Manson's Recipe

Bacon Explosion !

Category: Recipes

Found online--adapted from J. Day & A.Christopher
...with the Super Bowl upon us, I had to show y'all this monster!

Time: Approx 3 Hours

2 lbs. thick-cut sliced bacon
1 1/2 lbs Italian sausage, casings removed
3 tbsp barbecue rub
3/4 cup barbecue sauce

1. Using 10 slices of bacon, weave a square lattice, much like atop a pie;first, place 5 slices side by side on a large sheet of aluminum foil, parallel to one another, sides touching. Place another strip of bacon on one end, perpendicular to the other strips. Fold strips 1,3, & 5 back over the perpendicular strip; then place another strip next to this one, parallel to it. Then unfold first, third, and fifth strips; fold back the 2d & 4th strips. Repeat with remaining bacon until all 10 strips are tightly woven.

2.Preheat oven to 225 degrees, or light a fire in an outdoor smoker. Place remaining bacon in a frying pan and cook until crisp. as it cooks, sprinkle bacon lattice with 1 tbsp of the rub. Evenly spread the sausage on top of the bacon weave, pressing to outer edges.

3. Crumble fried bacon into bite-size pieces. Sprinkle atop sausage. Drizzle with 1/2 cup of the BBQ sauce and sprinkle with another tbsp. of the BBQ rub.

4. VERY carefully, separate front edge of the sausage layer from the bacon lattice, and begin rolling sausage AWAY from you. Bacon should stay where it was, flat. Press sausage roll to remove any air pockets; pinch together seams, and ends.

5. Roll sausage TOWARDS you, this time WITH the weave, until it is completely wrapped. Turn it so the seam faces down. Roll should be 2 to 3 inches thick. Sprinkle with remaining rub.

Place roll on a baking sheet in oven, or smoker. Cook, until the internal temperature is 165 on a meat thermometer, about 1 hour for every inch of thickness. When done, glaze with remaining sauce. To serve, cut roll into 1/4- 1/2 inch sliced rounds. YIELD : 10 or more servings.

NOTE: When doing this in an oven, I placed the roll on a foil-covered rack, in a pan over a bottle of LIQUID SMOKE. The result was stellar!