Meatloaf wrapped in bacon: Bacon never seems to cook

[1215]

As the title says, we do meatloaf wrapped in bacon on Weber bullet clone a few times a month. Meatloaf always turns out great but the bacon never seems to cook. We cook probably about 2 pounds and we've gotten really good with temps, usually we cook about 265-ish until internal is 160.

We do find that keeping the water pan full really helps to keep temps even. Could that also be causing the bacon to not fully cook? Usually the meat in the bacon is fine/OK but the fat doesn't cook down much at all. We use regular slice.

Any ideas? At least meatloaf wrapped in bacon means the dogs are happy...

 

[bregent]

One thing nice about making your own bacon is that you can slice it as thin or thick as you need. I always slice some very thin that I use for meatloaf, moinks and abts. Other than than, you can par cook it to render some of the fat before wrapping it on the loaf.

 

[chef jimmyj]

If you are using Store bought bacon. Short of paying $8-10 a pound, you are getting Water Brine Injected Bacon. Like Brined Turkey, higher temps, 275-325, are needed to render and Crisp the bacon. At lower temps you are just cooking really fatty Ham. The meat's good but the fat stays flaccid.
Losing the water pan should help as well as increasing the smoker temp...JJ

 

[KrisUpInSmoke]

When I wrap in bacon, I try to stretch it as I wrap, and don't overlap the pieces. And, I either parcook the bacon in the oven first or crisp it up under the broiler in the oven or on the grill after it smokes, usually the latter.

Try smoking with and without the water to see if it makes a difference in your smoker. MES owners here don't usually use water. Some use sand or lava rocks covered in foil in drip tray, bricks covered in foil, or pizza stone, etc as a heat sink instead of water.

 

[1215]

We built two UDS a few months back. Mine is a Gateway/Hunsaker clone, hers is a Weber Bullet clone. She loves her damn water pan and I'm not going to argue with it because I've got mine and she's got hers :) Honestly other than helping her weld/build the smoker, I haven't messed with it or cooked on it at all. She says she needs the water pan to maintain temps.

Thanks chefjimmyj, maybe we'll try to bump up the temps a little more and see what happens.

 

[krj]

Biggest thing I've found to help is you wanna find thin bacon and like Kris pointed out kinda stretch it as you go. You're never gonna get that absolutely crispy bacon you'd get from frying/baking it because at the generally low(sub 290F) temps it'd take quite a while to crisp. You could always crank the heat the last 30min of cooking and see what you can do. I know some guys do this with chicken to get the skin crispy.

 

[mike243]

No matter what you do the meat will still be pouring rendered fat out and the inner side of the bacon will stay moist, you might get it crispy at the chance of drying the meatloaf out by ramping the temps up at the end. Trial and error is still eatable lol

 

[Inscrutable]

Have not tried yet, but thinking of transferring to gas grill for quick high heat crisp right at the end. Or into a preheated cast iron skillet maybe a better idea than a potential towering inferno on the grill

 

[indaswamp]

These guys got it...
Have to increase the heat to crisp the bacon. Could try cooking to 145ish degrees and then pulling the loaf and bake it in the oven @350* until the heat rises to 165* and the bacon crisps up.....

 

[Steve H]

When I do this with meatloaf or chicken is once I get the IT where I want it. I then put it in the broiler for a few minutes to crisp up the bacon.

 

[Bearcarver]

There are some good suggestions above, but I prefer to cook the Bacon separately, and serve it with the Meat Loaf, or any other large piece of meat that others might wrap with Bacon. That way I can get the Great Tasting Bark on the Meat & my Bacon will be Crisp & Tasty like always.

You have to slice your Meatloaf (or whatever) to serve it anyway.

Just my 2 Piasters,

Bear

 

[indaswamp]

I like that Bear....cook the bacon separately for more bark on the meat....

 

[bregent]

Are you really looking for crisp bacon? Maybe I'm weird, but I don't really want crisp bacon on my meatloaf, or on abt's, moinks, or just about anything that calls for wrapped bacon. Crisp bacon is brittle and cracks and shatters when you bite into it. That's fine on the side for breakfast. For wrapping, I want bacon that is fully rendered, but is a bit soft and bites through cleanly without shattering.

 

[chef jimmyj]

I'm with Bregent on this one. Browned but pliable. My Wife recently baked Bacon for BLT'S. She has the doneness down but took one pan a bit to far. It was crisp but the meaty portion was brittle like over dry jerky. Chewing the sandwich, I broke the side out a of a tooth...JJ

 

[1215]

Thanks for all the replies. No I'm not really looking for crispy bacon like you'd have with bacon & eggs in the AM, but I am looking for a little bit of the fat to render away. I don't need crispy, I just want the texture to seem like it's cooked.

 

[Bearcarver]

Thanks for all the replies. No I'm not really looking for crispy bacon like you'd have with bacon & eggs in the AM, but I am looking for a little bit of the fat to render away. I don't need crispy, I just want the texture to seem like it's cooked.

I agree, but if you make the Bacon Separate you can make it however you want it, instead of Soggy on at least one side from wrapping things with it.

Bear

 

[jokensmoken]

Thinnest cut bacon money can buy...
I count strips in the package and look for 15 to 16 strips per pound...12 to 13 strips in the 12oz packages...
Stretch the strips as much as you can without tearing them when your making your weave and wrapping...
Then bump the temp to 350° when you get to your desired IT till it crisps.
Good luck...I'd guess we've all experienced this issue to one extent or another with bacon wraps.
Walt.

 

[johnmeyer]

Wrapping in bacon is a form of barding. When this is done in the oven (i.e., when not smoking) it is usually done to keep moisture in the meat and add flavor. However, the salt pork, bacon, or other barding substance is usually not expected to be eaten and is discarded at the end of the cook.

So, if you are wrapping in bacon in order to provide more moisture and additional flavor to the main piece of meat, but you still want to be able to eat the tasty bacon, then simply remove the bacon near the end of cooking and finish it using any traditional bacon-cooking method.

If the main piece of meat is really small, then the bacon may cook just fine without having to remove the bacon to finish cooking. The best example of this is bacon wrapped hot dogs.