Sunday, April 14, 2013

Bacon Weave al Monte

For better photography and a simpler recipe, visit this link. For the Truth, read on.

Start with your bacon weave. There's no good way to form this. Just bend the crossmembers back and lay the next row down. This is a 6x5 weave, we later added an additional 7th column. I highly recommend as many strips as you can force into the rectangle.

Dust with garlic salt and a spicy rub, here, anything you pull from the spice rack will work.
Lay down your blob o' sausage. In retrospect, I think two layers with the same amount of meat divided into two blankets would be better, sandwiching in an (not pictured) coating of sweet and zesty BBQ sauce. Also, we used spicy Italian sausage for this, but regular sausage might have been a better option.
LBH says to mix in an egg to this sausage layer to act as a binder. I say, why not? More protein is a good thing.
Goo a layer of grilled bacon and onions fresh from the sautee pan, with copious amounts of Brand X BBQ sauce. Maybe A-1 would finally find its place in the world here.

Also, you see why sandwiching this goodness between a pair of layers of sausage would be a phenomenal feat of baconary artistry. So, make double dose of this goo and do that 'nother layer thing. This layer contained about 7 strips of bacon and a whole onion.
Cheese happened. Me, I will omit this lactose-paste in the future. Monte, on the other hand, said he wants more cheese on his next go-around. A matter of taste. I found the cheese a distraction, rather than a bonus addition. If you must have cheese, melt some atop the completely cooked BaconLog at the very end, I say. Otherwise, what's next? Greens? Seafoods? Don't muddy the meaty waters.
Roll 'er up. See the ends? This is where you really want your bacon weave to be at its most expansive.
You want your weave as long as it can be as well as wide. Heck, it wouldn't hurt to do a second weave as an extension so you can have empty weave rolling over into itself at both ends, for a mind-boggling pinwheel effect.
 Ask for 24 inch slices of bacon from your local butcher who harvests hogs near the Springfield nuclear plant.
Insert into the smoker. I think foil-wrap might have served us well in the oven, but what do I know?
Also, keep a wooden spoon handy to spank the hell out of anyone's wrist if they want to open the door to take a look. Bacon is cooking here! Back off, newbs! Damn. If all else fails, wrapping the thing in foil will suppress passer-bys interest in peeking and letting out all the heat. Move along, nothing to see here but foil, people.

Approximately 5 UFC fights later, the pre-heat is complete. You can test the internal temp with a stick-thermometer if you like. No matter what it reads, you'll still move on to the grill anyway, so why bother? Just get moving and stop posturing like you know what you're doing.
Cat Zingano and Meisha Tate were fighting in the octagon, so we missed the BBQ sauce spraydown and trip over the coals. But it did happen, covered with foil to lock in all the juicinesses, and to keep the weave from sticking to the grill and unraveling everything.
After a quick 10 mins off the heat, stick a knife into it.
Spill toothpicks all over the floor and serve.

No comments: