Atomic Buffalo Turds! Or as they are commonly referred to ABTs are one of the first BBQ appetizers I fell in love with.  These babies are packed full of flavor and are always a huge crowd pleaser whenever they are served. There are a variety of different ways to make ABTs.  Sometimes using jalapeno “boats” and other times standing up on end.

No matter how they are made there are usually three standard ingredients.  Jalapeno, bacon and some type of cheese.  I think cream cheese is the most popular to use, but any type can be used. Besides the bacon there is often another meat used.  I like to use “lil smokies” because they add a great flavor and provide a little texture to the ABT.

Here’s a step by step instruction on how I make my Atomic Buffalo Turds:

It’s a good practice to use rubber gloves during most of these processes. You don’t want to get the capsaicin on your hands, trust me on this one.  I’ve made the mistake, too many times, of thinking I could do this part and not end up burning some part of my body.  (Left) Wash the jalapenos and then cut them in half length wise.  Remove the seeds and veins.  I use an old fashion  potato peeler to scrap the insides out of the jalapenos. (Right) Fill the jalapeno cavity with cream cheese.

(Left) Next, give the cream cheese a good dash of your favorite BBQ rub.  (Right) Take some lil smokies and cut them in half.  Add a piece of sausage to each jalapeno.  You can use a whole sausage if you want, but I find a half piece is enough.

(Left) Wrap each ABT in half a slice of bacon.  You can use thick bacon if you want, but I think the thin sliced works the best.  Secure the bacon with a toothpick. (Right) Another dash of the BBQ rub goes on next.  Now you’re ready to put them on the smoker.

I prefer to smoke my ABTs at 225 degrees until the bacon is almost done and then crank the heat up to about 300 degrees until the bacon gets good and crisp.  No sauce is necessary but I like to serve my ABTs with a little additional hot sauce or BBQ sauce for dipping if someone wants a little additional flavor.

You don’t need a smoker to make great Atomic Buffalo Turds.  Just set your gas or charcoal grill up with indirect heat.  The bacon and sausage is going to drip so make sure they aren’t directly over the heat source and you’ll be just time.

NOTE:  If you don’t like the heat jalapenos normally have here is a tip on how to tame them.

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Sometimes a great deal of thought has to go into these bacon experiments.  My original idea was to wrap them like a MOINK Ball and use large bamboo skewers to hold them all together.  But after actually holding a Peep in my hand I realized the skewer thought probably wasn’t such a good idea.  Marshmallows melt at about 113 degrees so it was important to wrap the Peeps tightly so when the Peep expands it didn’t just ooze out all over my grates.

I decided the best way to accomplish the task was to employ the same technique I use on wrapping ABTs.  With ABTs it’s important to get a good wrap so as little of the cream cheese leaks out doing cooking.  I got the temperature down as low as I could get it and still have the bacon cook.  As the sugar melted it did ooze a little but I managed to avoid a full scale goop explosion.  The bacon never actually got crisp.  I don’t think it would have been possible to get crisp bacon.  What with slowly rendering bacon fat and the sugar from the Peep it just wasn’t going to happen.

So, how did it taste?  Actually not all that bad.  Marshmallows are sugar.  In a nutshell that makes Peeps sugar, covered with colored sugar.  Doesn’t get any sweeter than that.  The sweetness combined with the saltiness of the bacon made for a nice little bite.  Would I make them again?  Probably not.  But if I were I think I’d take the hot, cooked bacon wrapped Peep and slide it one a graham cracker with a little chocolate bar for what would turn into an awesome Bacon S’more

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Larry Gaian

No!

And make that a resounding no!

Today I dispelled the notion that bacon makes everything taste better.  It didn’t work with chicken liver.  I used bacon, a really good rub (I won’t embarrass the maker…) and a good sauce. When the first thing you want to do after taking a bite is brush your teeth, you’ve not cooked something good.

The saltiness of the bacon and sweetness of the sauce was wonderful on the front of the tongue, but the taste of the chicken livers quickly overpowered all the goodness.

