Choosing the right bacon for pigs in blankets is honestly the difference between a soggy, lukewarm appetizer and the literal star of the Christmas dinner table. Everyone thinks it’s just about wrapping a sausage and tossing it in the oven. It isn’t. If you pick a watery, cheap supermarket rasher that’s been pumped full of phosphates and brine, you’re basically boiling your sausage in a salty gray liquid rather than roasting it to a crisp.
I've seen too many holiday spreads ruined by "blankets" that look like damp Band-Aids. It's tragic.
To get this right, you have to understand the chemistry of fat. Pigs in blankets rely on a process called the Maillard reaction—that chemical dance between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavor. When you use the wrong bacon for pigs in blankets, the high water content prevents the temperature from rising above 100°C (212°F) until all that moisture has evaporated. By the time the bacon actually starts to crisp, your cocktail sausage is a shriveled, overcooked husk of its former self.
The Dry-Cure Secret Nobody Tells You
Most commercial bacon in the UK and US is "wet-cured." This means the pork bellies are injected with a curing solution or soaked in a giant vat of brine. It’s efficient for factories. It's terrible for your pigs in blankets. When that heat hits, the water leeches out.
You need dry-cured bacon. Period.
Dry-curing involves rubbing the meat with salt and flavorings and letting it sit for weeks. The salt draws moisture out, concentrating the pork flavor. It costs more because it takes time and the meat loses weight during the process. But when you wrap a chipolata in a slice of dry-cured streaky bacon, it shrinks onto the sausage, creating a tight, crispy shell that snaps when you bite into it.
Ask your butcher for "short back" or "streaky," but make sure they confirm it wasn't pumped. If you see white goo leaking out in the pan, you've been betrayed by water-injection.
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Why Streaky Always Beats Back Bacon
There is a weirdly heated debate about whether to use back bacon or streaky bacon. Honestly? Streaky wins every single time. Back bacon—which is the loin—is too lean. It’s great for a sandwich, but it lacks the intramuscular fat necessary to self-baste the sausage underneath.
Streaky bacon comes from the belly. It's alternating layers of fat and muscle. As it renders, that fat melts directly into the sausage meat. It acts as a thermal conductor. Without that fat, you’re just wrapping meat in more meat, which is a recipe for a very dry mouthful.
Smoked vs. Unsmoked: The Great Divide
This is where things get subjective, but there is a logic to it. If you are using a high-quality, heavily seasoned sausage—maybe something with nutmeg, ginger, or even bits of apple—you might want unsmoked bacon. You don't want the wood smoke competing with the delicate spices.
However, if you’re using a standard, mild pork sausage, smoked bacon is your best friend. Look for "natural oak-smoked" or "beech-smoked." Avoid anything that says "smoke flavor" or "liquid smoke" in the ingredients. That’s just a chemical coating that tastes like a campfire's leftovers. Real smoke permeates the fat, and that smokiness migrates into the sausage while it roasts. It's a flavor infusion that happens inside the oven.
The Thickness Problem
Supermarket bacon is often sliced too thin or too thick. If it’s paper-thin, it disintegrates before the sausage is cooked. If it’s "thick-cut," you end up with a chewy, rubbery layer of fat that never quite renders out.
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Ideally, you want a medium-thin slice. You should be able to stretch it slightly. A little trick: take the back of a chef’s knife and gently scrape it along the length of the bacon strip before wrapping. This stretches the fibers and thins it out just enough so it wraps around the sausage multiple times without becoming a bulky mess. It also helps the bacon "stick" to itself, so you don't even need toothpicks.
Does the Sausage Type Change the Bacon Choice?
Absolutely.
If you're going fancy with Venison or Wild Boar sausages, they are incredibly lean. In this case, your bacon for pigs in blankets acts as a literal life-support system. You need the fattiest streaky bacon you can find. For a classic Cumberland or Lincolnshire chipolata, which already has a decent fat content, you can afford to be a bit more conservative with the bacon thickness.
Don't forget the glaze. A lot of people try to honey-glaze their pigs in blankets at the start. Huge mistake. Sugar burns. If you put honey or maple syrup on your bacon at the beginning of a 20-minute roast, you’ll end up with carbonized bitterness. Wait until the last five minutes. Brush it on when the bacon is already crispy.
The Temperature Trap
Most people cook their pigs in blankets at the same temperature as their turkey—usually around 180°C or 190°C.
That’s fine, but it’s not optimal.
If you want world-class results, start them at a lower temperature to render the fat, then crank it up to 220°C for the final blast. This "cold-to-hot" approach ensures the fat is fully liquid and the skin of the sausage stays moist while the exterior turns into a golden-brown lacquer.
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Where to Buy the Good Stuff
If you're in the UK, look for brands like DukesHill or The Jolly Hog. They tend to respect the dry-cure process. In the US, look for Benton’s or Nueske’s. These aren't just "bacon"; they are artisanal products that treat the pork belly with respect.
If you’re stuck at a standard grocery store, flip the package over. Look at the ingredients. If water is the second or third ingredient listed, put it back. You’re paying for a puddle. Look for "Dry Rubbed" on the label.
Common Myths About Wrapping
- Myth 1: You need a toothpick. You don't. If you wrap the bacon tightly and place the "seam" side down on the baking tray, the heat will seal the proteins together.
- Myth 2: Pre-cooking the bacon helps. It doesn't. It just makes the bacon brittle and impossible to wrap.
- Myth 3: Any sausage works. Cheap sausages have too much rusk (bread filler). This soaks up the bacon fat and turns into a mushy paste. Use high-meat-content sausages (90% plus).
Actionable Steps for the Perfect Batch
To get the most out of your bacon for pigs in blankets, follow this specific workflow next time you cook:
- Tempering: Take your bacon out of the fridge 20 minutes before wrapping. Cold bacon is stiff and snaps; room-temperature bacon is pliable.
- The Stretch: Lay a rasher on a board. Use the flat of a knife to stretch it out to about 1.5 times its original length.
- The Spiral: Don't just wrap it around the middle. Start at one end of the sausage and spiral it down to the other, like a barber pole. This exposes more bacon surface area to the hot air.
- The Rack: Do not cook them directly on a flat baking sheet if you can avoid it. Use a wire rack set over a tray. This allows the hot air to circulate under the pig, ensuring the bottom isn't soggy.
- The Rest: Let them rest for five minutes after they come out of the oven. This allows the juices to redistribute so they don't spray everywhere when you take that first bite.
By focusing on the quality of the cure and the fat-to-meat ratio of your bacon, you elevate a simple side dish into something people will actually remember. Stop buying the watery stuff. Your sausages deserve better blankets.