If you grew up in the South, and it was a while back, you will no doubt remember that dreaded staple of a southern quick lunch: pimento cheese sandwiches on white bread.
Pimento cheese way back then was a kind of industrial product that came in a plastic tub, favored by busy mothers and school cafeterias. Thick and cloying and bright orange, when spread on Wonder bread it made a kind of a tasteless mush sandwich. I avoided it at all costs.
Then several years ago we went to the swanky bar at Charleston Place, and chef Louis Osteen had positioned a huge bowl of homemade pimento cheese right at the entrance to the bar. Next to it was a pile of crunchy lavash to spread it on. I tasted it, and swooned. It in no way resembled the orange horror of my youth. It was crack on a cracker.
Later, our Charleston grocery store began carrying a gourmet brand called My Three Sons that was fabulous. For some reason it never occurred to me to make my own.
Until France, that is. Unable to buy it here, I decided to wade in. It is only recently that I’ve been able to find cheddar here in France routinely, so it’s a new endeavor. Who knew pimento cheese was so easy to make?
The only hard part is settling on your favorite recipe. Louis Osteen’s recipe is now on-line, and everyone from Paula Deen to the Lee Brothers has checked in with their version. The differences are small, but important.
Pimento cheese is basically a grated cheddar/mayo mash-up, with chopped pimentos or roasted red peppers. Other possible additions include a bit of grated onion, and something for heat, like chopped jalapenos or cayenne pepper. But the biggest decision you must make is this: chefs have started adding cream cheese in various proportions, or even replacing the mayo with cream cheese. The latter, in my opinion, makes it into something else entirely, namely a cheeseball, and makes it too heavy. I prefer a good mayo, with just a bit of cream cheese thrown in for richness.
Of course folks are experimenting with other ingredients, such as gruyere and other cheeses, and all sorts of additions (my sister's friend Collin has a pimento cheese business near Atlanta called Aunt Lollies', she makes a different variety for every day of the week!). Play if you like, but do come back to the original, which if truth be told cannot be much improved upon.
Below is the result of my experimenting. The French, by the way, do not love cheddar (it’s English, after all) and are cheese purists who generally turn their noses up at cheese balls or blends of any kind. I can’t wait to spring this on them!
I'm happy to hear from anybody else who has made their own, dissenting opinions welcome!
RECIPE: Southern Pimento Cheese
One recipe suggested using homemade mayo. Now that would be delicious!
I prefer to serve pimento cheese with crackers, because I like the contrast of soft cheese with crunch. Or melt some onto a burger, or pair it with a slice of tomato on a grilled cheese sandwich.
2 1/2 cups sharp Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup good quality mayonnaise
1 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon grated onion (or finely chopped scallion bulb)
1 roasted red pepper, chopped fine, drained if from a jar ( and from a jar is fine)
a finely chopped small hot pepper (optional, and/or use cayenne pepper to taste)
sea salt and black pepper to taste
chopped chives or green part of scallions, chopped, for garnish
crackers
Grate the cheese. It doesn’t need to be finely grated; I do it with a box grater, using the largest holes.
Add the mayo and cream cheese and mash together well with a fork. Or use a mixer if you like, on low speed. It’s not meant to be super-smooth, it’s a bit chunky and rustic. Stir in the onion, peppers, and spices. Taste and correct seasonings.
Turn it out into a pretty bowl and garnish with chives or scallions. Serve with crackers.
In the COMMENTS, on our Kangoo camionette: Bonnie, I love that idea, a Kangoo is the perfect getaway car! Vicky, the red Morgan IS a bit more classy. Frank, I'm not surprised they would press them into service for ambulances, they use them for everything else. Lin, Ron is a proud "white van man"! Bonnie, we shall now forever call them "vin vans". Because we often use ours, not to gather grapes, but to stack up with cases of wine for the cave! And Debbie, thank you for the kind comments.
