Meat+Poultry - October 2018 - 30

COVER STORY

handling up to 100 lbs. Stitt adds smokers as
demand grows. Currently he and six employees
operate 10 smokers with expansion space to
add 20 more and triple his current volume up
to 6,000 lbs. per week. He admits the process
is labor intensive but points out that the bacon
he makes is a high-end, premium protein that
is designed to be a center of plate foodservice
feature and not a component of an all-you-caneat breakfast buffet.
"When you make a choice to add Bill-E's
Bacon to your menu, you really need to know
how to menu engineer, price things right and
how to take care of it."

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

Bill Stitt founded the Old
27 Grill where demand
for his house-made bacon
caused him to start up
a new business: Bill-E's
Small Batch Bacon.

30

"and bacon on everything," he says, including
bacon-based appetizers and desserts.
Within the past two years Stitt has
tripled the space for bacon processing to
accommodate the growth as well as tripling
the refrigeration capacity and the staff. And
the word is getting out about the Bill-E's brand,
still made in small batches, but just more of
them. "Jerry Lee Lewis orders my bacon," Stitt
says as an example of the popularity of the
brand. "It's crazy." He says online orders come
in from all over the world and he is constantly
amazed by the demand. "It's just a growing,
booming little business."
One of Stitt's first customers is still a loyal
customer today. The Original Oyster House
in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and the eatery's
second location on the Mobile Causeway, both
of which order through Stitt's distributor, US
Foods, reflects Stitt's success and the growing
demand for his bacon products.
"The whole goal was to keep everything
small batch," he says. "Instead of me having
these giant smokers with forklifts driving in and
out of them, I use small, individual, custommade smokers," with each smoker capable of

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The federally inspected bacon facility operates
five days a week during regular business
hours. Stitt utilizes a blast chiller to facilitate
more efficient production, but largely the
operations are done the old-fashioned way, he
says. Suppliers send him peeled and trimmed
bellies two times per week, within 48 hours
of slaughter. The bacon facility is divided
into three designated rooms: raw, slicing and
packaging. "I have a high-end commercial
slicer, which is almost constantly being used,"
he says.
"Right now everything's hand-wrapped
in butcher paper," Stitt says, which he was
advised against by other butchers but who he's
proven wrong. "You can't even see the meat
through a window," he says of the packaging,
adding that when the volume warrants adding
packaging equipment, he's ready.
"I already have the plans and specs for
when I decide to go that far," says Stitt, who
takes the approach of "if it ain't broke, don't fix
it," and for now nothing needs fixed. The shelf
life of his product is 20 days if refrigerated and
a year or more if it's frozen.
"I'm making it the same way they did back
when they were putting meat on a ship and
they were leaving one country for another
place and had no idea how long it was going
to take them to get there. The whole goal was
to recreate cured and smoked pork bellies the
way our ancestors did it."
Stitt has always used hickory wood and a
dry cure, including heavy brown sugar, real
molasses, kosher salt and a small dash of
nitrate-free pink curing salt, using the bare
minimum "to keep it legal." After applying
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