Chow Bacon Salt: Uncut
posted by on September 12 at 13:20 PM
This morning I interviewed two local entrepreneurs, Dave Lefkow and Justin Esch, the creators of Bacon Salt. The interview will debut as a Chow Bio in the coming weeks, but due to space limitations, I had to pare a lot down. However, I feel that their struggle to conquer the American Dream—earning fat profits from bacon-flavored salt—should not be abridged.
Bacon Salt is, as Lefkow and Esch put it, the new salt. It comes in three flavors: Original, Hickory, and Peppered.
Worth noting:
It is Kosher.
It is Vegetarian.
Hickory flavor is Vegan.
The partial inspiration for Bacon Salt is a drink called the Mitch Morgan, found at the Fat Alley BBQ in Eschh’s hometown of Telluride, CO. A Mitch Morgan is a shot of bourbon with a slice of bacon in the glass, as a garnish. When they hired a flavor-tech to design Bacon Salt, this was their taste proposal: “It should taste like the smell of bacon fried on a Sunday morning.”
When Lefkow and Esch started Bacon Salt eight months ago, they borrowed $5,000 from Lefkow’s son, Dean, as startup money.
Dean is three-years-old.
He’d won $5,000 dollars on America’s Funniest Home Videos, which apparently still exists.
Esch and Lefkow keep all production of Bacon Salt local: The flavors are blended in Idaho, and then packaged and labeled in Tacoma. Labels are printed on Capitol Hill, and the boxes and bottles are produced in Tacoma.
Sometimes they pay people, like lawyers, in salt. They claim that the Romans once did this, so it’s cool.
Bacon Salt enthusiasts—who span 19 countries and all 50 states—have tried the product on nearly everything: potatoes (fried, mashed, whathaveyou), corn on the cobb, popcorn, watermelon, pineapple, steak, eggs (fried, scrambled), green beans, assorted vegetables, chocolate, bloody marys, pasta, guacamole, and peaches. The only thing Esch and Lefkow haven’t liked it on was ice cream.
I tried Bacon Salt for the first time this morning. It made my fingers taste fucking delicious. Then a plate of Bacon Salted eggs made sweet love to my tongue before tap dancing its way to my stomach.
You can order Bacon Salt online here, or at City Fish in the Pike Street Marketplace.
Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention.
Hickory Bacon Salt, here I come!!!
Cienna, tell me you asked them how the hell they make it (no calories, vegetarian, etc.) taste like bacon?!?
Another Kosher food appearing to delight our taste buds is always cause for celebration. The basic laws of kashrut fouond in the Torah's Book of Leviticus demand vegan dining to be in God's light.
I can't wait to try kosher bacon salt. The pork eating goyium with their bacon burgers disgust me. Now I can eat bacon flavored foods and remain above goyium.
"Pike Street Marketplace." Ms. Madrid, you funny!
Tacoma, Idaho? That doesn't sound local to me! Oh, the labels are printed on Capitol Hill? That's more like it.
ah, that's not meant to imply that Tacoma is in Idaho...sarcasm gone terribly wrong there...
in related news, the steelhead diner offers smoked salt in its shakers, which is pretty goddam good.
Most awesome in corn chowder.
Alas, my Doc says, "Bacon - bad. Salt - bad." So, no Bacon Salt for me, boo-hoo.
@4:
It sounds like you might have thought Cienna was making a "funny" by mixing up an anagram for "Pike Place Market", however, she's referring to a real store (if by "store" we mean, "a fru-fru-chi-chi upscale convenience store") up on Pike & Belmont I believe.
OVER salt eating is a major problem in American Health - TOO much sodium.
Water retention, messes with your heart, blood pressure, hyper tension, much longer list.
Bacon salt, go get fucked. Have not used salt in any form for twenty years.
Try a splash of hot sauce, MUCH better than bogus chemical laden salt concoctions - also lemon and lime juice help flavor anything, all natural.
So rather than including naturally delicious bacon, they instead use corn syrup, bleached flour, monosodium glutamate, maltodextin, vegetable shortening (trans fat), and hydrolyzed veggie protein?
Um, no thanks. I'll stick to the real thing and let the vegetarians eat all that shit.
http://baconsalt.com/images/shop/nutrition-original.gif
Amy Kate--
I was prepared to be horrified at the list of ingredients, but the main ones are relatively mild. Here are the top 5 for Original Flavor:Salt, dehydrated garlic, paprika, dehydrated onion, and corn syrup. Most of the other ingredients are recognizable as well.
I have no idea how they pull it off, but it really does taste like delicious bacon.
wow. msg AND transfat. with the taste of bacon? I'll have to make sure to pick up a gallon of soda to drink with that one.
For awhile I was excited about Bacon Salt, but then I realized I could just make some real bacon and sprinkle THAT on everything.
So .. what did the kid do that won him the money on AFV? Was he the kid whose eyes would bug out when they turned the lights out on him, or what?
Thanks to google...
And none of that would have been possible without the help of Lefkow's three-year-old, Dean. The family recorded a video of the boy hitting a T-ball into his dad's face. That video was picked in a random drawing from America's Funniest Home Videos, winning $5,000.
Also...
@10
It does say an all natural version is coming soon...
But, aside from that...
I was vegetarian for 7+ years and I can now (re)attest that there is absolutely nothing as delicious as bacon. Oh, wait...except for *THIS*!!!!
http://www.schallerweber.com/nutrition-smokedbacon.html
And just to provide that contrary opinion so popular on these here Slogs, *I* have been a vegetarian for 7+ years and can (re)attest that bacon is nasty, nasty shit. Still can't stomach the stuff.
Bacon Salt is the fucking shit. I'll gladly down minuscule amounts of hydrogenated oil and MSG for convenient bacony goodness all over my popcorn, eggs & potatoes. Viva la Bacon Salt!
I'll wait for the "natural" version. Not that the original "flavors" aren't okay, but they taste, well, artificial. Then again, packaged American bacon tastes artificial, too.
You can have my nitrate-free, heirloom pork bacon when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
Absolutely irrelevant to the discussion of it being kashrout, or vegan, or whatever - BUT - I just went past their display booth at the Puyallup.
They have quite possibly the world's most amazingly gorgeous tall redhead there dispensing BaconSalt.
I may die of dehydration I had so many samples. . .
Would she still be gorgeous if she was dispensing cod liver oil samples?
Yes.
are you kidding me? america's funniest videos is the best. and i'm not being sarcastic and i'm not being an ironic hipster. people getting hit in funny places and pets doing adorable and hilarious things never gets old.
Bacon Salt has changed my life! Someone should nominate these guys for a Nobel Prize!
Bacon Salt does not make your beer taste better. You've been warned.
I like bacon flavor and all, but, Cholula seasoning is where it's at.
Ugh. I just imagined not having had salt in 20 years and now I have to spend the rest of the day huddled beneath my desk with my trusty salt lick.
"Essex" is the anti-me.
i admit i'm hooked on this stuff... or maybe i'm hooked on booze, but either way it kicks ass in a bloody mary
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