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Though Allan Benton's dry-cure recipe (salt, brown sugar, red pepper, black pepper) and curing process (nine to ten months, versus three months for most domestic hams) are known, his...
Jun 8, 2024 · Benton’s cures their pork bellies with just salt, brown sugar, and time – up to 3 months! The pork is then smoked over hickory wood fires to infuse deep, rich smoky flavor. This old-fashioned process results in bacon with unparalleled depth of flavor and the perfect balance of salt, sweetness, and smoke.
- Rural Roots and A Family Recipe
- Building A Brand by Word of Mouth
- Benton’s Signature Style
- Weathering The Pandemic
- Benton’s Cooking Tips
Benton was born and raised in rural Scott County, Virginia. His family farmed and ate what they raised, including heritage-breed hogs that were allowed to naturally forage for their food, growing fat on acorns and other nuts in the Southern Appalachian forest. Benton’s grandparents cured country hams in a log smokehouse behind their house. After ea...
Benton has never advertised, instead relying on word of mouth. But the business was by no means an overnight success. The first 25 years were a struggle to keep the doors open, Benton said. Customers were used to buying mass-produced pork products, not heritage meats, but Benton stayed true to his mission focusing on quality products and his family...
Benton’s hams and bacon start with pasture-raised, antibiotic-free pork, sourced from family farms in the Midwest. He uses only heritage pork, older breeds such as Berkshire, Duroc, and Red Wattle, which have more intramuscular fat, similar to European pigs such as Spain’s renowned black Ibérico. As Benton puts it, “you have to start with something...
Before the pandemic, Benton’s cured between 17,000 and 18,000 hams a year in its 18,000-square-foot building. But with restaurants making up 75 percent of their business, Benton’s main customer base all but disappeared when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. To make matters worse, packinghouses in the Midwest were closed, reducing his source for pork for m...
How does Allan Benton cook his famous hams at home? “This East Tennessee hillbilly just likes to slice up a piece of one-year-old ham and cook it in a greased skillet for about 12 seconds on each side, and serve it with biscuits and gravy,” Benton said. “Overcooking the ham can result in a tougher, saltier slice.” “Our aged hams, more than 14 month...
One order contains four one pound packs of Hickory Smoked Country Bacon from our smokehouse and plant in Madisonville, TN. This bacon is dry cured by hand with salt, brown sugar, and black pepper. After about three weeks curing and drying in refrigeration, it is thoroughly smoked in our wood stove smokehouse for two to three days continuously.
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Jun 18, 2024 · Devour your smoky, crispy Benton’s bacon right away or store cooled bacon in an airtight container up to 1 week. With these tips and step-by-step instructions, you can achieve bacon nirvana from your own oven.
Feb 18, 2015 · The scent of hickory smoke hangs in the air at Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams in Madisonville. Workers hurry from the curing room to the smokehouse, carrying slabs of bacon and salt-encrusted hams.
Jun 19, 2019 · But the real reason why Benton’s bacon and hams are sought-after by World’s top restaurants is in its simple and natural ingredients. "My bacon is made with only salt and brown sugar,” Benton explains.
