Smoked Fatty, with Bacon!

Fatty's ready for sauce

Yesterday I made a smoked fatty wrapped in a bacon weave. A fatty is just another name for a BBQ'd log of breakfast sausage, in this case Jimmy Dean's Spicy Sausage. I smeared the sausage with plain yellow mustard and liberally covered it with my homemade pork rub. I put in the fridge for a few hours to let it think about what I was about about to do to it.

About an hour before I was planning to put it in the smoker I took the sausage out of the fridge and made the bacon weave. It turned out a 5x6 weave covered it perfectly.

Bacon weave is go!

Fatty ready for the smoker

I put it on the smoker with lump charcoal and hickory and apple wood chunks.

Smokin'!

The first picture up above shows the fatty after about three hours. Then it was time to sauce the puppy!

Saucy!

I used O'Baby BBQ Sauce. Does anyone know if they're still in business? The website has a 2013 copyright date and the shop link goes to a dead Etsy page...

Anyway, another 30 minutes or so in the smoker and then the fatty was ready!

And there it is, the finished fatty with an extra drizzle of O'Baby's.

And it was MINE, ALL MINE!

Look at that shine!

You can't see it, but there's a smoke ring

MINE!

Garbage Pizza

Garbage Pizza fresh from the oven.

So I was trying to think of something to do with the really thick cut bacon I got on Father's Day. Then it hit me: Garbage pizza!

Garbage pizza is everything but the kitchen sink. Basically you throw anything and everything you want on the pizza, cover it in cheese, then bake it.

For this, I used a store bought boboli crust as the base. I covered it with a thick layer of tomato sauce with sausage, onion, and peppers. Then a layer of thick cut pepperoni, sliced smoked ham, and then the bacon.

Now that's some thick bacon!

The bacon was almost a quarter inch thick and each slice was over twelve inches long. I sliced three strips of bacon into chunks then cooked them until they were almost crispy.

I may have tasted a few pieces along the way. Quality control.

After these went on the pizza I added the veggies: Sliced onions, green bell peppers, and mushrooms.

Finally, a heapin' helpin' of shredded mozzarella topped it off.

After thirteen minutes in the oven at 450° the garbage pizza was ready. The first slice was excellent.

Ready to eat.

Waiting for the cheese.

And before you say it, yes I know this wasn't cooked on a grill or a smoker. I promise the next time I make pizza I'll use the grill.

Father's Day 2012

My people know what to get me for Father's Day.

That's an Oregon Scientific Remote Meat Thermometer on the left and really thick cut bacon from the Eastern Market butcher in Washington, DC on the right.

Actually I got the remote thermometer a week early so I could use it with the incredibly good brisket I made that weekend. I used it again this weekend when I made pulled pork to die for (more on that later). The only complaint I have about the thermometer is one that the Amazon reviewers have made: You have to reset both the transmitter and receiver every time you turn them on to get them to link up. And the instructions aren't clear on that. Other than that, works great.

Now, the bacon. I am thinking about what I can do with it. I have many recipes that call for thick cut bacon so this will be a challenge. But you know it will be good. And I'm open to suggestions.

Stay tuned.

Brisket! In the Smoker!

Go to Texas and ask for BBQ, you'll get brisket. This chest muscle from the cow is cooked low and slow for hours. Done right it practically melts in your mouth. This is my version.

I started with a seven pound flat cut. I cut off a small piece to cook separately so it could go in the baked beans later. Along with bacon. But that's another post.

The morning after.

The night before, I trimmed most of the fat off and applied my rub. This was based on Amazing Ribs' Big Bad Beef Rub, but I add freshly toasted and ground coriander. And maybe one or two other things. Then several injections of low sodium beef stock and the brisket was ready to be wrapped and refrigerated for the night. I also put some hickory, mesquite, and pecan wood chunks in water to soak for the next day.

Bacon Wrapped Saltines

A while back I mentioned Larry Gaian's (of the BBQ Grail) experiment in wrapping bacon around saltine crackers. This is what happened when I did it.

