Deep-Fried Bacon Explosion

A new food called the bacon explosion made headlines last year, even drawing attention in the New York Times. At first it was just a curiosity that adventurous eaters made for themselves, but like most revolutionary ideas, it was eventually mass produced and made available to the public. This Web site has a step-by-step description on how one is made, and it offers three versions for sale. I bought the one with cheese inside for me and gave another as a gift (they come pre-cooked and sealed in plastic wrap). It comes in a loaf, and can be cooked whole or in slices.

On this particular day, I wasn't up for eating several pounds of meat and cheese, so I cut three slices of it to deep fry. You can't see it well in the cross sections below, but looking very closely, you'd see a spiral of rolled up bacon, Italian sausage, and American cheese. I cooked it thoroughly in an oven first. . .Then I added a beer batter and deep fried it for a couple minutes.
This thing was unbelievably greasy — although I guess that is to be expected when you are cooking a giant ball of pork and cheese. It's greasy even when you aren't deep frying it, but deep-fried, it was especially a lot to handle. This is one of those foods that you really feel unhealthy after eating. I had to lie down on the couch and give myself a while to recover afterwards.
I didn't particularly like the beer batter I used. It was the same recipe I used before on bluefish. I think I should have left the beer open to get a little flatter, and I think I'm also supposed to let the whole mixture sit for a while, and I'm usually too impatient to do that. I really liked the beer batter I used to fry avocados, but making that was a very labor and time-intensive effort.

The best part of deep frying the Bacon Exlosion was simply adding something to it that wasn't additional meat or cheese. (It's hard to believe I'm writing this.) The batter just added another taste, as did the generous amount of barbeque sauce I added. That really helped dilute what otherwise felt like a major overload of pork.

Overall, this was good, but I can't imagine anyone making a habit of eating these. I'd recommend only partaking in this when celebrating special occasions, such as weddings, bar mitzvahs, or successful bypass surgeries.