Bacon

Sliced and frozen or cooked and cooled, bacon keeps pretty much indefinitely and is always a crowd-pleaser. You can throw it in a pasta dish or some cookie dough on a whim. The smokiest bacon I’ve ever had comes from Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams in Nashville, Tennessee. You can use their website, but the gentleman who answers the phone (403-540-3853) illustrates what people mean by Southern hospitality. Benton’s is a great ingredient-bacon because it’s extremely salty and smoky, but it might be overwhelming in a monster BLT.