XL Bacon Weave

[TxF]

I’ve got a rather large turkey breast that I was going to put a bacon weave on for Thanksgiving. Does anyone have a technique to make one larger than the pieces of bacon?

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

yep, put tin foil or parchment over your weave, then use a rolling pin and some pressure. Thicker cut bacon works best with this, the thin stuff will tear too easy if rolled in my experience.

[fracmeister]

yep, put tin foil or parchment over your weave, then use a rolling pin and some pressure. Thicker cut bacon works best with this, the thin stuff will tear too easy in my experience.

While this method will probably work there is definitely a weave method that covers more than the typical 6-8 slice wide square.

I do agree that thinner is better and you can almost certainly weave a traditional version that will cover a big breast. But if you must, the method requires a LOT of bacon and you essentially lay the initial (vertical, N-S) group with each slice (left to right) about 3 cm higher up than the one to its left. The with whole slices fill in the created vacancies till you have something about two bacon lengths wide and in the middle will be 2 bacon lengths tall. you then weave 2 bacon lengths (E-W slices) into this monstrosity and trim off the considerable excess to be used however. You now have a weave that is 4x the normal weave using about 5 lbs of bacon that you can cover dang near anything with. And of course it is better not to double up too much or the bacon doesnt cook through.

PRO TIP

I wind up doing this on occasion because I like to sous vide the bacon overnight at 160. The it is fully cooked, loses some fat and crisps easier.

it is a lot of trouble. Why not sous vide the breast and just sear it? The dang things are so lean that bacon doesnt (IMHO) do much. Injecting butter does help.

Best of luck.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

yeah I need to clarify above that you want it thin to cook, but thick if doing the rolling method. Gonna have to like for a video of this mega weave you speak of. Sounds like something I want to do once just to say I did, but wouldn't want to do more than once

[TxF]

It will be full of Jalapeño Butter, and probably have some brown sugar under the bacon. I used the spicy sweet rib rub on the test butterball a couple of weeks ago and it was wonderful, going to try and create the same thing with a fresh turkey breast this time.

[bbqLuv]

Talk to your butcher on slicing slab bacon.