I’m off to gargle with hot sauce or something…

I’ve got to admit that I’m already a brussels sprouts fan.  If cooked right this is one of my favorite vegetables so I was pretty sure adding bacon would make it taste pretty good.  I was right…

Brussels Sprouts can have a bitter after taste if not selected and prepared properly.  There are several methods for removing the bitterness.  First, select the smallest sprouts you can find.  It seems the smaller the sprout the less bitterness.  Next trim off the hard bottom of the sprout and remove the first layer of leaves.  Next par-boil the sprouts for a couple of minutes in salted water. Don’t cook them all the way.  Just a couple of minutes will do the trick.  Plunge them into ice water to stop t he cooking.  The par-boil and ice water bath will also help them maintain their bright green color.  Using these methods has never failed me.  I never end up with bitter sprouts.

I wrapped each of the Brussels Sprouts in a half strip of thin sliced bacon and put them on skewers to make grilling easier.  I set up my Weber kettle for indirect heat and cooked the sprouts until they were almost done.  You want the sprouts tender, but not mushy so watch them.  Once they are done I gave them a flash over direct heat to crisp up the bacon.

While the sprouts were cooking I reduced 1/4  cup of raspberry balsamic vinegar down to about two tablespoons of thick tasty syrup.  I added two tablespoons of butter to the syrup and heated it through.  When the sprouts were plated I spooned the balsamic reduction over the top.

The bacon was good on the Brussels Sprouts but it was a little overpowering.  I know I’ll make these again, but next time I’ll just stick a piece of thick sliced bacon between each sprout on the skewer.  This will give me the flavor without it being overpowering.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Larry Gaian

In our first installment of “Does Bacon Rally Make Everything Taste Better”  we’re going with something basic.  Saltines!

I was scrolling through Facebook the other day when I came across a picture of a bacon wrapped saltines on the page of Chef Barry Martin.  It seems Barry had written this strange food item up on Char-Broil’s website.  I’m afraid I didn’t read all that much of the article because I didn’t want to get to many ideas on how to do this.  It only took a couple of minutes to decide this would be the first installment of D.B.R.M.E.T.B.  For more details on how this appetizer/snack came about check out the link to Char-Broil’s website.

Making bacon wrapped saltines is about as easy as it gets.  Barry’s version uses thin sliced bacon but since I only had thick sliced I went a head and used it.  Take a half slice of bacon and wrap it around a cracker.  I “rubbed” my version with Simply Marvelous Cherry rub and cooked them for about 20 minutes using high heat (about 400 degrees) on my Weber kettle with indirect heat.

When the bacon was at the point of perfect crispy goodness I lightly sauced the bacon with a sweet BBQ sauce.  I was surprised that the saltines did not turn into a soggy mess.  Instead I was left with a nice crispy, somewhat fried” cracker that tasted fantastic with the bacon.

I’m actually going to probably make these again.  They are a great little bite and a good conversation piece.  Changes for next time would include more spice/heat when rubbing maybe even a piece of jalapeno under the bacon.

Does Bacon make saltines better?  Yes!

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I was an early adopter of Bacon Salt and have sung it’s praises ever since the first time I sprinkled it on my eggs one morning.  A few years later along came Baconnaise, a tasty mixture of bacon and mayonnaise.  I’ve been a devoted user ever since.  So when Justin Esch emailed me recently to ask if I wanted to try Bacon Croutons I said yes.  Even before they arrived I started to think about how I was going to use them.  Croutons are normally found on salads.  But it wasn’t likely that I was going to waste the goodness of bacon on a salad.  I had to come up with something more exciting than lettuce.

Over on Pork, Knife and Spoon I have been working on a series of blog posts on pork ribs.  I had some rib trimmings left over and it occurred to me that a Pulled Pork Cake, much along the lines of a crab cake could be a beautiful and tasty creation.  Usually I start my recipe development with a bit of internet and cookbook research.  My search for “pork cakes” lead to very little information but it did lead me to an actual pork cake.   I figured the best way to do a pulled pork cake was to make them as similar to a crab cake as possible.

I made up the pulled pork cakes, following the recipe below, and as I was getting ready to pan fry them the bag of J&D Bacon Croutons were staring across the kitchen counter at me.  It’s almost as if they were speaking to me.  It was in that brief moment that inspiration struck.  I decided to crush the Bacon Croutons and use them to bread the pulled pork cakes.  It’s not the first time I’ve had inspiration in the kitchen, but rarely does that inspiration come out as good as this one did.  The combination of the pulled pork, seasoning and bacon created a fantastic flavor profile.  I’m going to be making these pulled pork cakes when I have left over pulled pork.

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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011-2012 Larry Gaian

I know World MOINK Ball Day is all about the balls but I had to post a picture of how Pascal set up his kettle grill for indirect cooking.  This is an excellent technique for people who want to give their meats a little smoke but don’t have a traditional smoker.

