Smoked Fatty

What better name for a BBQ classic? I guess ATBs are up there in contention but lets stick to the legend that is the fatty.

What is a fatty? It’s really a bacon wrapped meatloaf extraordinaire. A bacon lattice encasing a layer of ground meat and wrapped around a filling of special things and more meat.

The potential is vast. Think about the cheese burger. The philliy cheese steak. Chicken fajitas. Christmas turkey…

I’ve gone for the Jalapeno cheese burger inspiration here.

1st the lattice. Take a pack of bacon lay down one rasher on a piece of foil or wrap. Then keep weaving them in and out until you have a lattice as below.

Using a ground beef mix (this was only 12% fat so I added some sausage meat) with your flavouring of choice. I had a jalapeno burger mix which I added. This is speread thinly over the bacon. On top of this a layer of fried onions and green bell pepper (with a bit of left over bacon). On top of this a handful of mozzarella. Another layer of meat and cheese with pickled jalapenos in the middle.

Then its time to roll it up. Just like rolling a burrito; roll it, tip it over and sqeeze it in towards the middle. The ends of the bacon are pushed in and you should have a tight roll with the bacon lattice looking good.

Take a length of butchers string and tie things in place to prevent unravelling whilst cooking. If you can loop it around the ends.

Put onto a baking tray and into the smoker (or oven) for 2-3 hours at 225-250F. Its difficult to get this wrong. If you feel extravagent baste and mop with a glaze of sweet chilli and garlic or a mop of your choice for the last half hour.

Serve sliced across the layers juicy and oozing out.

You can serve on a bun just like a burger but careful – that would be fattening!