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Bacon can be prepared and incorporated into a wealth of dishes, from creamy scrambled eggs and hearty burgers to a delicious quiche, chopped and scattered over a crispy jacket potato, or even piled atop pancakes for a satisfying sweet and savoury combination. When it comes to the cooking method, however, there are essentially two camps - those who prefer an evenly crispy, well-rendered rasher and those who favour something a touch chewier.

For senior lifestyle journalist Angela Patrone, the best way to cook bacon is evenly crisped - but she has struggled to keep her bacon-cooking technique consistent. She said: "Most of the time, my preferred method is to use the air fryer, but occasionally, I do cook bacon in the pan. To determine which delivers the best results, I've cooked bacon in the frying pan, in the oven and in the air fryer. The method that performed the best didn't require any cleaning afterwards, but there was a drawback to it."

This remains the most widely used method for cooking bacon, requiring nothing more than placing rashers into a preheated pan. For this approach, Angela warmed the pan over a medium heat before arranging the bacon strips in a single layer. Due to the size of the pan, she could only comfortably fit four rashers.

Angela cooked her bacon for eight to 10 minutes, turning halfway through. She said: "If you favour your bacon being more chewy than crispy, then this is the technique for you. While there was a slight crisp to it, the crispiness was very minimal."

To stop the bacon sticking to the pan, Angela had to use oil which made her bacon too greasy. This method also created a lot of mess on the hob.

Utilising an air fryer to cook bacon provides the benefit of hands-free cooking, but it involves some trade-offs. Angela preheated her air fryer to 180°C, then positioned three bacon slices vertically on the bottom of the air fryer basket.

She said: "I cooked the bacon for roughly seven minutes, flipping halfway through. This is a technique for anyone who prefers bacon with contrasting textures. Some parts of the bacon will be pleasantly chewy while others will be thoroughly rendered and crispy."

"While this is a solid option, it was not my favourite out of all three of the cooking methods."

After her other two tests, Angela only had three slices of bacon left to trial the oven method. Oven cooking is perfect for cooking lots of bacon at once.

She said: "For this approach, I started by preheating the oven to 180°C fan and placed the bacon on a lined baking tray. Bake until crispy, about 20 minutes, turning the bacon over halfway through cooking.

"The ultimate method to cook evenly crispy and consistent bacon, particularly in large quantities, is in the oven. This was my preferred technique, as it ticked all the crucial boxes: hands-off cooking, perfectly crispy bacon and no mess."

The sole drawback to this approach is that it requires twice as long to cook bacon in the oven when compared to alternative methods.