Meat+Poultry - April 2020 - 113

As for the bacon slicing process, Benton said
the company chills the meat to 10˚ F to 15˚ F and
then slices it on Anco bacon slicers that he said
have proven to be reliable. Benton's has been
using Anco slicers for decades.
Finally, bacon is hand-packed mere feet
from the smokehouse, vacuum-sealed and
boxed to ship.
"It's shelf stable and ships unrefrigerated in
the US year-round, so you can put it on your
kitchen counter for three weeks," Benton said.
One online order of Benton's Hickory
Smoked Country Bacon contains four, 1-lb packs
of bacon for $32 plus shipping.

It's not rocket science, it's the same
recipe my grandparents used to cure
pork in the log smokehouse behind the
house I was born and raised in."
Allan Benton

WORD TRAVELS FAST
Besides selling its smoky bacon in the retail store
attached to the Benton's facility, the company
does a large portion of business through its website and sells directly to smaller grocery stores and
restaurants.
Benton said the first restaurant to order
directly from him was celebrity chef Tom
Colicchio's highly acclaimed restaurant, Craft, in
New York City.
"Within three weeks to the day, we were selling to seven restaurants in New York," he said,
including another celebrity chef, David Chang,
and his restaurant, Momofuku.
Seven years ago, a friend said Benton had
become an overnight success.
"But I told him, 'I've been in business for 47
years,'" Benton said. "When I started, I didn't
have enough money to advertise. My dad's philosophy was that if you make good enough quality products, that will keep you in business."
Benton added, "I've been blessed to run the
business for a long time. We try to offer the best
customer service we can and buy the freshest
pork you can get."
Benton said the ham and bacon demand
peaks seasonally too, usually around the holidays from October through December.
"We get so many orders in December, we can't
get all of it physically out in a timely manner," he
said. "We also get lots of retail orders and from
restaurants, so we stay very busy that time of the
year. Our business rises and falls with the restaurant industry."

Benton's cold smokes
its meats in a small,
wood-stove smokehouse
behind the business.

worrying about paying the bills.
Many years later, he said the farm-to-table
movement really benefited his ham and bacon
business.
"What I am making is a very natural product
cured only with salt and brown sugar," Benton
said. "Our unique, smoky flavor profile has also
helped us stand out."
Once the bacon craze of the past 10 to 12
years hit, Benton said his company has been riding the coattails of that movement ever since.
"Who knows, they may be eating plant-based
bacon in the future," he said.
As for his future as a legendary bacon baron,
Benton concluded: "I've been around 72 years,
and I'd like to be around 20 more and make it
to 92."

BENTON'S EVOLUTION
For the first 20 years of Benton's 47 years of
making bacon, he said he could barely keep the
doors open and he spent many sleepless nights
MEAT+ POULTRY 2020 BACON TRENDS + TECHNOLOGY

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3/31/2020 8:25:55 AM

Meat+Poultry - April 2020

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