Tales from Chez Zeo - The Bacon Explosion

A few months ago in my blog browsing I came across the recipe for the Bacon Explosion that the guys a BBQAddicts had come up with. I was entranced. Bacon! Wrapped in Bacon! With more Bacon stuffed inside! What wasn't to love? The recipe is so outlandish that it got picked up by newspapers and morning news shows a few weeks after they published it.

So naturally I had to try it. (I wanted to try it before it went mainstream, I wouldn't want anyone thinking I was trying it just to be cool. I was cool before the hype.)

A couple of weeks ago my roommates and I had some people over and I figured this was the perfect opportunity to blow everyone's minds. I certainly wasn't going to eat the whole thing by myself (though trust me, I could have...right before I had a heart attack) and I wanted to share the joy that I expected this to be.

Step one was to create a weave of bacon. Thankfully I have a Boy Scout merit badge in basketweaving (true story) so that came easily to me.

A skill learned at summer camp. But with bacon.

The next step was to sprinkle some BBQ seasoning on the weave (I conveniently had some straight from Rendezvous in Memphis), put two pounds of sausage on top of it in the shape of a square, and sprinkle some cooked bacon on top of that. Toss on a little BBQ sauce (also from Rendezvous) and this is what you get:

So many layers of flavor!

Next: Roll up the sausage.

What rolls one way...

Once that's done, roll it backwards so that you wrap the roll of sausage in the bacon weave.

Must roll the other.

Sprinkle with more seasoning and it's ready to cook!

How good does that look like it's going to taste??

Now, you're supposed to use a smoker and let it smoke for a few hours. It will infuse the pork with flavor and make it moist and juicy. But I don't have a house and/or a yard to house a smoker. So I had to bake it. I know the taste would have been better in a smoker, but I had to work with what I had. Although this has given me serious reason to consider finding a place for a smoker.

Onward...

The crackling Bacon Explosion came out of the oven looking and smelling fantastic. Smothered in some more BBQ sauce it looked even better.

I know, right?

Let's slice that baby open.

Explosion is putting it mildly.

Now let me just tell you, this was something worth beholding. It tasted exactly what you think it would taste like. But better. Salty, porky, BBQy, juicy, a definite explosion in your mouth of flavor. It was a hit around the party and I'm sure at some point in the future I will try it again.

I made a sandwich out of the leftovers and wow. Better than any meatloaf sandwich I've ever had.

I highly recommend trying this out if you're curious and are having a party. Don't attempt to eat the whole thing by yourself. Or even 1/4 of the thing. You'll die. And I don't want to be responsible for that. Consider yourself warned.