Special Non Tyler Blog #1 - The Bacon Explosion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep.  There it is.  Bacon wrapped sausage wrapped in bacon with a touch of bbq rub and bbq sauce.  I am salivating just typing these words and looking at the picture.  If you're wondering where I got the recipe for this, head over to http://www.bbqaddicts.com/blog/recipes/bacon-explosion/

It's very easy to make and a lot of fun, so sit back and read or run to the store with your bacon list and then come home and follow along.  It is advised to print out the recipe so you don't get bacony stuff all over your computer, ipad, iphone, or whatever new fangled device is now the rage if you're reading this in the future.

Everything you need to increase your cholesterol!  Thick cut bacon (don't even think about buying the wimpy stuff cause it will fall apart and make you mad.  This recipe will only make you happy).  Italian sausage - I went with the sweet.  If you like it hot, go hot or maybe mix it up.  BBQ seasoning and BBQ sauce. 

So there you have the ingredients.  Pretty simple and can all be purchased for around $15-$20.  The first step is the to get your area ready.  Lay out some aluminum foil on a cookie sheet. 

Random thought interjection - Is tin and aluminum the same thing?  Some people say tin foil and others say aluminum foil.  What's up with that?   Time to check wikipedia......

Tin foil, also spelled tinfoil, is a thin foil made of tin. Actual tin foil was superseded by cheaper and more durable^{[citation needed]} aluminium foil after World War II, and aluminum foil is sometimes confused with "tin foil" because of its similarity to the former material.^{[citation needed]}

 

And there it is.  So I was using aluminum foil.  Now it's time to work on your basket or bacon weaving skills.  Make a 5 x 5 or 6 x 6 weave of bacon on top of the foil.

That's a nice looking weave!  Make sure it's tight with no space between the bacon.   I could just stare at this for hours.  New desktop background!

After you are done admiring your excellent weaving skillz, you can sprinkle the seasoning or rub on top.  Next you want to lay down the sausage like a blanket over the bacon.  If you bought sausage in the casing you have to remove it from the casing first. 

A sausage blanket!  Make sure its all the same thickness and bring to about the corners of the weave. 

Probably should have mentioned this earlier but I forgot so here it is.  Take the leftover bacon and cook it in the oven or a pan.  I prefer the oven because it doesn't make a mess and you can get it real nice and crispy which is the way you want it for this step.  But I was using the toaster oven so I also got some in a pan. 

In the oven.

In a pan!

Or on a t-shirt with Bacon Man!

I might need to get one of those shirts. 

So when the bacon is done cooking, crumple it up and put it on top of the sausage.

Have a few cooked pieces for yourself.  You deserve it!  But eat them before they touch the uncooked sausage or take your chances if you're feeling lucky or stupid.

Now drizzle nizzle some bbq saucizzle on top of the bacon sausage bacon.  Add some more seasoning too if you feel like it. 

Here comes the fun and tricky part.  You have to separate the sausage layer from the bacon weave and roll the sausage up like so.

Roll up tight and close off the ends so it looks like a giant sausage or log.

Then roll it back towards you grabbing the bacon weave to roll over the log.

Should look something like this.  Make sure that the ends are covered.  I had to add a few slices or uncooked bacon to cover the ends.  Guess I stuffed it with too much bacony sausage goodness.

At this point it's ready to be cooked.  The official recipe says to smoke it in a smoker for about 2-3 hours or until done.  Living in a condo, I don't have a smoker.  Recently found out I'm not even supposed to have a grill but that's a matter for the local authorities.  I decided to see if I could get a temperature of 225 degrees on my gas grill.  After messing with the burners I was able to achieve this.

So it's more like 250 but close enough.  This is the Weber Q 300 or 320 in case you were wondering.

I think this is about 1 hour into cooking.  I kept it on the foil in fear it would stick to the grill.

Maybe 2 hours into cooking.  Getting there but not quite done. 

I think it took close to 3 hours and since I wasn't serving it until the next day, I wrapped it up in foil and put it in the fridge.  It took a lot of will power not to cut into it and give it a try but it was also 1am when I finished it so I was pretty tired.

The following day I reheated it in the oven for about 30 minutes and then put it on the grill with some bbq sauce to get a nice carmelization on it. 

Served alongside some bbq chicken.

Slice, serve, enjoy and repeat!

And yes, it tastes as good as it looks.  Maybe even better.  I had myself at least 2 servings, maybe 2.5 and then some leftovers the next day.  Goes well with eggs in the morning or anytime for that matter. 

I had a lot of fun making this meaty creation and I will probably make it again in the winter.  This time it will be at my new home with a real smoker in the backyard. 

Special thanks to Robin for taking pictures when my hands were covered in bacon.  And a special birthday shout out to my man Mel for encouraging me to make this for his birthday bbq. 

Coming up next, I chronicle another wondeful food creation.....

The Pie Cake!