Four Oinks Fatty - with pictures!

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

shyzabrau

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Mar 29, 2017
803
168
Troutville, Virginia
Well, folks, it is long past time for me to try my first fatty! So of course, I pick a day where I get home late from the airport to start...

Please join me on this journey!

I decided that pork sausage and bacon wasn't enough pork, so I decided to stuff the fatty with, among other things, andouille sausage and pulled pork! What would go well with that? How about red onion, roasted red pepper, avocado, sharp cheddar and cream cheese? I hope that will go well, because that is what I did. Here's how I got there...

I cut 1.25 pounds of pork off of a butt. All the other main ingredients were just randomly "measured" out. 


I actually used less cheddar than is shown and more bacon... As those of you with fatty experience might have guessed, I overstuffed...

I ran the butt meat through the grinder twice and seasoned it with salt (2%) and black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder (each 1%).

I rolled out the sausage in a gallon ziplock. (I love the suggestion to cut out the corners to give the air a place to escape - made it go quickly.)

I started with the red onions and roasted peppers.


Then a layer of avocado...


Then time for the pulled pork and andouille! I thought that the casings on the andouille might be a bit too tough in this application, so I roughly cubed them.


And finish it off with the cheese. I decided to cube the cream cheese for a more even distribution. Doubt that it matters, but... (I froze it slightly to make it easier to cut and handle.)


I realized, too late, that I didn't give enough margin for sealing. Before rolling, I did try to pull it in some, but it wasn't enough. When I rolled it up, I could barely close the seam, and I could not seal the ends. After I was done, I wish that I had wrapped the ends with a couple strips of bacon, just to hold in the stuffing.

I ended up using about 1.3 pounds of bacon. I may have overlapped more than I should have. Beginner's anxiety - I just wanted it to be long enough to make a tight wrap (in case the seam wasn't good enough.) I forgot to take a picture of the weave before rolling it up, but you get the idea...


The ends are sloppy. I realized that I didn't know what to do with the edge of the weave over the ends!

Here we are wrapped up before going into the fridge overnight. Turned out to be around 4.25 pounds!


I am thinking about smoking it with corn cob. Not sure about temperature yet. Got to consult the sticky...

I'll smoke some almonds while I'm smoking the fatty. Gotta have snacks for the pool party! Gotta get up early to start the smoke and brew a batch of beer before my friends come over (making a session-strength saison.)

Join me tomorrow for the smoke and, more importantly, the eating!
 
I am in. Sounds like it will be great.

I always over stuff.
 
I decided that I didn't want to let all the flavor that will be dripping out of the fatty go to waste, so I am going to put some beans under the fatty. I used roughly a cup each (dry) of black beans, pinto beans, and small red beans. Here they are rehydrating overnight.


I've never cooked beans in the smoker before. Do I have to cook them first to get them to the correct tenderness?
 
Fatty sounds amazing!!!! can't wait to see it sliced up. As for the beans I probably would cook them to almost done first. The fatty won't take all that long to cook, After the soak on them how is the tenderness on them? I love homemade beans...
 
I boiled the beans until they were nearly tender. I added: molasses, honey, apple cider vinegar, ketchup, andouille, my Southwestern sausage, a diced onion and a diced red bell pepper. I seasoned it with salt, pepper and cumin.

Here we are, ready to go in the smoker:

edited to include the ketchup...
 
Last edited:
 
Looking forward to seeing the finish of this!

Al
Nice Start !!
drool.gif


I'm with Al, over on the Bleachers!!!

popcorn.gif


Bear
 
Sorry for the delay, folks. There was a lot of beer consumed around the pool last night and posting pictures on the forum somehow got lost in the shuffle! I'm brewing beer again today and this is the first break that I had, so here we go!

As I mentioned, I used the opportunity provided by an empty rack in my smoker to smoke some almonds as well. I went simple this time - just sprayed them with water and sprinkled on some Kosher salt. (The water helps the salt stick - somewhat...)

They were excellent. Four hours of smoke (mix of corn cob and sugar maple, which burned much faster than I expected, so I finished with the Pitmasters Choice).


I smoked at 220 for two hours, but the IT of the fatty was climbing too slowly, so I bumped it up to 300.

The very center got to 170* F, so I pulled it and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Looks like I have some temperature variation in my cooking chamber! (I did rotate it once, but not during the hotter part of the cook.)



The bacon was still dripping fat, so I put the rack over the beans to capture any drippings during the rest...


Here it is sliced...


And plated with the beans and some pickled veggies that my friend made (green beans, carrots, sweet peppers and red onions).


Analysis: the fatty was excellent. My friends all agreed that we need to do it again. I could probably leave out the cream cheese - it was plenty oozy and gooey enough from the cheddar! The bacon was a bit too flabby where the weave overlapped (four layers!), but tasted great, so I have no real complaint there. Maybe if I pulled it a bit sooner, I could have put it under the broiler. I should've cut the andouille into bigger chunks to get a burst of flavor. More pulled pork would've been good as well...

The beans were really good, but a bit too al dente - I definitely want them fully cooked/tender before smoking.
 
Last edited:
I was worried about stuff oozing out of the ends since I didn't get a good seal with the sausage, but it stayed very tight - the ends of the bacon didn't even curl up. I guess the tight wrap in saran wrap overnight helped firm it all up...
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Clicky