Bacon Turtle Burgers

Some of you have heard of the Bacon Turtle Burger. It has many names: The Bacon Turtleburger, The Bacon Turtle Cheeseburger, The Bacon Burger Turtle… For those of you who know about this burger, understand that it rates pretty high on the Epic meter. It’s only a slight coincidence that the Epic meter often coincides with the cholesterol meter… But we don’t want to think about that. Especially when we’re talking about bacon.

For those of you who haven’t heard of this delicious gluttonous meal; you’ve obviously been hiding behind an extremely slow bandwidth. No, this burger is not made out of turtle meat. We did say that it’s a gluttonous meal, not an exotic one. The Bacon Turtle Burger is an amazing burger that combines hotdogs, beef, and bacon all in one. A combination of multiple meats for the over zealous carnivore. And this particular version even brings melted cheese into the mix. Have you heard of the Juicy Lucy? Yep, it’s just like that. But different. And by different, we mean wrapped-in-bacon and steal-your-heart different. Don’t know what we’re talking about? Look at the pictures, follow the recipe below, and be your own Gluttonous Meal Master. C’mon, it’s covered in bacon. ‘Nuff said.

Ingredients:
4 oz. lean beef
1 pack of Hot Dogs
1 package of Bacon (at least ten strips)
Cheddar cheese (or any cheese of your choice)
1 egg white
Spices (salt, pepper, garlic salt, Worchestire sauce)

Directions:
1. Start by weaving the bacon just like a basket. Cut some of the fat off the outside of the bacon if you need to in order to make it straight. Make it into a square. (5X5 strips of bacon usually work.)
2. Mix the ground meat, spices and egg white together in a bowl. (The egg whites are used to help hold things together.)
3. Make a thin, flat meat patty with part of the meat.
4. Place the meat on the center of the bacon weave.
5. Place some cheese slices on the center of the patty. Make sure there is a “crust” of burger meat around the cheese.
6. Place another thinly formed meat patty on top of the cheese and form it into one meat patty. (Form the edges of the meat together- causing the meat patty to be “filled” with the cheese.)
7. Fold the bacon weave over it.
8. Take out three hotdogs. Make 2 cuts on both ends of two of the hot dogs (acting as the “feet”.) Cut the two hot dogs directly in half. Now you have the feet.
9. With the other hot dog, cut it in half, and on one end, cut the hot dog into a point to act as the tail. The other end will be the head.
10. Make holes in the bacon weave, (one each for the head, tail, and four legs), poke hot dogs into the body- embedding them into the meat by about 1/2 and inch to 1 inch.
11. Use extra bacon to cover the gap and bring stray ends of bacon into the weave.
12. Use a spatula to get it onto the pan.
13. Put toothpicks (that have been soaking in water) into the body to secure the hot dogs and keep the bacon ends secure.
14. Cook the Bacon Turtle at 400 to 450 degrees (depending upon oven)
*Cooking time will vary so check the turtle to see how well done you want your burger to be. For less cooked, make sure it’s still juicy. If juices aren’t flowing, your turtle will be well done.

And what’s beautiful about this Turtle, (aside from the sexy bacon), is that you can make a regular burger as opposed to the cheeseburger. Skip the egg whites and just make a meat patty for the center of the Bacon Turtle Burger. After it’s cooked, throw cheese on top, or an egg, or peanut butter… We don’t care what you put on it, just do it. You only live once and this baby just might bring you closer to that final date, but who cares? Go ahead and walk on the wild side.