Photographed by Nick Surette, Styled by Madison Trapkin
The first recipe for pimento cheese was published in Good Housekeeping in 1908. For much of the 20th century, the popular cheese-and-sweet-pepper sandwich spread was a convenience food across the US, but it really caught on in the South so much so that the region has incorrectly been assumed to be its ancestral homeland. (In reality, pimento cheese likely originated in multiple places in the US simultaneously.)
Pimento cheese consumption used to follow strict guidelines. It was served exclusively in the following ways: spread on sliced bread, most often white, as a simple workingman’s lunch; spooned into a cucumber cup, cherry tomato, or curve of a celery stick for a fancy ladies’ luncheon or church tea; topping a Saltine or Ritz cracker for afterschool “Pimento Cheese Salad” snacking.
Affectionately known as “P-cheese,” this stuff was never slathered on a burger bun, mixed into grits, topped with bacon marmalade and served in mini Mason jars, or married with tortilla chips and heritage barbecue pork for “Southern Nachos.” Purists would never sully their beloved P-cheese in such a way! Pimento cheese was a humble cheese spread long before chefs elevated it into a fine-dining hors d’oeuvre. The following classic P-cheese recipes are a nod to those unpretentious beginnings, firmly rooted in mid-20th century Southern classics.
Old-Fashioned Southern Pimento Cheese
Ingredients
- 1 pound freshly grated extra-sharp cheddar about 4 cups
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ½ sweet onion grated
- One 4-ounce jar pimentos drained and finely chopped
- Dash of hot sauce or to taste
- Kosher salt to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- ►Combine the cheese, mayonnaise, and onions in a bowl. Stir until well combined. Add pimentos and hot sauce. Season with salt and pepper. The prepared pimento cheese can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
1. Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs
You can’t get much more Southern than deviled eggs. Well, maybe kudzu is more Southern than deviled eggs, but you can’t eat kudzu. The secret to these deviled eggs is butter, a culinary school tip that takes this Southern staple from delicious to sublime.
2. Hot Baked Pimento Cheese Dip
3. Pimento Cheese Straws
4. Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers Stuffed with Pimento Cheese
5. Pimento Cheese Tomato Herb Pie
Virginia Willis
Willis is an American chef, baker, writer, and content creator, whose work focuses on American, Southern, and French cuisine.
