A certain turkey basting technique has been popping up in magazines and on the Internet and Lovey and I both have come across it lately. Bacon is woven into a lattice-work 'blanket' then draped over the breast of the turkey. I made a rather tiny one since we had a small roasting chicken. I used a high quality, thick-sliced smoked bacon. The bacon we selected was very short slices but it worked for our chicken. Using normal sized slices will make your blanket larger for a turkey
I decided to try this new-to-me technique.
Start by covering a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Begin 'weaving' by placing about 7 to 8 slices of bacon horizontally, sides touching, on the parchment paper.
Starting with the top slice, from the left side fold the top slice back half way. Repeat with every other piece of bacon. Now, lay a piece of bacon vertically against the left edge of the horizontal pieces. Fold the horizontal pieces back over the vertical piece.
Now, beginning with the horizontal second from the top, fold that back from the right edge over to the left. Repeat this with every other horizontal piece under that slice. Place a vertical slice up against the first vertical slice. Fold the horizontal pieces back over into their normal position.
Repeat this beginning with turning the top horizontal slice from right to left, and repeat with every other slice. Tuck a vertical piece up against the previous slice, then fold the horizontal slices back to their normal position.
Repeat this process until you have a tightly woven blanket.
This is how our little blanket turned out.