Prep is easy. Wrap each cracker with half a strip of bacon. I used center cut but you can use whatever kind you like. The bacon won't go completely around the cracker so just be sure the ends are tucked in underneath. They'll stay in place when everything's cooked.

Then I sprinkled some of my favorite pork rub on top. I use Meathead's Memphis Dust Rub recipe. Here's a handy tip. I usually have a problem with brown sugar clumping when I try to mix the spices together. I put it all in a blender and give it a few pulses. This mixes it well and you end up with a finer rub. The better to get into the meat, I say. If you use coarse salt (kosher or sea salt -- and you should) just add it after you blend the other spices.

Then the crackers went on the hot grill, set up for indirect cooking. Larry Gaian cooked his for about 20 minutes. I kept an eye on mine and after about 12 minutes they were starting to get done. So I put some Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce on them and let them go for a few more minutes. After a total cook time of 15 minutes the bacon wrapped saltines were done.

How did they turn out? Just look at the pictures. These make great appetizers and don't take much effort to make.

Do try this at home.

Meatzapalooza 2012

This Memorial Day weekend we hosted what I called Meatzapalooza 2012. On the menu was some of what you expect, hamburgers and hot dogs, and some of what you don't expect, the infamous bacon explosion and a traditional low country boil. I think some veggies made a token appearance but, really, who cares? It's all about the meat.

I had a couple of other items planned but we got so busy I put them off. Don't worry, you'll read about them soon enough.

Speaking of busy, the only picture I got was of the smoker cooking the bacon explosion. Yes, that is the same smoker as the one in my blog header. I recently sanded and repainted it, and restained the wood handles and shelf slats. Looks pretty good, doesn't it?

I've written about how I made my first bacon explosion, so I won't go into the details again. I will say I used a bit too much Italian sausage (just a bit, really!) and the bacon weave wouldn't quite cover the sausage roll. So I had to slap some more slices of bacon over the gaps to make it complete. Think of it as bacon spackle. I assembled the bacon explosion several hours ahead of time. Everything had time to set up and so it all held together when I put it in the smoker. Besides, how bad can be it be if you have to add more bacon? To anything?

The low country boil was pretty basic. Baby red potatoes, corn, smoked sausage, and shrimp in a pot with Old Bay seasoning and Zatarian's Crab Boil. Basic, but great flavors.

Both the bacon explosion and the low country boil were hits this year. I bet they will be again next year.

Smoked Holiday Ham

Smoked ham and beans -- Is that a slice of bacon, too?

Ham is traditional for Easter, so I smoked a ham and baked beans today. For the ham I followed the procedure detailed on howtobbqright.com, with a minor tweak: I used a spiral cut ham to start with. Mainly because I'm lazy and wanted to make it easier to serve when the ham was done.

There are a couple of risks using a spiral cut rather than an uncut ham. The first is that it might fall apart during the smoking process. The second is that it might come out too dry when it's done. Fortunately neither of these happened today. You do have to be careful moving the ham on and off the smoker grate. The bottom slices will tend to peel off.

The basic ingredients

The first thing you do with the ham is throw away the glaze packet that come with it. You'll make your own soon enough. To prepare the ham, rub it with honey dijon mustard and lightly coat it with brown sugar. Then it goes in a 225° smoker for two hours. I used applewood chunks with some random mesquite and hickory thrown in. After two hours spritz it with pineapple juice, wrap it in foil, and continue to cook it for another hour.

After two hours in the smoker

After the third hour open the foil and put more brown sugar on the ham  and spray with more pineapple juice. This will make the glaze. Cook for another hour. After a total of four hours cooking time take it out and let it rest for about thirty minutes.

For the beans I used the recipe for barbecues beans I found at BBQ Recipes Cookbook. Again, I made a couple of minor tweaks I'll explain in a moment. I started with drained Bush's Original Baked Beans as the base. Then I added Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce, paprika, and dry mustard.

Tweak #1: The recipe calls for honey but I substituted brown sugar today (I'm out of honey -- an oversite). 

