Adding a bacon pizza to the menu looks easy: chop the strips, scatter them over the cheese, into the oven. The problem shows on the first pizza out: soft bacon, a pool of fat on the cheese, a wet centre to the base. A beef bacon pizza topping follows a different logic from pepperoni, because pepperoni is a product that cooks itself in the oven while bacon is a product that must be cooked before it goes in.
Mortella Beef Bacon 1000 g is intended for cooking: in a pan or an oven it renders its fat, crisps at the edges and shrinks noticeably. Three or four minutes in a pizza oven are not enough to finish that process; most of it has to be completed before the oven.
Does beef bacon go on a pizza raw or par-cooked?
Par-cooked. A strip laid on raw is only beginning to render when the pizza is already done; it stays soft, the fat pools on the cheese and runs down to the base. Par-cooked bacon has left most of its fat outside the oven; on the pizza only its edges crisp a second time and the flavour concentrates.
Par-cooking stops just short of full crispness: the strip has taken colour but is still pliable. A strip cooked fully before the oven hardens in the second heat and shatters in the bite. The cooking is done on a wire rack over a sheet tray; the strips are cooled, broken up and kept sealed and labelled, with the day's batch prepared at opening and used the same day.
Why are beef bacon pieces kept small in a pizza oven?
Three reasons. Distribution first: 2 to 3 cm pieces land on every slice, whereas a whole strip piles onto two or three. Second, the second cook: the edge of a small piece crisps quickly in the oven, while a long strip stays soft in the middle. Third, the bite: when a slice of pizza is bitten, a long strip pulls away whole and takes the cheese with it; a small piece stays put.
Breaking up happens after par-cooking, once the strip has cooled but is still pliable; broken while hot it falls apart, and once fully cold it snaps. How diameter and thickness are chosen for a pepperoni slice is covered in our pepperoni selection guide for pizzerias; for bacon the equivalent decision is piece size, and it is made in the kitchen.
How much fat does beef bacon release on top of a pizza?
Little if par-cooked, a great deal if raw. Most of the weight lost in cooking is water and fat; when that loss happens outside the oven, only a small amount of fat reaches the pizza and blends with the cheese. The fat released by a raw strip, by contrast, collects on the cheese, sinks into the dough and produces the soggy base.
A soggy base has causes beyond bacon: too much sauce, wet cheese, a low oven temperature. Our article on whether pepperoni releases fat in the oven and the three causes of a wet pizza separates those causes; a pizzeria using bacon adds a fourth item to that list and removes it by par-cooking.
How many grams of beef bacon per pizza: a worked example
With the assumptions stated: a medium pizza, a slice of 20 g raw, weight roughly halving in par-cooking, bacon used as a flavour item.
- Target per pizza: the equivalent of 30 to 40 g raw, which is 15 to 20 g par-cooked.
- Slice count: 1.5 to 2 raw slices per pizza.
- For 60 bacon pizzas a day: 60 × 35 g = 2,100 g raw, close to two packs; a 1000 g pack covers about 28 pizzas.
- When paired with pepperoni, bacon drops to the equivalent of 20 to 25 g raw and pepperoni stays at 6 to 8 slices.
Above fifty grams the bacon overwhelms the dough with salt and fat and the plate turns heavy; bacon here, like pepperoni, is a sparingly used flavour item. The surest method is baking three pizzas at three weights in your own oven and cutting into the base.
| Use | Bacon format | Per pizza (raw equivalent) | Par-cooked weight | Placement | Oven behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bacon-only pizza | 2-3 cm pieces, par-cooked | 30-40 g | 15-20 g | Over the cheese | Edges crisp, little fat |
| Bacon + pepperoni | Pieces + slices | 20-25 g bacon, 6-8 pepperoni slices | 10-12 g bacon | Both over the cheese, not touching | Pepperoni curls, bacon crisps |
| Raw bacon (not recommended) | Whole strips | 30-40 g | - | Under the cheese | Stays soft, base goes wet |
| Added after the oven | Fully crisp pieces | 15 g | 15 g | Scattered at the pass | Not reheated, stays crisp |
Using beef bacon and pepperoni on the same pizza
The two products work well together because they do different jobs: Mortella Sliced Beef Pepperoni curls in the oven, collects fat in its well and spreads chilli aroma; bacon supplies a crisp edge and a salty, smoky layer. Both go over the cheese, spread so they do not touch; a pepperoni slice landing on top of a bacon piece leaves both soft.
The weight balance runs like this: pepperoni 6 to 8 slices, bacon the equivalent of 20 to 25 g raw. Total fat sits slightly above a pepperoni-only pizza and is balanced by taking a spoonful off the sauce. On the menu this pizza becomes the richest item on the spiced line, with two delicatessen items visible on one pizza.
Placing beef bacon on a pizza: under or over the cheese?
Par-cooked bacon goes over the cheese; its edges crisp a second time in the oven and remain visible. Bacon hidden under the cheese steams, softens and disappears from the presentation. Fully crisp pieces scattered at the pass are a third option; they are not reheated but stay crisp and never wet the pizza, which makes them the choice for white-sauce pizzas in particular.
The distribution rule is fixed: pieces two fingers in from the edge, two or three to every slice. Bacon heaped in the centre weighs down the middle of the pizza and wets the weakest point of the base.
Naming a beef bacon pizza on the menu
The type of meat belongs in the name: beef bacon pizza. Some pizza guests avoid pork and the word bacon alone pushes them away; others expect the taste of bacon and should know it is beef. Where pepperoni is also used, both appear in the name: beef bacon and pepperoni pizza.
Preparing the par-cooked batch at opening, using it the same day, labelling it and holding it between 0 and +4 °C all fall within the business's own control plan under the Turkish Food Hygiene Regulation (yeni sekmede açılır); cooked and raw bacon are never kept in the same container. The separation of raw and cooked food is also one of the core principles in the WHO food safety fact sheet (yeni sekmede açılır).
A beef bacon usage table for pizzerias
The decision fits in three sentences: bacon enters the oven par-cooked, pieces are kept at 2 to 3 cm, and the equivalent of 30 to 40 g raw per pizza is enough. With all three applied, a soggy base stops being a bacon problem.
For the first trial, one pack of Beef Bacon 1000 g is enough to bake three pizzas at three weights and cut into the base; write to EMKA FOOD for the sample.
