Smoke Signals | Listen

The next generation takes over Benton’s

Last year marked 50 years since Allan Benton took over the operations of a modest ham-making business in far east Tennessee. Visiting that same Madisonville cinder-block building today is like stepping back in time. The only telephone at Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams is a rotary version on Allan’s desk. The walls are lined with Post-it notes that curl at the edges with age. Old calendars with local advertisements, from a time when seven-digit phone numbers were all we knew, can be found in stacks.

It may feel like time stands still here, but to be sure, changes are afoot. Really good changes.

Raised in Scott County, Virginia, Allan Benton grew up watching and helping his mother and father cure hams, slathering the meaty legs with a mixture of sugar, salt, and spices that naturally cured the meat before it hit the hardwood smoke that sealed in the unctuous flavor. As a young adult, Allan had a brief career as a high school guidance counselor before deciding he had more of a mind to work with hams than teenagers. After all, hams don’t talk back or roll their eyes when given advice.

All kidding aside, crafting great Southern hams and bacon is just what Allan Benton has always done best. Fine-tuning his craft and producing a superior product are all he’s ever wanted to do. That his Smoky Mountain hams have been lauded by everyone from chefs of Michelin-starred restaurants to rural home cooks is lagniappe to him. And for five decades, Allan has kept an intensive work schedule—14-plus-hour days, six to seven days a week—to keep the smoking fires lit and the customers happy. It used to be that if you asked if he’d retire or sell the business, Allan was known to offer a humble response like, “Shoot—I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I weren’t here at the ham house.”

But some of that is about to change. Darrell Benton, the only son of Allan and his wife, Sharon, has joined his father in the Madisonville business.

Along with his older sisters, Suzanne and Elizabeth, Darrell grew up not far from the venerated ham house, just up the hill, in a gracious home with a view of those Smoky Mountains. While Allan logged 70-plus-hour workweeks and Sharon pursued a career in public education administration, the couple ran a tight but loving ship at home. The children were encouraged to study hard and pursue their respective passions.

Darrell graduated from nearby Maryville College before going on to medical school and becoming a radiologist. While he enjoyed connecting with and caring for patients in person, the time he spent in isolation—reviewing charts, X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs in a dark room—began to take its toll. Feeling stretched thin and less than fulfilled, he began to think back to those heady hardwood smoke-filled days in Madisonville.

After college, Darrell had spent a year at the ham house before entering medical school. Allan recalls that being a very special time—the way Darrell interacted with and treated customers, his sound business acumen, his hospitable heart. As a father, he may have silently longed to have his son join the business but that was never how he and Sharon operated. Their children had passions and dreams of their own that deserved chasing. And if you spend any time at all with the Bentons, you quickly learn that they are a strong-willed people. They are gracious and loyal and kind, but each has a mind of their own and none of them likes to be told what they ought to do.

You can imagine Allan’s delight when Darrell came to him not long ago with the notion of retiring from the medical field to join his father in the bacon business.

“I’m blessed because I’m still working, doing what I love,” Allan says. “You know, if I had any regrets, it would be that I could have spent more time with my children when they were growing up. But look where we are. I get to do that now.”

Both of their faces broaden with deep smiles when they talk about how things have been since Darrell came on full-time at the ham house. When asked what changes might be made to the operation with this “new hire,” Allan offers, “We’ve always been of the opinion that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Darrell nods in agreement but adds that he is working on updating the website to be more efficient and handle more traffic. After all, that rotary phone can only do so much.

Darrell is curious to experiment with curing other foodstuffs as well and is eager to learn all he can. Father and son would like to travel to Spain and Italy and explore other traditional preserving practices. Allan and Sharon made the trip to Spain many years ago—to Iberico ham country—and that had a lasting impact, one he wants to share with his son. “You can always learn something new, if you are paying attention,” Allan says. “Darrell has that burning desire to do it well.”

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