First fattie!!

[beerbelly]

Started with rolling out jd sauage and pulled pork w/red chile sauce.
Added smoked Gouda cheese.











then got the bacon ready, laid out the loaf, topped with a little rub, wrapped her up and in the frig she went.




Pulled out of frig this morning, put into my MES on wheels ( got a bad back so I raised it up -- sure helps out the old back )


Cooked at 225 for a little less than 3 hours. Sure came out pretty.


The outside was not quite what I was expecting, but good, but the inside was great--if I do say so myself.



Thanks to everyone here for all of the tips and advice. Going to do ribs this weekend. Come on Saturday!!!!!

 

[grothe]

Real nice job on your first...bet it was tasty!

 

[fire it up]

Looks good Beerbelly, congrats on a successful smoke, Was just curious what you were looking for with the outside of the fattie?

 

[beerbelly]

Well, it wasn't that I was looking for anything as much as I was expecting the outside to be cruncher, maybe even crisp to speak of. And the sauage was real dense. Guess I was just going by the way they look to me in the pics on here.

 

[grothe]

For a crispier bacon weave, crank up your chamber temp to 250* (i've even gone as high as 275* when I used thick sliced bacon).

 

[fire it up]

Bacon has always been one of the bigger issues with fatties, just hard to crisp it the way you would expect bacon to be cooked, nice and crisp.
Many folks have used thin bacon, some throw the fattie on the grill for a few minutes when it's done, I have tossed them under the broiler for a few minutes. Many times that helps but usually it is just one of those things that you can't do too much about. About half of the fatties I do now I just leave the bacon off of for that reason.

With the denseness, I don't know what you could do about that, maybe mix some ingredients with the sausage, maybe a mixture of different meats. Overall that is just the way they usually come out, not like a breakfast sausage type of texture that is more airy.
One thing I LOVE to do is cool the fattie and cut a slice off in the morning (or afternoon or night) and fry it up in a pan, throw it on a biscuit with some eggs and cheese, makes a delicious breakfast sammie.

 

[smokeguy]

Great job on your first fattie!

for sharing it with us!
Along with the higher heat, you can go with a looser weave (i.e. less bacon) and that seems to help it to crisp up better. No weave at all and just sort of wrapped around it with space between the slices also helps. And finally, if you nuke it a bit before you wind it on that gets things going quicker so less grease/more crisp sooner. I haven't done this last one on a fattie yet but it's what I do when I'm wrapping my dove breasts to get it crispier.

 

[mballi3011]

Personally I like softer bacon but some have asked for crispper so I just throw it on the grill for a couple good turns and then lets eat. But good job on that fattie. Just remember one cooked one hooked.

 

[slanted88]

Man....that thing looks good! Nice job!