Benton Bacon

I’ve tried my fair share of bacon and why wouldn’t I…it’s delicious. I’ve eaten low sodium, artisanal, thick cut, maple, you name it I’ve enjoyed them all. But I had really kind of gotten to the point where I believed bacon is bacon. All good all the time.

However, over the holidays I enjoyed a wedge salad adorned with Benton’s Bacon and I had to literally eat my words. This bacon is different. It’s amazingly hickory smoked to the point that you would swear that John Wayne just rambled in off the prairie to personally bring you bacon straight off the campfire. There is no mistaking the strong smoky flavor. I read on one of the reviews where someone said, “This bacon was not good it had an incredible smoky flavor that is overpowering.” Yep, that’s the point.

Where I am going with this is it makes a simple and easy dish such as a wedge salad into something memorable. My wedge salad was covered with bacon, candied pecans, slivers of sundried tomato and a white balsamic vinaigrette. It was the bacon that layered in that extra flavor that pulled it all together and took it over the top.

It is a great tool to have stashed in your freezer for entertaining. It makes an easy wedge salad come to life and I can’t even begin to think what it would do to some homemade macaroni and cheese. Not often can one ingredient on its own make a dish memorable.