Favorite Reads: If you, like me, tend to get dispirited over the current sorry political situation in the US, time for an escape from the horrors. I've gone way back, to humorist PG Wodehouse, remember him? I'm finding comfort in reading about that famous valet, Jeeves. Wodehouse was prolific, but try Carry on, Jeeves. What ho, old chaps!
And in the French blog department, here's a great new one for you, from one of our readers: Eiffel-Tells, reflections on French life from an Australian living in the northern part of Burgundy. You'll enjoy her post on lavoirs this week.
16 thoughts on “A Southern Delight, Rediscovered”
Pimento cheese was one of the horrors of my childhood – along with mushrooms (because i couldn’t understand what they were and no adult could supply an adequate explanation), but I think I may be coming around to pimento cheese — slowly. You make it sound good.
Hi Lynn,
In my humble view, your best piece yet. The writing is as delicious as you make pimento cheese sound — which I also avoided at all costs while
my mother did not.
Hope you and Ron are well. Everything is snug on Wappoo.
Peter
To make a truly, authentic, Southern pimento cheese, it is required that only Duke’s mayonnaise be used.
Merci…a bientôt, Patty & Jock
My goodness! I can’t help but wonder what kind of “p’minna” cheese you two (Lynn/Lin) were fed! I was never served it at school; only at home and my mother’s was delicious! I make a variation of my mother’s by adding a small amount of cream cheese and less mayo but the cream cheese is always the whipped variety so it won’t be heavy and I always use Duke’s mayo instead of Hellman’s. I love both but Duke’s tastes more like homemade to me.
A couple of years ago I, too, experimented with a few different cheeses but always went back to extra sharp cheddar. When I make it for sandwiches I don’t add extras like chopped onions or chopped pecans. But when I make it to spread on crackers I do add onions, cayenne, tabasco and often finely chopped pecans.
Tailgating during football season (Go Dogs!) wouldn’t be the same without “p’minna” cheese sandwiches on the table!!
P.S. White bread is the only bread for these sandwiches!
My mother always added a little freshly squeezed lemon juice to her pimento cheese. ‘Helps brighten the flavor.
Crack on a cracker is correct! And the ideal cracker is a Nabisco saltine.I use a slightly modified version of Frank Stitt’s. We had a huge debate on Facebook recently about what kind of mayo to use. I go for Hellman’s, the mayo of my childhood, but native Alabamians prefer Duke’s. Homemade mayo sounds ideal, but the store-bought stuff keeps a lot longer.
Lynn,
As you know we also grew up with pimento cheese and yes since we went to the same elementary and high school, we had plenty growing up. When I moved to Orlando I drifted away from that cheesy delight. That was until Bonnie and I had as occasion to visit Charleston. We stayed at an old, classy hotel called the Ansonborough Inn and as luck would have it,pimento cheese was served on white bread at happy hour. It was spectacular! Bonnie then regrettably decided she could make it at home. Well,being from the north (isn’t Kentucky a Yankee state??), lets just say it wasn’t quite as good as Charleston. In any event we found a “store bought” pimento cheese that is very good. It’s Palmetto Pimento Cheese and it is made in Pawleys Island, right up Highway 17 from Charleston and available in many states. Worth the search. Enjoy. Hats off to Vicki who understands the only real mayonnaise is Dukes!!
Growing up in the West(Arizona) we weren’t well acquinted with pimento cheese or the sandwiches and the and stuff wep did have(in jars) sent us running for the hills.
Your recipe sounds wonderful and gives me incentive to try it,SOON!
What a terrific surprise to discover something formly regarded as supremely yucky is now,instead,supremely yummy(!)
THANK YOU,Lynn!!
Love good pimiento cheese! A shop here in Lexingon, Va. makes theirs with cheddar and cream cheese and…wait for it…sweet pickled jalapeño- delish.
Many years ago (in the 70s), Louis Osteen opened his first restaurant in Atlanta -Harts in Andrews Square. I happened by as he and his business partner, Warren Johnson, were preparing the menu and were stuck on desserts. After several salty dogs, I blurted out that I made a wonderful cheesecake and could provide them and I ran by the A&P, got the ingredients and pulled out my mother’s recipe. Did I mention I had never made a cheesecake in my life, but mother had just sent me her recipe and I knew it was good. One of the local papers declared it “Atlanta’s Best Cheesecake.” Thanks for bringing back a fun memory.