Tweak #2: It also calls for onion and green pepper. Instead of adding them raw I sauteed them in olive oil first to soften them up. I should have cooked the pepper a little longer since it was still a bit too crunchy when the beans were done.

Beans, done.

Finally I topped the mixture with bacon slices and it went in the smoker for about an hour and a half, uncovered. I wanted the beans to be ready when the ham was done resting, so I put them in the smoker after it had been cooking for three hours. And I added more wood to make them smoky.

Is that the face of Jesus in the center of the ham?

The ham practically fell apart when it was done. I have no idea how those sweet potato chunks got in the picture.

Saint Patrick's Day and the Day After

Here's what I did on Saint Patrick's Day.

It's smoked corned beef with grilled cabbage and grilled potatoes. There will be more on this soon.

And what do you make the next day? After a great deal of thought I decided on a Reuben with homemade Russian dressing. The grilled cabbage is a good substitute for sauerkraut.

Baconized Beer Butt Chicken

How do you make beer butt chicken -- or any chicken --  even better? Add bacon! It's really simple. Just slip slices of bacon under the skin then season and cook the way you normally do.

The bacon fat renders into the chicken meat, keeping it moist and adding flavor. The bacon itself "becomes one" with the skin. Everyone knows the skin is the best part. Baconized chicken skin amps it up to 11.

 I usually make beer butt chicken with Cavender's Greek Seasoning. Always rinse the chicken with cold water and pat dry first. Add the bacon under the skin, then brush with melted butter (unsalted) and rub in the Greek seasoning.

The shy four pounder on the left took about an hour to cook on indirect heat.

You can just barely see the bacon under the skin on the finished product. For the most part the bacon cooks into the skin and you can't really tell them apart.

Bottom line: Bacon makes everything better. Except maybe chicken livers.

Triple Treat

Behold the incredible, the amazing, the delicious Triple Treat.

It's pulled pork, Black Forest smoked ham, and peppered bacon with Mad Dog Chipotle BBQ Sauce on a toasted onion roll. With dill pickles on the side.

A word about the bacon. I oven baked the bacon (baked bacon!) after covering it with fresh cracked pepper. I use a cookie pan with a non stick drying rack.

Put the bacon slices on the rack and coat with fresh cracked pepper. The more pepper the better. Bake on the center rack in a 400 degree preheated oven for about 10 minutes. Watch closely because the bacon can over cook and burn. Put aluminum foil in the pan for easier cleanup (although you should be able to rinse out the bacon grease with hot water).

A big shout out to Bobby K's Roadside Cafe for inspiring this creation.

And a big thanks to BBQ Sauce Reviews for introducing me to Mad Dog BBQ sauces!

Some Things Even Bacon Can't Help

The BBQ Grail discovers even bacon can't make chicken livers taste good.

Bacon and Crackers

Photo © 2012 by Larry Gaian

The folks over at The BBQ Grail have asked the question "Does bacon make saltines taste better?"

The answer is yes. Yes it does.

My First Bacon Explosion

The bacon explosion burst onto the scene about three years ago by the guys over at BBQ Addicts. They have detailed instructions on how to build your own so I won't waste time repeating them here. I'll just feature some highlights of my first bacon explosion experience. The end result is pictured above.

About two and a half years ago we had a big Fourth of July cookout (well, more like a close to Fourth of July cookout). I wanted to do something special so I drafted my daughter Betsy to help assemble this pork extravaganza.

We made Italian sausage for the filling and used center cut bacon for the the weave and bacon crumbles. Getting the weave tight is critical to bacon explosion success. Our handiwork is the first picture on the left. Betsy put her pie making skills to good use for this.

The next key to assembling the bacon explosion is the roll. Like the weave, it must be tight. The next photo is our sausage roll. All that's left is to wrap the bacon weave around it. Then it's off to the smoker!

Time to start smoking. Three hours to go and then it's bacon bliss...

Wait for it...

Can you stand the antici... pation?

Three hours later, it's ready for the sauce and then it's time to eat!