White residue emerging while cooking bacon

The answer is related to a similar issue appearing in this question.

Basically, that residue is mostly water, along with denatured proteins from the meat. When meat is cooked and the cells expel moisture, there are a lot of dissolved proteins which sometimes make the liquid light-colored and thick.

People tend to notice it more with certain meats than others. With bacon, it tends to show up a little more because a lot of commercial bacon is now wet-cured by injection. The extra moisture in the bacon flows out quicker during cooking and carries protein with it. This is also more of a problem with thinner cuts of bacon, since the more "damaged" cells, the more this protein leaks out. Thinner cut bacon -- like the ground beef mentioned in the link above -- has a higher ratio of cut and damaged cells than thick-cut bacon. (There are other factors that can add to this too, e.g., freezing, which also damages cells.)

It's safe to eat, though not particularly pleasant textured or tasty. Rinsing the bacon wouldn't help. A few ways to lessen it:

• Try a different brand of bacon, perhaps one that adds less moisture
• Buy thicker bacon
• Cook more slowly: this may not help much with some bacon, but the faster the meat cooks up and shrinks, the faster the liquid flows out
• If possible, buy traditional dry-cured bacon with no liquid injected (sometimes hard to find these days)