The man and his hams
After a couple of shipping miscues (the UPS guy couldn't figure out what floor my company was on so he had it returned to Tennessee), and some e-mailing with Mr. Benton himself, I had the pungent, piggy product in my hands.
Knowing how extraordinary this food was, I wanted to share it with my bacon loving friends and make it a truly memorable meal. Thus, the idea for another iron chef challenge was born.
One night, ten friends, five courses, all bacon.
For over two months I pondered what dishes would best show off the flavor and versatility of the Benton's bacon. I solicited ideas from friends, poured over restaurant menus and scoured the Internet for recipes.
Finally I set the date, sent out the evite and started shopping. Here's how it all went down:
For the first course, I served an amuse bouche brilliantly conceived by my friend Mark: Bacon Wrapped Bacon.
More than just a play on the simplicity of wrapping something in bacon to enhance its flavor, this amuse would be a warning shot, a bacon siren, that things were about to get heavy, in a good way.
To break up the monotony of so much Benton's bacon, I also bought a package of my favorite store supplied product, Niman Ranch Applewood Smoked Bacon. I cut each slice into thirds and made an equal armed cross out of one cut piece of each brand. I alternated folding each slice back over the other, a bit of a bacon weave, until I ran out of bacon real estate and was left with what looks like a fat-streaked rose. I put a wooden skewer through the middle to hold the creation's shape together and popped the 10 skewers in a 375 degree oven for 18 minutes. When they emerged, they were crispy throughout and the excess fat had melted into a pool in the bottom of the grill pan that was my cooking vessel. What was left was super crispy layers of phenomenally rich meat that really popped with flavor. Everyone was moaning (from joy, I think) and palates were primed for the impending porcine party. We also watched this video to get "in the mood."
Bacon, by any other name, would taste as sweet...
Thankfully these monsters were only one bite each as any more might have been asking for it.
Up next was a salad that I love making during the summer when peaches and nectarines are at their sweet peaks. The dish consists of grilled peaches and/or nectarines, baby spinach leaves, crumbled candied pecans, dried cranberries, freshly cooked warm bacon bits and blue cheese dressing. Without fresh peaches or nectarines at my disposal, I used a high quality jarred white peach that filled in decently well for its summer cousin. This salad is always a hit and on this night, was a welcome bit of green in a dinner filled with heavier foods.
This course actually might have been healthy
For the third course, I had planned to cook up a batch of Bucati alla Amatriciana, my favorite Italian dish. Consisting of diced red onion sauteed with pancetta, red chili flakes and tomato, it is a dish I serve quite often. On this evening however, I didn't want to make a pasta as I feared noodles might fill my friends up with 2 courses yet to go. Thus, I came up with the idea of turning this powerfully flavorful, yet simple sauce into a soup.
To that end, I browned four slices of Benton's bacon over medium heat in my largest stock pot and removed them when they were cooked through. To the melted fat which they left in their wake, I added three diced large red onions and a few pinches of red chili flakes and sauteed over medium-low heat. After ten minutes, I dropped in two 35 oz. cans of San Marzano peeled tomatoes, sans the liquid they are canned with, and mashed them into the onions with a potato masher. I popped the top on the pot, and let the mixture cook over low heat for 90 minutes.
When the lid was removed, I returned the bacon to the party (after a rough chop) and let the mix simmer uncovered for another ten minutes. After a little adjustment of seasoning with salt and pepper, the soup was ready to serve.
I'm sorry Campbell's. but this was truly a soup that ate like a meal. Hearty, warm, with a subversive kick from the chili flake, it was the kind of food I long for on a winter's evening. The flavor was rich with bacon, but that richness was cut by the sweetness and acidity of the tomatoes and the natural sugar in the red onion. It was my favorite creation of the evening and will be a staple for many NFL Sundays to come.
You're the inspiration... (sadly no one photographed the actual dish I made)
For our fourth plate of piggy goodness, I decided to have a little fun. I wanted to showcase just how good this bacon was by offering it in very traditional ways. To do that, I made a course I decided to call "Bacon All Day." The plate consisted of three mini sandwiches, none of which was particularly novel. I made a mini bacon egg and cheese biscuit, a hot peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich and a bacon cheeseburger slider that I augmented by adding bits of bacon inside the burger patty.
Three Little Pigs
These simple sandwiches were hopefully able to convey how different and delicious Allen Benton's bacon is than that typically consumed in these common sandwiches. While I probably should have tried to go a little lighter (perhaps a BLT rather than the burger), I think the point was made. Everyone had a different favorite, but all agreed that the star was shining brightly in its bacony glory.
For my last act, I took the suggestion of a good friend from high school who used to live in Los Angeles named Tristan. In L.A., he told me, there was a restaurant famous for its bacon cheesecake, which consisted of of a layer of bacon slices set between the crust and cake on an otherwise standard cheesecake.
Being a lazy and poorly equipped baker, I ditched the idea to splurge for a spring-form pan and copy the cake to a T and decided instead to use the recipe as a jumping off point for my own creation.
I purchased a frozen NY Style Cheesecake from Trader Joe's and let it sit out on the counter for four hours until the cake became malleable. At that point, I sprinkled crumbled bits of extra crispy Niman Ranch Bacon (the Benton's is perhaps too flavorful for this application) and crushed honey graham crackers over the top of the cake. I then kneaded the crumbs and crumbles into the cake until there were bits of both in every bite. Next, I rolled the mixture into bite sized balls and stored them in the ice box until about 20 minutes before they were ready to serve, when I let them sit out on a counter to soften up. My friends and I really enjoyed the classic mixture of sweet and salty, but it was my coworkers who were most impressed when I brought in left-overs to sample the following day. Comments ranged from, it's not that bad to "it's almost better than sex." I wish I were making this up. I'm not.
Now you can have your pudding while you eat your meat.
All in all, we went through about 60 slices of bacon that evening, each serving its own delicious purpose.
Here's what bacon lover and attendee Victoria had to say:
"The meal was nothing but decadent and sinful. Of course, I knew this going into it, so I prepared well with a pair of stretchy pants. My favorites were the amuse bouche (bacon wrapped in bacon) and the bacon breakfast sandwich, which haunted me in my dreams last night. I think the high I was feeling from this meal caused me to say some lascivious things to Smith, so I'd like to make a public apology to my fiance."
Afterwards, I actually hurt all over.
It was worth every last bite.
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