PORK
Once turned into bacon or ham, pork must be the equivalent of Heaven on Earth. Bacon is one of the few foods where even if it’s bad, it’s still better than none at all. What other food can you say that about? About 5 or 6 years ago I grew weary of grocery store bacon. I knew that there had to be something better than purely profit driven, mass produced, “better food through chemistry” bacon.
I tried about a dozen mail order bacon brands that all had great reviews and faithful devotees. Some were great and some were no better or even worse than grocery store bacon. The last one I tried was made by Allan Benton. You could smell it through the shipping box even though the bacon was vacuum packed in plastic within.
Before it even went into the pan I wanted to eat it. The aroma of it cooking is enough to revive the dead and the flavor of the finished product was like a bomb going off in your mouth. All other bacon I’ve ever had doesn’t even equal a shadow of Benton’s Bacon. It’s a real masterpiece in my opinion. His hams are sublime.
This short ten minute video reveals that his products are the result of pure love. He’s a neat guy. There’s a small trove of interesting short videos on youtube about him as well.
If you place an order, ask for a ham bone or two for your bone broth.
IS ,Just be sure to balance bacon consumption with regular exercise .In other words eat with moderation. Then take your wife dancing.
I grew up on fried country ham , cat head biscuits and red-eye gravy.People round these parts used to pack hams in salt boxes and turn them at regular intervals for safety. It’s a little more complex than sounds.
Appreciate the info; watched the vid. Pretty sure I will order Bacon and Center slices; will also send same to my son in TX.
IS, that was great. I really enjoyed it. What struck me was the way that guy talked about what he does and the look on his face when he was doing it. That’s how you’re supposed to live.
We don’t cure our bacon, we smoke it and ours definitely has a lot more meat to fat than his did, but it looked so good I could smell it.
Thanks again.
We get our bacon from a local farmer/butcher who is a good customer of mine. I trade him hard goods for his home made bacon. His bacon is 10 times better than the grocery store stuff. Best deal I ever made. God bless the butcher and his bacon.
We get most of our bacon from the guy on the left
His shop is 3 miles from us, and it’s highly rated
My point is to agree with I_S …… that store bought, mass produced bacon is PURE SHIT when compared to the real stuff. The good stuff is a lot more expensive, but worth every penny.
Thanks I_S …. always looking to try new things … bookmarked Mr. Benton and will try it some time.
Be warned that if your cook this on a Saturday morning you house will smell like bacon all weekend! I’m not kidding!
@HSF, I particularly thought you might like some of his other videos if you get the chance. He talks about buying pork bellies from producers who raise older breeds of hogs that are rare these days. They are also hormone free.
For those worried about nitrates and nitrites………..let the internet be your friend. Your own body produces the largest amount of nitrites you will ever likely encounter. Nitrates are converted by your body into nitrites. It seems both are actually good for digestive and cardiovascular health though I doubt anyone will ever agree on that. Death by bacon would be a good way to die!
The amount of fat per slab varies like all other bacon unless it’s been trimmed away but the fat of this bacon is really different. When you open the package you can tell as soon as you touch it. It’s soft and smooth like warm butter. You just want to crawl in the bag and roll around in it.
My favorite thing about Benton’s is that the flavor is so satisfying you only need about one and a half slices to be content. We cut the slab in half and fry half slices. Three half slices each is plenty.
You can also get whole uncut slabs and packages of ends and pieces even though they are not listed.
Benton’s version of Red Eye gravy is in the first ten minutes of this video:
https://youtu.be/hyIlQt3AVKM
Oh yeah, HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all the STM’s. This place rocks!
BTW, David Chang’s ramen broths will blow your mind and taste buds! This is the perfect time of year to enjoy them too!
hardscrabble farmer says:
“IS, that was great. I really enjoyed it. What struck me was the way that guy talked about what he does and the look on his face when he was doing it. That’s how you’re supposed to live.”
Yeah, he started out as a teacher.counselor but I think he found his true calling in pork. He talks in other videos about how hard it was to make a living at it for the first 25 years. He just exudes quiet confidence and a love of quality.
Not to be an ass but, Dr Pangloss said, It’s been reported that human flesh tastes like pork.
There used to be a packing house called Wennings in So Indiana that turned out the very best bacon. My Mom used their lard in her award-winning Southern Fried Chicken. Yum. That’s also where we took our steers and hogs to market.
Didn’t know Indiana was in the south
IS – I started drooling at the word bacon, and wasn’t able to get past that word. Will get back to this later. Gotta go fry some up!
What’s the bacon like in Australia?