The Yale Special 4.02 The Lorelais’ First Day at Yale

“Since we were short on time, I had them make us something to go. My Yale special.” “Oh, share, share.” “Sausage wrapped in a pancake tied together with bacon.” “You made that up?” “I don't know how I do it.”

Ingredients:

• 4 slices of uncooked bacon, cut in half with kitchen scissors

• Italian or breakfast sausage links (however many you want to make)

• Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

• 1 quart vegetable oil

For the pancake batter:

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tbsp baking powder

• 1 tbsp granulated sugar

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 ¼ cups milk

• 1 egg

• 3 tbsp melted butter or olive oil

To serve:

• Powdered sugar

• Maple syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F

2. Fold the strips of bacon into bow shapes. See picture below for a guide

3. Place the bacon bows onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Set aside.

4. While the bacon cooks, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Spray with nonstick cooking spray.

5. Add the sausage and allow to cook completely on all sides. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Using a meat thermometer, make sure the inside of the sausage reaches 160 degrees F.

6. Once completely cooked, set the sausage aside to cool and prepare the pancake batter.

7. In a medium mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients for the pancake batter and stir to combine. Then add the remaining ingredients for the batter and mix until fully incorporated.

8. Insert a wooden skewer into the sausage links. Make sure to leave enough of the skewer outside of the sausage as a handle.

9. Fill a large pot with the quart of olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Using a thermometer, allow the oil to reach 375 degrees F.

10. Working one at a time, carefully dip the sausage into the pancake batter, twirling it around to make sure it’s fully coated.

11. Place the coated sausage into the hot oil and fully submerge. It’s okay if the skewer is submerged too. Allow to fry for about 5 minutes or until golden brown (for larger sausages. For smaller ones, fry for about 3 minutes).

12. After frying, place the sausage onto paper towels to dry.

13. Using a toothpick, carefully attach the bacon bows into the center of the fried sausage.

14. Serve with powdered sugar if you wish and dip into maple syrup.

You may have to play around with folding your bacon into a bow shape. I never fully tied them, just fold it around itself to create the bow.

This one threw me for a loop at first. This is such a popular episode, so I wanted to make sure my food for this episode was just as iconic. What other show would you find a special that’s sausage wrapped in a pancake, tied together with bacon? I didn’t want to just wrap the sausage in a pancake because that’s kind of boring. So instead, I had the idea to essentially make breakfast corn dogs. The tied together with bacon was probably the most challenging part. Cooked bacon isn’t exactly flexible. I wasn’t sure if the bacon bows were going to work at first, but I’m glad they turned out okay!

Use a toothpick to attach the bacon bows. I snapped mine in half.

Happy Cooking from the Hollow!

If you missed what I made last episode, catch up here!

Enjoy your sausage wrapped in a pancake tied together with bacon!