What beats the smell of bacon and coffee in the morning? Here are some tips for perfectly fried bacon…and a microwave secret for easy, tasty small-batch bacon…

Perfect, no-splatter bacon: First, rinse the slices in cold water before frying, and they won’t curl in the pan. To minimize the shrinkage of the bacon, do not preheat the skillet. Just plop the bacon into a cold pan, and turn the heat to medium. Try to turn the bacon only once to keep the slices as flat as possible. (We know that’s hard to do!)

If you throw a few celery leaves into the pan along with the bacon, the grease will stay in the pan instead of splattering. (The celery leaves end up being pretty tasty.) Another way to prevent splatter is to add a thin layer of water to the pan with the bacon before you turn on the heat.

If you want only a few slices: Making bacon in the microwave is quick and convenient, but the bacon strips cook unevenly and the usual process uses too many paper towels! We discovered a way to delicious, easy crisp (but slightly chewy) bacon from the microwave that does not require special cookware or a lot of paper towels.

What to do: Flip a small microwavable bowl onto a plate, and place two bacon slices over the bowl. Put it in your microwave, and zap for two minutes for crispy but not greasy bacon (the grease slides down the bowl and onto the plate) and no wasted paper towels! (We do put a square of waxed paper over the bacon to keep it from splattering the microwave interior.) Try two slices at a time for best results, and adjust your microwaving minutes to how you like your bacon.

Thanks to Food.com for help with these tips.

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