I decided to make a fattie this past weekend. The fam said that we should do a pizza fattie so off we went:
My wife helped with the bacon weaving and sausage flattening and pretty soon we were in business.
For sausage we used 1 lb of Jimmy Dean an another lb of my own blend of seasonings mixed into straight up ground pork.
This two lbs of sausage turned out to be far too much and was a mistake based on my misreading an article by Jeff from back in 2010.
http://www.smoking-meat.com/january-2010-bacon-wrapped-stuffed-sausage-fatty
In the article Jeff had mentioned using two lbs of sausage. What I failed to notice was that it was for 2 fatties!! Ahhhhh.
We ended with a very thick fattie that could've used more innards.... Oh well, as I'm well aware, not everything turns out perfect the first time and makes for a good excuse to do it again!
Once we had the meat rolled out we proceeded to add some Pizza fillings.
We included peppers, black olives, mushrooms, onions, pepperoni, pizza sauce, and cheese.
Once we rolled it up it became abundantly obvious this was gonna be one thick fattie.
Fortunately we had decided to use some thick cut bacon which proved to be very pliable for closing off any gaps that wanted to appear.
The final product looked pretty darn respectable and it was ready for the smoker!
Into the Master Forge it went as snow began to fly!
Prior to loading the smoker I had eased the temp in the MF up to about 230.
With the steel plates and insulation mods I've added to this thing it holds its temp like none other.
Smoking in the cold is a non-issue.
After about 2 1/2 to 3 hrs at 230-240 with full smoke, provided by my AMPTS, my IT temp hit about 165 and it was time to pull it.
(I used no water in the pan for this smoke.)
In order to get a nice color and to crisp up the bacon I had the broiler ready in the oven and we popped it in there for 5 minutes.
Ended up with a nice looking fattie, ready to cut into.
This is really when we noticed how thick the sausage layer was.
Taste was very good, but honestly I was a bit disappointed. I guess the chef can sometimes be the biggest critic
Everyone raved at how great it was but the consensus also was that the sausage layer was too thick and it woulda been nice to have more stuffing instead.
The pizza flavor was spectacular and the bacon accented it wonderfully.
Just wish there would have been a little more of the insides to enjoy with all that meat!
The good news is that I made up two batches of the sausage, and froze half of it.
As it turns out that means I've got enough saved to do TWO more fatties.
Can't wait for the weekend!
My wife helped with the bacon weaving and sausage flattening and pretty soon we were in business.
For sausage we used 1 lb of Jimmy Dean an another lb of my own blend of seasonings mixed into straight up ground pork.
This two lbs of sausage turned out to be far too much and was a mistake based on my misreading an article by Jeff from back in 2010.
http://www.smoking-meat.com/january-2010-bacon-wrapped-stuffed-sausage-fatty
In the article Jeff had mentioned using two lbs of sausage. What I failed to notice was that it was for 2 fatties!! Ahhhhh.
We ended with a very thick fattie that could've used more innards.... Oh well, as I'm well aware, not everything turns out perfect the first time and makes for a good excuse to do it again!
Once we had the meat rolled out we proceeded to add some Pizza fillings.
We included peppers, black olives, mushrooms, onions, pepperoni, pizza sauce, and cheese.
Once we rolled it up it became abundantly obvious this was gonna be one thick fattie.
Fortunately we had decided to use some thick cut bacon which proved to be very pliable for closing off any gaps that wanted to appear.
The final product looked pretty darn respectable and it was ready for the smoker!
Into the Master Forge it went as snow began to fly!
Prior to loading the smoker I had eased the temp in the MF up to about 230.
With the steel plates and insulation mods I've added to this thing it holds its temp like none other.
Smoking in the cold is a non-issue.
After about 2 1/2 to 3 hrs at 230-240 with full smoke, provided by my AMPTS, my IT temp hit about 165 and it was time to pull it.
(I used no water in the pan for this smoke.)
In order to get a nice color and to crisp up the bacon I had the broiler ready in the oven and we popped it in there for 5 minutes.
Ended up with a nice looking fattie, ready to cut into.
This is really when we noticed how thick the sausage layer was.
Taste was very good, but honestly I was a bit disappointed. I guess the chef can sometimes be the biggest critic
Everyone raved at how great it was but the consensus also was that the sausage layer was too thick and it woulda been nice to have more stuffing instead.
The pizza flavor was spectacular and the bacon accented it wonderfully.
Just wish there would have been a little more of the insides to enjoy with all that meat!
The good news is that I made up two batches of the sausage, and froze half of it.
As it turns out that means I've got enough saved to do TWO more fatties.
Can't wait for the weekend!