And the MOINK Balls look fantastic also!

And now a few entries from the United States:

This entry from Ric made me so jealous.  Not only does he show great technique with the MOINKs on Skewers but the view from his deck is simply amazing.  What a great day this must have been.

Mike uses the colored toothpick technique to jazz up his MOINK Ball entry.  Check out the nice glaze on his balls, that’s something to be proud of.

Check out this mound of  MOINK Balls from Richard.  And his method of serving them is spot on.  A big pile of sauced MOINK Balls in an aluminum tray captures the simplicity of what a MOINK Ball is!  Great job…

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Marc shows off his MOINK Ball results after his helper did all the hard work.  Nice job!  Marc, can I get some pictures of the outdoor fireplace behind you?

Okay, the MOINK Balls from Kees in the Netherlands look fantastic, but I’ve got to admit this picture of his mobile pit has me curious about how it all works.

Another great contribution Netherland’s contribution from Ewald.  His MOINK Balls came complete with a custom made flag!

Here’s another set of pictures that made me jealous.  Dirk was enjoying the warm weather while grilling his MOINK Balls.  Nicer weather in the Netherlands than Northern California on World MOINK Balls Day.

Bernd uses the classic Netherland’s indirect heat method to cook his MOINK Balls.  Someday I’m going to get my hands on some of the bacon they use.  Love the look of it on the MOINK Balls!

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Larry Gaian

There are a variety of “popper” holders available on the internet for purchase.  I’ve got all kinds of BBQ tools and I’m not always hesitant to buy what I need in the accessory department.  But for some reason I just can’t bring myself to spend the money for what is basically a sheet of metal with holes cut in it.

Recently, I saw a post on the BBQ Brethren that showed a simple and inexpensive way to hold your jalapenos while they are cooking…a egg carton.  This post led me to an article in the in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel where I learned the original idea seems to have originated with Arlie Davis.

Making ABTs is very simple and you’ve got to give them a try.  With Spring and Summer right around the corner these need to be on your “to do” list.  All you need are some jalapenos, cream cheese, random fillings, bacon, toothpicks and some kind of holder for your grill/smoker.

So the process to make ABTs is so, so simple…

All you need are some jalapenos, cream cheese, bacon and some kind of meat to mix into the cream cheese.  There’s a variety of different things that can be mixed into the cheese.  I’ve used Lil Smokeys but this time I used some of the Tasso I smoked a couple of weeks ago.

(NOTE:  If  you love jalapenos but can’t stand the heat here’s a tip on how to tame them.  Click here)

So the first step is to cut the tops off the jalapenos.  Make sure you wear rubber gloves and glasses when cooking with jalapenos.  Some misplaced jalapeno juice can cause a lot of pain if you get it somewhere it shouldn’t.

The next step is to remove the insides of the jalapenos.  Taking out the seeds and veins not only makes room for the fillings, but it removes the part that contains a lot of the heat.  (If you want to have completely tamed jalapenos try this technique I wrote about last year.)  The next step is to mix the meat into the softened cream cheese.

Now comes the fun part.  Take your egg carton and turn it upside down.  Remove the bottoms of each cup.  This will hold jalapenos of any size.

Fill the jalapenos with the cream cheese mixture, top the jalapeno with bacon and secure it with a toothpick.

Place the “carton” of ABTs in your smoker.  I smoke mine at 225 degrees for about an hour or until the bacon gets crisp.

You can do these on a grill but make sure you use indirect heat.  The reason using a cardboard egg carton works is because you are not putting these over a direct flame or direct heat.

DO NOT place the cardboard egg carton over direct heat.  The cardboard absorbs the bacon drippings and will make the egg carton very flammable.

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I stopped at The Fatted Calf yesterday on my way through Napa to pick up a little bacon.  The Fatted Calf produces some of the most amazing cured meat products in Northern California.  Their slab bacon is simply…amazing.

I sliced off a little bacon to just cover the bread.

I used the Char-Broil RED to cook the bacon.

When it was all done I added some mashed up avocado, some heirloom tomatoes and lettuce.  A little slather of mayo made this a nice little sandwich for my entry in the Bacon Throwdown.  I’m not sure if my sensible little B.A.L.T. will be good enough to win, but it sure did taste good.  (No I didn’t eat the whole thing…in one sitting.)