Bury St Edmunds food writer Nicola Miller writes about the history of pimento cheese and how it has become a symbol of the American South
If you are a British fan of Better Call Saul you might have heard of pimento cheese.
“Buy yourself some pimento cheese and some white bread. You take two slices of bread and you spread, the correct amount of cheese, like so. Then, you close, and you’re done. Congratulations,” Mike says to Jesse, offering him a sandwich on a stakeout.
This was screened back in 2015 but pimento cheese (or pimiento cheese as it is also known) is still relatively unknown in the UK. I know of one company selling it online and -– unsurprisingly – its owner is an American who started her business because she felt it was time we were introduced to ‘the paté of the American South’.
Like a lot of things in the South, this blend of Cheddar (or other sharp cheese), pimento peppers and mayonnaise, plus any number of add-ins, is ostensibly a simple food with a complicated past.
It’s not even Southern despite its quintessential ‘Southernness’. Pimento cheese is believed to have its roots in New York State when the makers of soft cream cheese started to combine it with imported pimento peppers for sale as a premade spread after recipes doing just this appeared in magazines aimed at women. As imported pimentos rose in price, farmers in the South began to grow them and pimento cheese was sold nationwide. It became increasingly popular.
For a long time, the pimento cheese eaten at home came from a store; food historian Robert Moss says he can find only anecdotal evidence of it being made at home before World War Two.
It’s my experience that many Americans have a family recipe for pimento cheese, but it’s the Southerners who are the most vocal and possessive whenever there is a debate about how it should be made.
Despite its Yankee roots, this spread has become a symbol of the South: it fills the sandwiches traditionally sold at the Masters' tournament in Georgia; you’ll find it on the menu in roadside cafés and higher-end restaurants, used in creative ways by chefs manning a pop-up, and served by the bucketload in homes and gatherings all over the South.
On my last trip to the States, a jar of freshly-made pimento cheese and a sleeve of crackers had been left for me in the fridge (thanks Cam!), which I devoured early the next morning as I sat behind mesh fly screens on a little side porch. God, it was good. When I imagined the South before my first visit long ago, I thought of screened porches and daybeds and languorous, syrupy-slow days. Turns out it is a bit like this. It’s hot a lot of the time, the air can be as thick as Golden Syrup and there are lots of bugs. The porches I saw as romantic, whimsical and fanciful were actually practical and necessary. Sometimes a cliché turns out not to be one after all.
I just adore pimento cheese. If you’ve never eaten it before, go simple and classic: dollop it on Ritz crackers which are very similar to the Triscuits served by a lot of Southerners. Don’t use expensive, artisanal crackers for your first time.
When you’ve eaten it on crackers then – and only then – should you progress to using it as a sandwich spread. This is ‘my’ recipe, but in reality, it is an amalgam of God knows how many other recipes and a process of trial and error. Any Southerner reading this is likely to scream in horror because it is not how they make it. I love them for this.
NOTES:
When you make it, don’t use pre-grated cheese which contains anti-caking ingredients. Buy block cheese. I use Cornish Quartz Cheddar because I love how its little crunchy crystals of lactate taste in pimento cheese. The pimentos can be bought canned or jarred online from places like Healthy Supplies, Ocado, Brindisa, Amazon, Waitrose, Tesco and most other supermarkets etc and in-store (look for the Peppadew brand) via supermarkets and independent food shops. They're pretty low on the Scoville Scale.
Pimento cheese is lovely on burgers and pork chops or fries, inside toasties served by themselves or with a bowl of tomato soup (preferably Heinz for a shot of old-timey nostalgia), added to a BLT, used as a filling for devilled eggs, sticks of celery or as a dip and even stirred into mashed potatoes. It is super versatile.
PIMENTO CHEESE
Ingredients:
400g/14oz Cornish Quartz Cheddar (or the Cheddar of your choice) coarsely grated by hand or shredded in a food processor
200g/7oz of pimentos, finely diced.
2 tablespoons mayonnaise (but add more if you prefer a looser consistency)
Hot sauce (to your taste)
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Method:
Place the cheese in a large mixing bowl. Add the finely diced pimentos and blend them together using a fork. Now add the mayonnaise and hot sauce and mix them in. If the mixture feels too stiff add a little more mayo. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Keep refrigerated for up to three days.
Follow Nicola on Twitter: @Nicmillerstale
Winner of the Guild of Food Writers Online Food Writer Award 2020
Fortnum & Mason Cookery Writer of the Year 2022
