Pork My Pig Shots Failed

[Parrothead1809]

Well... "Fail" maybe a harsh word, after all it's still smoked bacon and sausage. But, it tasted a bit "over processed". This was an experiment where I half'ed the recipe to make only 12 for me and Mrs. P. I want to make a full batch for my Super Bowl party this year so this was a trial run. To make this mini-batch, I used half a brick of cream cheese (i.e. 4 oz). Here are the rest of my ingredients, feel free to offer suggestions:

• Polish Kielbasa - I had a piece left over, and put it on the smoker with the shots so I could taste it by itself. It really wasn't bad, so I don't think this was my issue.
• Traeger Pork & Poultry rub - I added 1 tablespoon to my batter. This may have contributed to the over-flavoring. The traeger recipe (https://www.traeger.com/recipes/pittman-pig-shots) calls for Meat Church Honey Hog BBQ Rub but I had the Pork & Poultry rub (which also says it has an apple honey taste). I have seen some YouTubes where they don't include any rub to the batter. What do you do?
• The bacon I used was a thick cut "Maple Flavored" so this could have contributed to the adverse flavor as well. Next time "plain" thick cut bacon?
• Cheese - This too was what I had handy: it was a "Mexican" blend of Cheddar, Monterey Jack and a few others. Oh it was "reduced fat" as well. The recipe calls for 1 cup so I used 1/2. Next time plain cheddar?
• 1 finely diced 1/2 of a fresh Jalapeño pepper. I have seen where some use the canned pepper, but I figured fresh would be better.
• I left out the Chile powder

Oh yea, I also made a rookie mistake of over stuffing the little buggers and had to decapitate/clean them up before saucing. I topped them with a drizzle of blue hog original; my favorite.

Suggestions?
-PH

 

[Clint62]

I use thick hickory smoked thick cut bacon. Try andouille sausage instead of the kielbasa, and smoke the cream cheese first..sprinkle it with your favorite spice or rub before you smoke it. I'd also agree using full fat cheese The jalapenos sound good, but if your andouille is particularly spicy you might want to cut down on the peppers a tad. Try it again!