It had to be done I suppose, just like the kernel of every good idea that gets taken too far. I guess it all started about 3 weeks ago when someone forwarded me a link expecting me to be horrified. Hell I was even warned by the roasted nut docent at Whole Foods, who admonished me about the average American having 8 to 10 pounds of undigested red meat in their colon. But it had to be done. My only real regret is that Mike forgot the deep fat fryer so that we could not batter and deep fry the delectable rings of pork goodness.
We started off on Friday afternoon with a trip to Hut's in Austin, and then off to Whole foods to buy the finest ingredients that we could find for our Wimberley iteration of Bacon Explosion. We ended up with:
1 Pound Applewood Smoked Bacon
1 Pound Peppered Bacon
1 Pound Chorizo
Edmond expertly wove the strips of bacon into a lattice that would form the outer shell for the core of fried bacon and chorizo core, and dusted it with a homemade cajun rub.
The Chorizo after great deliberation on technique was placed onto the blanket of woven bacon.
A healthy (meaning large) portion of fried bacon was placed across the median of chorizo layer.
This was then doused with a Kansas City Style Barbecue Sauce.
The contents were then rolled into a cylindrical package.
As the bacon log would take 2.5 hours plus to cook, we prepared a pair of steelhead filets for the smoker as well with crushed chili-lime pecans procured the previous day.
After a short period of time, the smoker had reached the prescribed temperature and both samples for the animal kingdoms were lowered into place.
It wasn't long before the steelhead was ready to come off the smoker, and while Edmond looked for forks in the kitchen, Mike and I piled in with our fingers for the first round of appetizers. I'm still unclear as if it's a sea trout or salmon, but either way it proved delicous!
I had never seen Mike so pensive, and he pondered his fate carefully before deciding to take off for a poker game with his children before the bacon explosion was ready to be delivered.
It was just as I was beginning to tire of the steelhead, that Edmond's friend Kyle showed up with chicken and jalapenos wrapped in bacon that he had grilled and thoughtfully brought over. This held us over nicely until the main course was ready.
About 20 minutes before the pork log was ready to come out it was brushed with a coating of the same KC BBQ sauce that graced the bacon crumbled innards.
We waited for the center to reach the prescribed safe temperature to avoid a myriad of ailments that are apparently fairly nasty and left the log to rest for a bit.
Edmond then sliced into the monstrosity of bacon and pork products and served us in turn. It proved to be fairly amazing. After some discussion it was decided that next time that it should perhaps be a mixture of italian sausage and chorizo as the chorizo was spicer than anticipated and continued to gain heat. Later today I am going to try and either work it into an egg scramble or perhaps an omelette. I now have what can only be described as a meat hangover, and am convinced that as good as this is, it must be relegated to no more than once or twice a year for special occasions.
The pecan encrusted steelhead however will be placed into the repetoire, and will now need a Costco membership.
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