Salt, Time, and the Smoky Mountain Ham: A Conversation with Darrell Benton
About the Event:
Darrell Benton used to spend his workdays alone in a dark room in Knoxville, reading medical scans. Now he spends them in the curing rooms at Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams in Madisonville, Tennessee, walking past hams that have hung as long as thirty-six months, picking up mold strains found nowhere else. He calls that room the “funkatorium.”
Recently, Darrell left a career as a radiologist to join his father, Allan, who has spent more than fifty years working out what salt, smoke, and time can do to a leg of pork. Join us at MODA for a conversation about craft, patience, and what a process this slow asks of the people who keep it going, followed by a tasting of Benton's products.
Join us at MODA for an evening of conversation with Allan and Darrell Benton. We’ll talk about craft, patience, and what salt makes possible, before tasting some of the Benton’s products ourselves.
What to Expect:
Arrive early to explore MODA's latest exhibition, SALT: A Design Story
A conversation with Darrell Benton on leaving radiology for the family smokehouse
The Benton's method explained: hand-rubbed salt, hickory smoke, and a wait measured in seasons
Why the air in one corner of Tennessee produces flavors that cannot be reproduced anywhere else
A tasting of Benton's products
Time to talk with Darrell and other guests over food and drink
About Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams and Darrell Benton
Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams has operated in Madisonville, Tennessee, for more than fifty years under Allan Benton, who learned the trade from a local dairy farmer and ham curer named Albert Hicks. The method has stayed close to what Hicks taught: salt rubbed in by hand, hickory smoke, mountain air, and a wait of months or years. Lean decades gave way to a following among chefs across the South, and Benton's country ham and bacon now appear on menus around the country. The facility cures roughly eighteen thousand hams and fifty thousand pork bellies a year, including prosciutto-style hams from pasture-raised hogs that hang as long as thirty-six months.
Darrell Benton, Allan's son, grew up working at the smokehouse after school and during summers, then left for college and, in 2007, medical school. He practiced as a radiologist in Knoxville before recently returning home to join his father. He now oversees daily operations and is exploring new directions for the business.
Registration: $35 | $26.25 for MODA members
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The Fine Print
Accessibility: Designers with different styles of learning or special needs are welcome in MODA public programs. We will be able to most effectively help everyone learn and enjoy this experience if we know about those needs in advance of the program. Please email miranda@museumofdesign.org with questions or information.
Cancellation Policy: MODA reserves the right to cancel a program if the minimum enrollment requirements are not met, but don't worry: should MODA have to cancel, we will gladly issue a full refund to all registrants. If you need to cancel your plans for any reason, we kindly request that you notify us at least 7 days prior to the event start. By doing so, we can process a refund for the ticket cost (minus a small $10 processing fee per class). Unfortunately, we cannot provide refunds for cancellations made less than 7 days before an event.
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