Wow that's tragic.
Okay, bacon weaves are only necessary if you are buying in your sausage meat (store sausage meat is very high in fat, water and salt and doesn't hold together well - plus in my opinion it tastes like crap).
Make your own and you can put the bacon where it belongs - on the inside of the fatty !
My basic fatty/sausage meat mix:
use lean pork shoulder or country style 'ribs' (pork shoulder steaks.
for every pound of pork shoulder add:
1 heaped tsp mixed herbs
1 level tsp salt (or 1/2 tsp heaped)
1/4 tsp cbp
1 tbs porridge oats (quaker oats fine)
Chop the pork into smallish cubes, discard any obvious lumps of fat (but no need to get carried away).
Mix in seasonings and oats.
Either grind through a coarse grid or use a food processor to grind/chop the mix into sausage meat.
Rest it in the fridge for an hour or two before making the fatty.
This also makes excellent breakfast sausage.
This sausage mix will hold firm, won't shrink or be dry - I've never wrapped in bacon and never got a blowout.
Once you've made it a few times you can adjust seasoning or add any other seasoning you like.
The oats act as moisture retention and binding agent - so you don't need to add water or fat to keep it succulent. They also reduce cholesterol, but that's just a cool side effect and not why I use them :-)
I usually roll 1lb fatties (ie ilb sausage meat per fatty) - these take 2 hours at 200f. I always use a temp probe
(fantast from ikea are great and only about $7). But I've got a mate who does them in the oven at 200 for 2 hours :-)
An excellent basic filling that works well with this sausage meat mix:
chop sweet pepper and oinion and saute in butter. Add crispy chopped bacon and a sharp cheddar, season well with cbp and paprika. mix it all up and use to stuff fatty.
I use a low fat cheddar because it doesn't melt away like a full fat cheddar - so the filling tatstes better :-)
If you don't like that with home made sausage meat - then we can conclude that fatty's just ain't for you :-)
