Sometimes I feel deeply disconnected from the “food content” that flows across social media, almost to the point where I doubt my own perception. Yesterday was one of those days. I watched people on Facebook coo over a noticeably mealy, pale tomato, before seeing a woman store fresh blueberries and hard-boiled eggs in the same airtight container. Then I tried a well-reviewed, popular TikTok bacon hack, and I was ready to sue the world.

Proponents of the trick claim that dusting bacon with flour before frying “absorbs some of the extra fat, helping the strips hold their shape,” and that it “prevents the bacon from curling up, resulting in an extra crispy texture without sacrificing juiciness.”

This seemed like a hoax to me, a solution in search of a problem, especially since I’ve never had a problem with my bacon curling in the oven (but more on that later). I wasn’t sure how coating bacon with a fat-absorbing powder would keep it crispy, since the fat would naturally cling to the surface of the meat instead of dripping away.

I opened a package of bacon I had recently purchased and laid the pieces side by side with four floured strips (baked on parchment paper, as the review I read suggested) and four unfloured strips (baked on aluminum foil, as I'm used to).