For those of you who did not make it down to the mini microbrew fest at the downtown Hot Shots, you missed out on this incredible treat. Another in a long list of Arthur Aguirre’s great recipes. We’ve already had multiple requests for the recipe, so I’m fast tracking this one ahead of a beef tenderloin I was a huge slacker in getting up since it was cooked on Christmas Eve 2010. I’ll hand it over to Arthur now…
Almost a year after I debuted as the first guest Grillin Fool, on April 2nd this partnership was taken to another level. Scott “The Original GrillinFool” asked me to assist with a Hot Shot’s event in downtown St. Louis on opening weekend for the Cardinal baseball season. I’ve never done an event like this, but before I had time to process his invitation, he gave me the rundown of the planned event:
Cook and serve BBQ to Hot Shots guests
Sample some new local brew
Hang out with the Hot Shot girls
See Woody from 105.7 The Point
Schmooze with Cardinal fans
How could I say no? Before I agreed, I had already blacked out that date from my calendar and immediately started brainstorming ideas for the BBQ. Then I told Scott calmly, ‘Cool, I’m in”, while in my head I was doing cartwheels.
***Editor’s Note ~ Click here for more info about the event which includes links to two different photo galleries from the event that include a total of more than 70 pictures***
I volunteered to make 4 fatties, because they are easy to prepare and always a crowd pleaser. However, in true Grillin Fool fashion, I wanted to kick it up a notch. I ignored making any fatty that has been done on this site, including the local sensation, Slinger Fatty. Instead, I have seen that some folks were making fatties stuffed with pancakes. I knew instantly that this is something I had to do for the event.
Blueberry Muffin Stuffed Fatty
Ingredients:
1 – 7 oz box Jiffy blueberry muffin mix
1 – 16 oz roll of Jimmy Dean regular pork sausage
maple syrup
-Makes (1) fatty
-Total prep and cook time: 2hr 30min to 3hrs
The fatty was prepared 2 different ways: 1) using a fatty piston. 2) Rolling by hand. We’ll start with the fatty piston method first.
The fatty piston is a device that is made out of PVC pipe materials. It’s cut to length and comes with a push rod, hence, using it like a piston.
I bought it for $10 with the proceeds going to a good cause, but you can certainly make one yourself without the piston, but the piston makes it easier to work with.
Instructions:
1. Bake muffin mix according to directions on the box. Let it cool down.
This much took an hour to bake for (4) fatties.
Just reach in and set some aside.
2. Prepare the muffin stuffing.
a. Hold the PVC pipe upright on top of a sheet of plastic wrap (large enough to wrap the pipe)
b. Start stuffing small chunks of blueberry muffin into the pipe while intermittently adding syrup between chunks.
c. Use the push rod to compact the muffin and syrup.
d. When the pipe is full, wrap the plastic wrap around it
e. Place the stuffed pipe in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.
Here is the blueberry stuffing after sitting in the freezer and pushed out of the pipe. As you can see, the frozen syrup is holding everything together.
3. Flatten the sausage to a ¼ inch thickness.
Before
After
4. Place the muffin on top of the sausage and roll it into a shape of a tube.
5. These fatties were smoked at the Hot Shots event and as a result, I didn’t take any good pictures of the final product due to all the work and a little revelry. However, I do know we cooked them on the grill with indirect heat at 300 degrees for 2 hours with apricot wood. In addition, a generous coating of Scott’s pumpkin spice rub was applied too. You can use your own favorite rub for this.
Here they are right after we put them on the grill with some baloney bites.
Here they are almost done.
I’m in the zone.
Since many folks don’t have a fatty piston, here are directions for doing it by hand:
Instructions:
1. Same as Step 1 above.
2. Same as Step 3 above.
3. Place chunks of muffin (approx. 2 cups) on top of the sausage.
4. Drizzle the syrup over the muffin chunks.
5. Roll the sausage into a shape of a tube. This is a bit harder without the fatty piston.
First, fold it over.
Second, overlap the ends and smooth the seams by massaging the sausage and eliminating any cracks or crevices as the fatty will split at any of them. Make sure to distribute the sausage evenly so it cooks evenly.
6. I made the pumpkin spice rub and applied it to the fatty.
You can find the pumpkin spice rub ingredients here.
7. My grill was prepared for an indirect heat setup on the Grill Manufacturer That Shall Not Be Named. I used only about 1/3 chimney of charcoal.
Next, I dumped the hot coals in the kettle banked to one side. I added a few fresh briquettes and a couple chunks of peach wood.
After that, the fatty is placed on the grill grate opposite from the heat.
Put the lid on with the vents over the top of the fatty, opposite from the heat. This is so the smoke travels over sausage and out the vents. Also, I initially had the vents wide open…I think closing them halfway is what I should have done.
When 30 minutes passed, the temp had reached close to 400 degrees (always keep an eye out for runaway temps, no charcoal grill is a “set it and forget it” cooker.)
I closed the top vents halfway and the temps eventually dropped to 325.
An hour passed and the fatty is done thanks to the early blast of heat.
The fatty rests in a foil tent for 15 minutes or until it cools down enough to handle.
And finally, the money shot…
Close up.
My thoughts: The fatty piston is the easy way to make fatties, however, the trade off is more steps and more time involved. Another positive is that the fatty doesn’t lose its round shape, as a result, it makes for great presentation. Without the fatty piston, it flattens a bit into an oval shape. Obviously, there is no difference in taste, they were both delicioso!
Notes:
1. Using plastic wrap on the prep area works best for making fatties.
2. Make sure to massage your sausage to cover up any creases or crevasses so the fatty doesn’t split open.
3. The longer the sausage sits at room temp, the harder it is to work with.
4. Firm it up by partially freezing the fatty before smoking it.
5. Use fruit wood such as apple, cherry, apricot or peach for smoke.
Lot’s of folks raved about the blueberry fatty at Hot Shots. There was even a guy that heard Woody on the radio mention the “blueberry muffin wrapped in sausage” and he stopped by the party to try it…unfortunately, “we ran out”, I told him. Instead, I hooked him up with a KC Sweet and Smokey rib and baloney bites.
I’m sure glad everybody at Hot Shots liked the blueberry muffin stuffed fatty because I told Scott that I taste tested it before the event…I lied.
***Editor’s Note ~ I’m sure glad too. Sure glad we didn’t find out the hard way they sucked, being in front of a crowd of people. But they were fantastic, and I don’t like blueberries, if that is any indication of how good they were***
A shot for me and the crew after the event was over and we had everything loaded up.
