Tried my first fattie

Well, they are definitely challenging at first, so don't feel like it's just you!

I might be wrong, but it sounds like you were rolling up the fatty itself, and the weave, at the same time.  If so, that's one thing that's easy to fix.

You can prepare your weave ahead of time, assembling it on plastic wrap.  Set it aside.  Important:  have extra bacon slices on hand to patch or complete your weave when it comes time to wrap the fatty.  It's always good to buy an extra pakage of bacon.  If you don't use it for fatty repair. you can use it for ABTs.

Usually the preferred bacon for the weave is the cheap, thin stuff.  It's good if it's a little stretchy!  I always pre-stretch my weave a little because I know it's barely going to contain the mammoth fatties I turn out.  The first time I made a fatty weave it was with thick cut bacon from the butcher.  It was what I had on hand and I didn't want to buy another pound when I had a pound already in the fridge.  Big mistake!  No stretch, so it was difficult to weave with and made a small weave, PLUS it doesn't cook through during the smoking process, so you end up with what looks like uncooked bacon wrapping your fatty.

Then when it comes to rolling up the fattie, try making your first ones with less rather than more filling.  The temptation is to load them up.  The more you put in there, the more difficult it is to roll up, and the greater the chance you'll have major leakage while it cooks.  It's a good idea to leave an inch or so on both ends without filling so the sausage can stick to itself as you roll it up.

Also, it's a good idea to start with at least a pound and three-quarters of sausage, if not closer to two pounds.  If you are rolling it out in a 1 gallon bag you can roll it out even a bit longer once you cut open the bag.  You want a nice long stretch of sausage rolled out so  when you roll it up the outermost layer is completely sealed.  And it has to be sufficiently thick so that the filling doesn't poke through.  I try to roll it so the interior end is thinner and the outside is thicker.

As you roll it up you have to sort of manage to tuck in the ends as you go.  If your filling is immediately trying to get out, and there's no way to roll it up, take out some filling.  Even if you only end up with half of what you wanted in there it's going to be incredibly delicious.  Plus you'll feel more accomplished just getting one done with all the innards intact.  

When you have the fatty rolled up and the edge and ends sealed, then you pick it up and sit it on one end of the weave.  then you can use the plastic wrap to lift up the weave and drape it over the fatty.  You can peel back the plastic wrap and tuck in the weave around the ends, and adding another strip if needed to cover a bare spot.  I usually try to push the fatty over so the seam is under the fatty.

When the weave is in place, the whole shebang should now still be sitting on the plastic wrap.  You can use the wrap to sort of squeeze the fattie into shape.  I don't usually bother with this step.  Once I have it in the weave and it's secure, I'm taking it to the smoker.

After you do a couple it gets a LOT easier, then you can start loading up the fillings!  Just make it easy on yourself in the beginning!

BTW, and I hope I'm not wrong on this point, but I think 165 is the target temp for fatties.

I hope this helps!

Next time post the pix anyway!  It's a lot easier to help if we can actually see what went wrong!

Good luck!

 

the above is all very good advice.  he is a sticky on fatties and weaves.  hang in there, they are too good not to smoke.  and yes on the 165

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/87031/rollin-a-fatty-my-version

 

I've used Costco and Farmland (thin-sliced) bacon on my fatties.  No problems, but the costco bacon is just a bit shorter in length than other brands, when I needed it a bit bigger - just added what I needed, like wntrlnd said. I just use a pound, maybe 1.25# of meat in mine. Wntrlnd gave you all the important tips, and if you have time to let it chill in the fridge between each stage it can help. There's LOTS of good fattie qview to help you out here, and some good ones on youtube, too. I did a little q-view in my fattie quartet that shows some different amounts of bacon in the weave.  Have Fun!!

 

In case you have not discovered it yet at the top of the page is a white bar called search - just type in fattie and you will be amazed at the amount of info there is for you on this one item alone

Good luck

 

Takes a few times to get the knack of rolling a fattie without making a mess.  I built a fatty piston which makes rolling fatties waaaayyyy easier!  A bit of refrigeration on the sausage square makes a huge difference as well.  165* is the target temp of these!   Cheers!

 

Now if you like the fattie you need to make a few more. Then when you do look at that threat that Road King posted and it is one of the best tutorials that I have ever seen on the fattie. Then you need to submit your fattie to the throwdown this month and you never know.

 

Good advice indeed,

I have the same problem when doing fatties that have no sausage, just did a few and had a heck of a time getting an overlap.

Thick bacon is a pain, but a workaround is you can stretch the bacon out with your fingertips and spread outwards firmly, or make the weave and roll out with a rolling pin.

Sometimes thin bacon is a pain as well...you can never get those straight cuts and they seem to fall apart.

Pinning up with toothpicks helps and what I have been doing is position the Fattie seam side up on foil and roll off the foil onto the smoker so the seam side is down.

If you are really stuffed you can wrap tightly in foil and place in the smoker still wrapped in foil seam side down for a while until you can safely roll it onto the smoker.

I have had no problems with "Store bought thick bacon" cooking up nicely, I have never used butcher cut thick bacon.

If you are using ingredients that are sliced you can bring them up to room temperature, like thick cuts of cheese, this will make them more pliable for rolling.

Ingredients that are sauted are not as firm as raw ingredients such as Peppers and onions and will roll up nicely.

It all comes with experience and the individual taste of the Fattie cook.

I would say you had a successful Fattie smoke because the bottom line is how good it tastes not how pretty it is.