Bacon Explosion Meatloaf- yet another post unsuitable for vegetarians!

Sometime around Superbowl Sunday, I saw news coverage of a culinary delight called the Bacon Explosion. This smoked sausage "fatty" was developed by a couple of Kansas City BBQ competitors, and as it's name suggests, consists of bacon, pork sausage and more bacon. I was intrigued, and sort of grossed out. I did some research and emailed the information to my husband, sons and one of my sisters.

The response from male family members was positive, from my sister, (a vegetarian) not so much. I believe the phrase "makes me want to puke" came up. However, despite the negative review from my sister, I knew I was going to have to make one of those.

I can never make anything as the recipe suggests. I love meatloaf sandwiches, and I decided this meat structure would work better for us as a meatloaf. I also hoped that the addition of beef and lamb would reduce the overall fattiness, especially since the meat we use is very lean.

I used 1 pound each ground lamb, pork sausage (around here, sausage is seasoned with salt and pepper and nothing else) and beef, plus 1 red onion, chopped coarsely. I seasoned with salt and pepper.

We wove a mat from 25 thick cut bacon slices. We worked on a sheet of wax paper.


Once the mat was woven, we spread the meatloaf mixture over it, and sprinkled some crispy fried bacon over the top.



We rolled the sausage up into a cylinder, and then wrapped the bacon mat around it. We did have to add a few bacon splices to some that didn't fit quite right.



We thought it looked great!


Chuck had started the charcoal earlier, and the smoker temperature was up to about 275 degrees. The meatloaf went in, with some hickory chips for flavor.



Stupidly, we didn't write down how long we cooked it- it was several hours. Probably 4. Neither do we remember the internal temp. But it was lovely and crispy on the outside.

I was hoping for more of a smoke ring, but it was delicious anyway.
We sliced it thin once it cooled a bit, and had meatloaf sandwiches with Gates and Sons barbecue sauce for lunch all week. There are a lot of good commercial sauces in Kansas City; Gates is what I grew up on and still my favorite.

Apparently the Bacon Explosion caught the imaginations of many- Google gave up lots of sites when I was searching. Here are just a few--

Here is a link to the creators of the Bacon Explosion and here is a news clip about it.

Here's another Youtube video about Bacon Explosions


And here is a different link.

Finally, for those vegetarians who want to emulate the meat eaters, here is a video making a Facon Explosion- with facon and fauxsage. Yum!The video has no sound between 2:51 and 3:41.