Bacon is one of the most popular topics on Columbus Underground and as CMH Gourmand observes ‘in Columbus, Bacon is the new Black’. It is therefore of no surprise that sooner or later a bacon explosion would appear. Well, actually two bacon explosions, we are not ones to do things by half.
The bacon explosion was created by the BBQ addicts bloggers in December 2008 and has become an internet phenomenon, even being featured in the New York Times. Here is their official recipe. It is bacon, wrapped in sausage, wrapped in more (woven) bacon. You definitely need to be a pork fan and vegetarians and dieters should stay well away.
For the Columbus explosion all of the ingredients came from Blues Creek in the North Market. Here is how it was done:
Weave the bacon. It helps if you have an art degree or weaving experience as this obviously requires a great deal of skill.
Fry and then chop the bacon for the center of the roll.
Season the weave with bbq rub/seasoning and then spread a layer of mild italian sausage. I think Blues Creek Ham loaf mixture would make an excellent alternative. Place the chopped up bacon in the center and roll up your bacon log. The thickness of the Blues Creek bacon made rolling a little trickier than if you used longer thinner supermarket bacon, but the flavor and quality trade off is worthwhile.
Find some friends to help you transfer your creation to the grill. They will later be rewarded. This is another highly skilled (and tense) part of the proceedings.
Wait patiently while the sausage sizzles, the bacon smokes and your arteries brace themselves. Bacon is also the new dessert. According to Wikipedia a bacon explosion contains over 5000 calories and 500g of fat. gulp.
The finished works of porcine art.
Smoking certainly gave it a great smoky flavor but perhaps didn’t crisp up the bacon as much as grilling would have. I have to admit that the bacon explosion didn’t rock my world as much as I expected. Watching the proceedings was definitely an experience and was very entertaining, prompting much hilarity, but it is probably not an experiment one would repeat in a hurry.
