Why does bacon shrivel up when you cook it? It’s like you start off with a nice long piece and then it shrinks up and gets wavy when it’s all cooked. A little disappointing lol

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Why does bacon shrivel up when you cook it? It’s like you start off with a nice long piece and then it shrinks up and gets wavy when it’s all cooked. A little disappointing lol

In: Biology

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Who cares? Its bacon. Enjoy!

Anonymous 0 Comments

The heat also causes the proteins and fibers in the meat to contract, pulling it smaller. This is the main reason.

Secondarily, you render a lot of the fat and moisture that was in the bacon. Notice how all that fat that was one in the bacon, is now in your pan.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Bacon is mostly fat. The fat melts – it’s that…liquid grease that accumulates in your frying pan. That leaves the mostly-protein meat, which shrinks unevenly as the protein denatures slightly and gives you that wavy look.

Anonymous 0 Comments

You know how the pan fills with grease when you fry bacon? That is where the material is going. As it heats, the fat on the bacon renders (melts) into a liquid form, while the meaty bits sear and cook through. This does not always happen evenly, and so the original shape of the bacon is distorted by the force of proteins in the meat contracting as they cook and the fat melting out in ways that alter the support structure of the bacon moment by moment.