We are BACON up a storm, and I'm not talking about dessert! Check out this product!
The Original Bacon Wave is supposed to make, "perfectly cooked bacon right in your microwave in just minutes" with less fat, less grease, less cholesterol and less calories. Click here to see the infomercial.
Fourteen strips of bacon can fit in the Bacon Wave. You're instructed to place them in between the slots with about a half-an-inch of the meat sticking out on each end, but our bacon was much longer than that. Then, you're supposed to stick skewers through the meat to elevate them and hold them taut. We had to actually lift the bacon up to get the skewers through.
There's a chart in the instruction manual, showing cooking times. They will vary depending on how many slices you have and the wattage of the microwave. Cooking times will also vary depending on how thick or thin your bacon is.
According to the chart, we were supposed to do nine minutes. When we opened the microwave door, it was a pigsty with grease all over. Plus, the meat was not cooked at all. The tray is allegedly made of BPA-free, temperature-safe plastic, but the directions instruct you to wear a padded glove while handling because you'll need to pour out the grease. We did so with ease, and the grease didn't touch the bacon.
So far, the design of the Bacon Wave lives up to claim of the bacon being flat or straight across, preventing curling and breakage. However, it did not live up to the claim of being perfect or crispy, let alone cooked.
We put it back in the microwave for four more minutes, meaning, our bacon cooked for a total of 13 minutes. That's more than the max time listed on the instruction cooking chart. Even then, the ends got crispy, but the middle of each bacon strip could do the dance move, the worm. They were still flimsy.
Looking in the instructions, it encourages users to try four-to-five slices first to figure out what timing will work best since each heating device is different, as well as the types of bacon.
We bought ours for $17.62 on Amazon, where it gets three-to-four stars out of five from the hundreds of customer reviews. There were common complaints. Several people complained that bacon strips are too long and don't fit. That was the first problem we ran into. The durability came up several times. Some wrote reviews stating the item would get so warped that the plastic would blister and flake off. In the instruction manual, it states that warping is normal and to let the Bacon Wave cool for 30 minutes before washing it. Hand washing is encouraged, though the product is dishwasher safe. Others complained about difficulty getting the product clean between the skinny slots where the bacon goes. Someone wrote a solution, stating to soak it in water and use the kitchen sprayer before putting it in the top level of the dishwasher. Another complaint is about splatters in the microwave. Many wrote that they just use paper towels to cover. These are all easy fixes.
So, where does it rank on our Bull or No Bull Meter? This may surprise you, but I'm going with... NO BULL! I'm torn with this one. It doesn't live up to all the claims, but it did live up to some. It eventually cooked the bacon, and the ones that weren't stuck together did come out straight. We couldn't test the claims of there being less fat, grease, less cholesterol or less calories, but seeing the bacon hoisted above the grease leads us to believe there would be some benefit. However, it did not live up to the claims of being perfect or crispy, and it takes time to figure out what cooking time should do the trick. Seeing that the ends of our bacon eventually became crispy leads us to believe that if you figure out the timing correctly, it could potentially crisp up. Truly, you could easily just put a plate in the microwave covered with paper towels and bacon on top and still make crispy, HAM-azing bacon.
If you try it, let me know how it works for you! Do you have ideas of products I should test? Email me, and we can possibly test them together!