One of the most recent was an email I received about Bacon Salt. I saw it, read it and discovered that it’s being sold right here in Wilsonville. But how could I write a story about it? If I had a food columnist – which I’m looking for, by the way – that might be a great opportunity to use the Bacon Salt in a recipe. According to the promotional materials, “everything should taste like bacon.” It didn’t really seem like front-page material.

Bacon Salt, I discovered, is an opportunity to have the taste of bacon without all the artery-hardening aspects that go with the real deal. It can be used on meat or vegetables or, I suppose, anywhere you care to have a bacon flavor.

But, I surmised, I have little use for this and moved that email on to my deleted file. Not long after, I received a phone call from the company. “Did you receive our email?” Yes. “Would you like to do a story about it?” Not really. “Well, could we send you a sample and let you try it out.” Sure, if you’d like. It’s hard to turn down something free.

And, sure enough, a box arrived on my desk a few days later with not one, but three flavors of Bacon Salt – original, hickory and peppered.

I’ve received other gratis items across my desk in the past – books, magazines, bobble heads, coupons – but I have to admit that the Bacon Salt was one of the first I’ve actually taken home. Over the weekend, I decided to give it a try on some steak I had purchased for the family.

I chose the “original” flavor, just to be safe. Personally, I would’ve preferred the peppered, but I get outvoted when I’m making family meals. I sprinkled it on my meat before grilling and let the flavors meld together – not too much, though. I didn’t want to overdo it.

With the meat grilled, I served up dinner with baked potato and salad. In retrospect, I should’ve tried the salt on our potatoes as well. It might have been a nice low-calorie substitute. When all was said and done, I have to admit that Bacon Salt wasn’t too bad. I’m actually looking forward to trying it in some homemade soup.

And so, darn it, the promotion worked. Bacon Salt sucked me in and here I am writing about it in a column, telling you readers that if you’re tired of season salt, lemon salt or taco seasoning, maybe it’s time to give something else a try.