BLT season

    We're well-positioned for BLT season at our house this year. Way back in June, well before the first heirloom tomatoes came in, I was walking through Central Park in New York City on my way to see the Richard Serra show at the Museum of Modern Art.  But I’d lost my husband. I looked back and there he was in the middle of a path making a cellphone call at the one serendipitous spot that got a signal. Nine o’clock in the morning and he’s ordering bacon! Not just any bacon, but hickory-smoked country bacon from Benton’s in Tennessee. This is fantastic stuff, smoked in a small wood stove smokehouse since 1947 and redolent of hickory and wood smoke. For this season, I laid in 6 pounds. (I did give some of it away to friends.) And instead of getting it thick-sliced, the way it normally comes, I asked for slab bacon, which they vacuum-sealed in 2-pound packages.
    A no-mess, no-fuss way to cook the bacon is to lay the slices on a cookie sheet and bake them in a 375-degree oven until crisp, turning them over when the tops begin to brown.
    Benton’s smoked country bacon, $5 per pound (minimum order 4 pounds), (423) 442-5003; www.bentonshams.com. I see from the website that orders are backed up several weeks. Not to worry -- Benton’s bacon is also available by mail from the Grateful Palate in Oxnard; $8.95 for 14 oz, (888) 472-5283, www.gratefulpalate.com.

-- S. Irene Virbila

Illustration by S. Irene Virbila

Comments

[Chino Wayne]

Agree on doing the bacon in the oven, but invariably, as I remove the sheet pan of cooked bacon, I will get bacon drippings all over the place.

The only way I can think of doing this without dripping bacon grease all over, is to just lift out the individual bacon slices with my tongs, then just leave the sheet tray in the oven with the oven turned off for a few hours, so the grease can coagulate. But I am sure the first time I try that, the Mrs. will come in, take a sniff or two and one look at the tray of bacon grease in her pristine oven, and my goose will be cooked