Sunday, February 01, 2009

The Bacon Explosion is a 20 megaton culinary atrocity

I figure that if you can't beat them, at least try their recipe. So for Super Bowl Sunday I decided to try the Bacon Explosion recipe myself.

I meticulously followed the online instructions. However, I will not reveal the identity of the widely used competition rub and sauce that I used. I don't want a defamation suit from associating those fine products with the monstrosity that results from this recipe.

What? Someone dares to criticize the renowned Bacon Explosion? Yup, get over the hype and consider what's in it.

First the choice of ingredients: Italian sausage, smoked bacon, barbecue sauce & rub, enhanced with the flavor of hickory smoke. On what planet are those combined into a recipe? Nowhere in Italian cooking will you find American bacon and Italian sausage combined, or God forbid hickory smoke applied to the sausage. That is not by accident.

The barbecue sauce does work well with the smoky bacon, but it has a conflicting flavor profile with the Italian sausage. Maybe kielbasa or andouille would work, but Italian sausage in this combination is a gross culinary mistake. The salt in the barbecue rub that I applied also made the bacon overwhelmingly salty.

The next problem with the recipe is the concept of putting "crispy" bacon in the middle of sausage and covering it with barbecue sauce. Soaking "crispy" bacon in liquid and then stewing it in rendered pork fat for 2-1/2 hours results in mushy bacon. That is an abuse of bacon in my opinion.

But more significantly, the bacon in the weave does not completely cook. If you look closely at the picture on the left, all of the bacon beneath the outermost weave is uncooked. This layer of raw bacon is absolutely disgusting. That is an advantage of the Redneck Sushi technique of precooking the bacon weave - all of your bacon is cooked.

Overall the Bacon Explosion is a culinary atrocity. The flavor combination and bacon texture are awful. Aaron and Jason are master marketers and came up with a first class way to cash in on the current bacon craze. But their recipe sucks.

The Bacon Explosion is a Crime Against Humanity.
I hereby renounce any previous claims or innuendo that the BBQ Addicts copied my Redneck Sushi recipe in creating the Bacon Explosion. I would not want that stain on my culinary reputation. The blame belongs solely with Aaron and Jason.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

so I shouldnt try it? :P

Henry North London 2.0 said...

The moment I can get some bacon and some decent sausage meat from my friends who own pigs Im making this culinary treat

Headless Blogger said...

If you think I am critical, you should have heard my wife.

Anonymous said...

I too fell for the Bacon Explosion and found it fell way short of the hype. The Italian sausage just didn't work for me. I did make my log of sausage big enough that the bacon shell seam didn't overlap therefore it cooked adequately. This weekend I'm going to make a bbq bacon cheeseburger version of this concept.

Headless Blogger said...

n0m4d - Did you see my bacon cheeseburger roll? Let me know how your version turns out.

http://headlessblogger.blogspot.com/2008/12/redneck-sushi-boldly-going-where-no.html

Anonymous said...

On Super Bowl Sunday, I made the Bacon Explosion with the help of my two youngest children. It was a great experience in the kitchen, showing them how to weave, cooking and straining off the fat for the bacon that goes on top of the sausage, and the use of freezer paper to assist in rolling the weave together and showing them how to be careful when dealing with raw pork. We cooked it for three hours, checking every thirty minutes for grease splattering. It filled the house with a wonderful aroma and it finished just before 6pm. We let it rest for 30 minutes and served everyone. My children didn't get to enjoy the sandwiches I made from the recipe, but they sure enjoyed the smiles and laughs we created by making the Bacon Explosion. I am bringing in tomatoes, whole wheat bread and romaine lettuce to work tomorrow to enjoy what a coworker termed as a new sandwich....The BELT sandwich (Bacon Explosion, Lettuce and Tomato). You may need a bigger belt after having a couple of these Giddy Up sandwiches, but they're worth it. Thanks for the recipe and the idea for another fun activity in the kitchen with my children. Thanks again....

Anonymous said...

Cashed in on the "current bacon craze" ? What? really? Bacon has always had its fan but there's now "new" craze. They were good at marketing whether you like the bacon explosion or not.

Anonymous said...

sounds like a little too much sour grapes to me....

Headless Blogger said...

Anon - Sorry, but the term is good taste, not sour grapes.

I am not alone, this thing is pretty close to universally despised on a popular barbecue message board.