OrangeCoat

Bacon Wrapped Cornwurst: An Experiment in Bacon, Brats, Beer, and Grease

Posted 1 year ago by Bear

This is the story of wrapping bratwursts in bacon, dipping them in corndog batter, and deep frying the entire wonderful mess. This is the story of a dream fulfilled.

A brief history

Six or so years ago at a Clemson tailgate I introduced the group to my idea of replacing the hotdog in a corndog with bratwurst. Mike New, your friend and mine, quickly moved this idea from good to genius by suggesting wrapping the entire thing in bacon before the deep fry. To this day I'm not sure if Mike New was making fun of my love of unhealthy foods or if he legitimately thought it was a good idea. Truthfully, it doesn't matter to me. I always take the idea of wrapping food in bacon seriously.1

This idea sat in my brain for six years. I mentioned it to friends. They laughed. I used it as a pickup line. I remained single. Finally, after six years of thinking and dreaming it was go time.

The ingredients:

• Bratwurst- I used three different types: Regular, Cheddar, and BBQ Chicken
• Corndog batter
• Bacon
• Beer
• Jalapenos
• Pickles (for a deep fried side dish)
• Potatoes (for another deep fried side dish)
• A bunch of once used peanut oil

Step one: Fry some potatoes

This helps put the friends involved at ease. It's like getting into a cold pool a toe at time. Everyone has eaten fried potatoes of some sort before. This helps condition folks to the extremes of deep frying that are coming soon.

If you are more of a jump into the deep end type of guy feel free to skip this step.

Step Two: Make the batter

I used this recipe. There are hundreds of similar recipes out there, go with one you feel will work. My batter was uber thick and I would have probably thinned it out a bit if it wasn't for the lone vegetarian of the group continually suggesting to thin out the batter. Basically, I kept the batter thick out of spite. The batter worked fine.

Step Three: Parboil the brats in beer

The cheddarwurst were pre-cooked and didn't need this step. The other two wurst needed as much cooking as possible before the deep fry so I boiled the brats in beer (picture of the boil). The beer used for boiling was Miller Lite. The good beers were saved for dinner.

Step Four: Impale the brats, wrap with bacon, and bake on high

As the brats need a little pre-cooking so does the bacon. This will take longer than you could possibly imagine. You are almost at the deep frying step and all you want to do is take your bacon wrapped brats out of the oven and deep fry the bastards. Patience, walk away, drink beer, talk about none bacon wrapped topics. The longer you wait the better.(2)

Step Five: Dip in batter and deep fry

How long do you deep fry? Until they are done. Not a minute longer

The Verdict

Overload. A bacon wrapped cornwurst is a lot of food and almost too much for the mind, tongue, and stomach to fully grasp. They were tasty, but not wonderful. (3)

This is the lukewarm type review that ruins even the greatest of experiments. When experimenting, it's certainly better to fail or succeed in fantastic format. We did neither. If I were to do this again I'd use a sweeter batter recipe to fight the salt of the bacon and I'd cook the bacon in the oven longer. I'd also make the cornwurst bite size so it's not such a daunting task to eat one.

Footnotes

1. I'm pretty sure Mike New was serious in his suggestion. I just really wanted to write the line "I always take the idea of wrapping food in bacon seriously." (Back)
1. It took all my will not make that line "I'm serious as a heart attack when it comes to wrapping foods in bacon."
1. I didn't use that line because I felt it cheapened my true love of wrapping foods in bacon. Seriously.
2. But don't wait too long and burn the bacon.(Back)
3. Nathanial Lord ate one and one-half bacon wrapped cornwurst. It is a record that remains to this day.(Back)
1. Of this posting, Nathanial Lord is still alive and well.

PS's, notes, FAQ's and various other sundries

• The jalapenos were not mentioned in the recipe. They were dropped in the batter after half the wurst were dipped. It was good.
• The deep fried pickles were a hit. A lighter fare for sure.
• Yes, I said pickles battered in corndog batter and deep fried was lighter fare
• There's a deep debate between fried pickle fans. Some like pickles in chip form and others pickles in spear form. I side with the spear folks.
• Yesterday, my sister Katy chided me for not eating well. I imagine this blog post will not make her happy.
• Here are some more pictures

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