I am a New England transplant in California, and pimento cheese was used in my house as a child (Southern cuisine is remarkably close to New England cuisine in my opinion). I, however, liked it. Two of my siblings were picky eaters. One brother and I were (and both are) omnivores (though I now shy away from red meat) and we would eat virtually anything–and lots of it. We ate the oysters in the delicious oyster stew my mother made, would devour an entire jar of pickles and drink the juice–like thieves in the night, loved the lobster rolls we were served at the little joint on the river after church on Sunday. The picky siblings ate none of those things. Their loss. I would be horrified at this point to even try the pimento spread from my youth as my palate has become somewhat more “specialized.” Yours, on the other hand, is most appealing. I’m going to print it out and shove it the front of my beloved recipe book along with others you have so generously shared with us readers.
Speaking of returning to books long ago written, I’ve been catching up on Mary Higgins Clark’s first books (mysteries). What fun. And I’ve considered re-reading All the President’s Men (neither of these is as old as anything written by PG Wodehouse) in light of recent apparent shenanigans and their unraveling. Of course, that might not provide the escape many of us yearn for.
Carry on, Lynn. Please!
Pimento cheese was a staple of my SC childhood. I still remember the lidded clear glass container my mother used! Yes, Duke’s mayo if you are in the US. Careful with the salt as the cheese is already salty. Nothing better on white, wheat, rye, toasted or not!! Love it with Triscuits too!
Thanks fir this recipe, Lynn, and for alerting the world to pimento cheese!
First of all, I grew up in Kentucky on my mother’s homemade pimiento cheese. We always spelled it PIMIENTO.
It was usually made with sharp yellow cheddar, but in later years, after we discovered sharp white cheddar, we used that – usually Vermont cheddar. We NEVER added cream cheese, and to this day, I’m prejudiced against it. Also we did not make it spicy. We’d use a tad of ground cayenne, but my mother’s secret ingredient was a little sugar, or honey. I use honey. If you have never added a little “sweet” to your pimiento cheese, try it. It makes all the difference. I’d say just a tsp to a large bowl of it. My current mayo of choice is Trader Joe’s Organic, which has no sugar, and is cholesterol free. I prefer pimiento cheese on sandwiches – good white or rye bread, but I can recall as a child that once in a while I’d have a little on a graham cracker for a slightly sweet and savory dessert. I also recall that whenever we took a picnic supper anywhere, it would include home fried chicken and pimiento cheese, which oddly pair well.
PS – forgot – we used no onion or pickle either.
What wonderful memories you gave me today! My mother’s pimento cheese was the best! My husband and I moved to our “new” home in the beautiful Lomagne in southwest France last July, ten days after we retired. We love the fresh foods and wines we find with ease here, but at times, we enjoy preparing the recipes we remember from our youth. Our Saturday market just started carrying cheddar, heart-shaped and covered in a beautiful burgundy wax. We, too, miss Duke’s mayo, but find that Casino’s mayo works well as a substitute. I enjoy reading your posts!
I am a South Carolinian of many generations and pimento cheese lover. It h as always been home made at our house. Each of us has our own recipe, and we all love it. My grandmother’s version used “rat trap cheese” cut from a wheel with a black wax covering. My version requires New York State extra sharp cheddar. For a pound of cheese I use a 4 ounce jar of chopped pimentos, with juice. This makes the cheese look like the traditional orange cheese. I add about a tablespoon of liquid from a jar of pimento stuffed olives, cayenne pepper, and Duke’s mayonnaise. There is usually some homemade pimento cheese in the refrigerator of most of my family members. We never use the grocery store stuff.
I enjoy your blog very much. My children were born in Charleston, and we have a long standing love of France. Please keep writing a nd posting your excellent pictures.