The Swineapple

Happy Bacon Week 2015 everyone!  I’ve been going bacon crazy over the weekend and have so much cool stuff to share with you!  Don’t forget to follow me on instagram (@gusfacegrillah) for loads of sneak peeks at what is in store!

One of the best things about being Gusface Grillah is that people are always sending me links to amazing recipes and ideas they think I might like.  A good ninety percent of those involve wrapping something in bacon and I am absolutely okay with those statistics.

In addition to this I also love a good pun, so when I came across the Swineapple it was love at first sight and I knew it had to be first cab off the rank for my Bacon Week 2015 celebrations!

The Swineapple seems to have first appeared via John Bush on this meat smoking group on facebook but has been making its way around the internet ever since

The concept is simple enough: core and skin a pineapple, fill it with pork then wrap it with bacon.  The original used boneless country style ribs but I decided pulled pork would be easier and more delicious.

One thing I quickly realised is that Australia seems to have much smaller pineapples than America and that everywhere removes the bloody green bits off the top (which is really convenient if you just want to eat a pineapple but I’m trying to make art here, people)

After removing the core and hollowing out some extra space for delicious pork I made a bacon weave to wrap it in.  I employed Mrs Grillah’s assistance at this point as she is much more delicate than I when it comes to these fine motor skill type activities.

Once hollowed and wrapped, stuff the inside of the pineapple with pulled pork.  I’m not going to go through how I made the pulled pork – refer here if you’re unsure.

To sauce the pulled pork I wanted something vinegar-based and with a spicy kick to help balance all the sweetness from the pineapple.  I played around with a South Carolina style vinegar sauce and came up with this recipe:

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 4 tbsp sriracha
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

Combine in a saucepan and simmer until all the ingredients have incorporated.

Assembly required liberal use of toothpicks to maintain structural integrity – this bacon wrapping thing can be harder than it looks!

The original Swineapple is slow-smoked but as my pork is already cooked I decided to go much hotter to really roast that pineapple and crisp up the bacon so I got the Weber kettle fired up with two baskets of heatbeads.

I coated the bacon with a quick dry rub of salt, paprika and chili powder again trying to get some salt and spice to balance out all the sweet.

After the Swineapples were in the BBQ I then made up a quick glaze to coat with during the cook.  While the pineapple is already bringing a lot of sweetness to the party I figured the glaze would help glue all my bacon together.

Glaze Recipe:

• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 3 cups brown sugar
• Sriracha sauce – one big squeeze

Apply this throughout until you’ve used up all the glaze and you can see your reflection in that glistening goodness (something along these lines).

The swineapple was done in just under an hour – take it off when the bacon is done to your liking and you’ve used up all your glaze.

This swineapple really had it all – big hits of salty, sweet, smoky, spicy, tangy all coming together in a cacophony of deliciousness.

Definitely try this one at home, kids.

After I basically demolished the first one with my bare hands, shoving it down my face hole, I started wondering how you would actually serve this to people.

The answer is tacos.  Swineapple freakin’ tacos.  Though if you have more pulled pork handy (doesn’t everyone?) I would recommend it to balance out the meat:fruit ratios.