows between the panes, not just against the first pane. I set the cook time for 18 minutes but rotate the pan 180 degrees after 9 minutes so both ends of the bacon are exposed to the hot air from the fan. If after 18 minutes the bacon isn't as crispy as I want it, I cook an additional 2 minutes until the bacon is just how I want it. Please note that these instructions are for a full bacon basket. If you only have a few slices to cook at the end of the pack, please set the time to 12-15 minutes and monitor the cooking progress. I just found out today that without a full rack, the bacon can be overcooked with just a few slices. Today I only have 3 slices left and spread them out on the wire rack, but I left them for 18 minutes and they turned black. You learn something every day. Now I realize again that I bought gray frames. I can't say if a copper frame would work the same way. But I'm still very happy with this grille. (Unfortunately none of these are available at the time of writing this review. I hope there will be more in stock because they are really great.)