Benton’s Bacon

[metalspinner]

BOOM!



 

I’m not a poet or philosopher so cannot express in words how awesome this bacon is.

I was passing by their operation earlier this week and pulled in to treat myself to a couple of packs.

Those that know, know.  

[Raider Bill]

I used to buy complete sides from Allen.
Was great to use in dishes. Nice and smokey.

[SwampDonkey]

No story behind this bacon?

[metalspinner]

SD, Benton’s is a local ham house to us.  They must use an entire hickory tree to smoke this pound of bacon. 😆 the flavor is very strong. Lots of local restaurants use this in their recipes. It’s interesting to read the menu and if Benton’s is used, it is mentioned right in the dish description. But you already know it right when you walk in the door!

[Raider Bill]

It was a little hole in the wall until food and wine magazine did a peice on them. Then it hit the big league.
His building is 4 times what it used to be.
Alan the owner is spitting image of Jimmy Carter.

His smoker is about the size of a 2 car garage.

[SwampDonkey]

Cool stuff, enjoy your bacon.

[Machinebuilder]

Bentons Country Hams

Allen Benton has a James Beard award for his meats.

I am very close to his shop and it's an emergency if I run out of his bacon.

it is very smokey, but he does sell unsmoked also. His Country ham is outstanding.

He sends products to the finest restaurants in this country (maybe further).

Stopping at his shop it's about $8/lb, no that different from store bacon.

He also sells some other products, his breakfast sausage is some of the best I've had, and he sells 10lb tubes of ground chuck for less than the grocery stores (steaks too).

I see Allen regularly waiting on customers, very nice man.

[Texas Ranger]

Sounds like a place we would stop at in Harrison Arkansas when up that way, Coursy Meats, then the owner died, relatives took over, stuff changed, and we stopped going.  Used to buy whole hams, cut em up and freeze, would last about a year, had to scrape the mold off the outside before use.  

[sawguy21]

Good bacon with pan fries and fresh eggs is the breakfast of champions! It adds great flavor to many other meals as well, I really enjoy it in a cheeseburger.

[kantuckid]

We tend to not buy country hams lately as nobody here to eat one, but as a son asked for some for last years holidays meals, I bought a Broadbent's KY Ham and some of their country bacon. Between TN, KY and VA their are many choices of small and large producers of hams, bacon and sausage. A factor is there is a shortage of country hams, etc..
 The broadbent ham was good but honestly not any better than a Harper's or Clifty farms ham from our grocery stores-Walmart & Krogers, yet did cost more. The higher priced country hams come with a premium price based on the long hang times which also give you a drier ham that we found harder to process in the kitchen, even using the companies information. Some companies have hams costing nearly $200! 
Their bacon was very good but salty of course. I bought several pkgs and gave some away. It was obvious that they pkg bacon as it came off the slab, but sold the end areas all the same as the best slices towards the middle. I'll give them a failing grade based on one pkg that was mostly fat very little meat. It was the whitest pkg of bacon I've ever seen! When I worked in meat packing the end of slab areas were sold  in 5 lb boxes to mostly restaurant's, not home cooks. 
We will stick with Oscar Mayer's or Wright's store bought bacon in the future. My heart disease tells me to avoid salty meats.  

[Raider Bill]

We tend to not buy country hams lately as nobody here to eat one, but as a son asked for some for last years holidays meals, I bought a Broadbent's KY Ham and some of their country bacon. Between TN, KY and VA their are many choices of small and large producers of hams, bacon and sausage. A factor is there is a shortage of country hams, etc..
 The broadbent ham was good but honestly not any better than a Harper's or Clifty farms ham from our grocery stores-Walmart & Krogers, yet did cost more. The higher priced country hams come with a premium price based on the long hang times which also give you a drier ham that we found harder to process in the kitchen, even using the companies information. Some companies have hams costing nearly $200!
Their bacon was very good but salty of course. I bought several pkgs and gave some away. It was obvious that they pkg bacon as it came off the slab, but sold the end areas all the same as the best slices towards the middle. I'll give them a failing grade based on one pkg that was mostly fat very little meat. It was the whitest pkg of bacon I've ever seen! When I worked in meat packing the end of slab areas were sold  in 5 lb boxes to mostly restaurant's, not home cooks.
We will stick with Oscar Mayer's or Wright's store bought bacon in the future. My heart disease tells me to avoid salty meats.  

For breakfast hickory smoked wright's is our go to.

[SwampDonkey]

Best hams we get are local butcher's hams. Taste is way better than those factory brand packaged processed hams, by leaps and bounds.  Don't eat much ham here at all, mostly we would eat a tenderloin or a pork chop as far as pork goes.

[Mooseherder]

I've been cooking bacon outside on the grill the last couple of years. THICK slice bacon works great but you have to use the thicker or grilling aluminum foil also.  And don't let it drip because you're gonna have a fire.