First and foremost, I'd like to thank everyone on this forum for helping me make my first fatty. I know this is the first of many, as I am already fired up to make another one. My dad named this one the lumberjack. Not sure why, but I like it, so I'm running with it.
I cut the hickory bacon up and browned it up with the country ham.
After all that was cooked up, I cut the ham up into smaller pieces and started stuffing the lumberjack with the bacon, country ham, sharp cheddar, and jack cheese.
I decided to firm it up a little in the freezer just so I didn't have to worry about it falling apart. Here he is all wrapped up. Not bad for my first try, I think.
Now, I need to explain something at this point and I hope I don't get destroyed over this. My usual smoker is not here right now (I'm home from school at my parents' right now). So, I decided to use my big cooker that I cook butts, pigs, etc. on. It's a great custom cooker. But it's gas. I'm sure that makes many of you cringe. But I love it, it holds heat like a damn oven, and when you're the only person cooking a whole hog, gas is soooo much easier. And I've cooked in competition with this one and did better than my neighbors who were giving me grief about cooking with gas. Anyway, I jerry-rigged a smoker pouch and hung it over the grease guard over the burner under the grate. Here's the idea:
The smoke wasn't pouring like I would have liked, but I decided to go with it anyway.
After about 2.5 hours and a couple minutes under the broiler to crisp up the bacon, here it is:
Overall I was very impressed. And despite cooking on gas without a true smoke setup, the smoke flavor was substantial. Still though, I'm looking forward to doing it right in my smoker. And as far as living and learning, I think next time I will use either a better quality or thicker cut bacon for the weave. I just the regular store-brand bacon, and it didn't hold up too well for the weave. Also, I think using country ham and bacon as my filler was a little too much salt. And I'm a salt lover. I wanted to use ham but not country ham, but it's kind of slim pickins at the grocery stores in this small town. Thanks again for helping me out, y'all. I look forward to making my next one. Cheers.
-TGB
I cut the hickory bacon up and browned it up with the country ham.
After all that was cooked up, I cut the ham up into smaller pieces and started stuffing the lumberjack with the bacon, country ham, sharp cheddar, and jack cheese.
I decided to firm it up a little in the freezer just so I didn't have to worry about it falling apart. Here he is all wrapped up. Not bad for my first try, I think.
Now, I need to explain something at this point and I hope I don't get destroyed over this. My usual smoker is not here right now (I'm home from school at my parents' right now). So, I decided to use my big cooker that I cook butts, pigs, etc. on. It's a great custom cooker. But it's gas. I'm sure that makes many of you cringe. But I love it, it holds heat like a damn oven, and when you're the only person cooking a whole hog, gas is soooo much easier. And I've cooked in competition with this one and did better than my neighbors who were giving me grief about cooking with gas. Anyway, I jerry-rigged a smoker pouch and hung it over the grease guard over the burner under the grate. Here's the idea:
The smoke wasn't pouring like I would have liked, but I decided to go with it anyway.
After about 2.5 hours and a couple minutes under the broiler to crisp up the bacon, here it is:
Overall I was very impressed. And despite cooking on gas without a true smoke setup, the smoke flavor was substantial. Still though, I'm looking forward to doing it right in my smoker. And as far as living and learning, I think next time I will use either a better quality or thicker cut bacon for the weave. I just the regular store-brand bacon, and it didn't hold up too well for the weave. Also, I think using country ham and bacon as my filler was a little too much salt. And I'm a salt lover. I wanted to use ham but not country ham, but it's kind of slim pickins at the grocery stores in this small town. Thanks again for helping me out, y'all. I look forward to making my next one. Cheers.
-TGB