This recipe makes delicious brown sugar & cracked pepper bacon. The following ingredients will make roughly 4 servings (12 slices).

What you need

1 lb bacon (preferably hickory smoked regular sliced bacon)
1 tsp cracked pepper
1/3 - 1/2 cup brown sugar (enough to coat bacon)

Skillet or griddle
Paper towels
Mixing bowl or large plate (for mixing ingredients)
Large plate for finished bacon

Step 1: Lay Out Bacon

Allow bacon to reach near room temperature before coating with brown sugar and cracked pepper. Bacon should be soft but not cold to the touch when ready.

Step 2: Crack Pepper

Crack peppercorn over a cup (doesn't necessarily need to be a measuring cup). Pour freshly cracked pepper into a 1 teaspoon measuring spoon.

Step 3: Sprinkle Pepper on Bacon

Separate bacon and evenly distribute pepper to all slices.

Step 4: Mix in Brown Sugar

Once pepper has been spread, pour brown sugar evenly onto the bacon. With your hands, mix the brown sugar with all bacon slices in a mixing bowl or on a large plate.

Step 5: Cook Bacon

Lay bacon out as flat as possible on your skillet/griddle. Set stove/griddle to medium heat and never any higher. To get the best result your bacon should not look like the uppermost piece of bacon in the above image, but rather like the four other pieces in the image.

Step 6: Finished Bacon

Bacon will have a reddish-brown color throughout when finished. Take bacon off skilled/griddle as soon as the bacon appears like the above image.

Step 7: Prepare to Eat

Once bacon is finished on the skillet/griddle, quickly remove the bacon with a spatula and place on a plate overlaid with a paper towel. Cracked pepper & brown sugar bacon will take longer than regular bacon to cool, so allow 3-5 minutes of cooling time before eating.

Congratulations! Enjoy your new favorite bacon recipe.

Trouble shooting and safety
Bacon will have a tendency to stick to the paper towel in the initial cooling stages. To prevent this from happening, flip bacon at roughly a minute and a half after being placed on the paper towel. Flip twice to ensure no sticking occurs.

Many bacon enthusiasts prefer their bacon crispy; However, crispy brown sugar & cracked pepper bacon becomes very difficult to eat and burns out the brown sugar flavor.

Clean your skillet/griddle as soon as it is cool enough to do so. The brown sugar turns into a molasses texture that can be very difficult to clean when left on a skillet/griddle surface for more than an hour after the cook.

The instructions are specific in stating to never cook the bacon at a higher level than medium heat. Grease will pop and subsequently get on clothes, other kitchen objects, and skin if your bacon is cooked at a higher temperature than medium.