Pimento Cheese: Everything You Need to Know

Entire books have been written on pimento cheese, a neither-here-nor-there eatable that boasts a unique history and significant following among avid cheese lovers and proponents of classic Southern cooking. Similar to "American cheese," pimento cheese is a cheese in name only and is made by taking a true cheese and mixing it with other ingredients to achieve the final result – a spreadable, meltable topping.

Typically made from a mixture of shredded cheddar and chopped pimento peppers bound with mayonnaise, cream cheese, or both, pimento cheese is a southern delicacy that defies classification. It can be used as a topping, dip, relish, or spread, mixed into pasta and casseroles, or used as the main ingredient in a sandwich or wrap.

When it comes to pimento cheese, simplicity is key, and the only hard and fast rule is not to forget the pimento.

All About Pimiento Peppers

Valued for their sweetness and not their heat, pimiento (or, alternately, pimento) peppers fall near the rock bottom of the Scoville heat scale, with less spice to their name than any other pepper save the mouth-friendly bell pepper.

Commonly harvested, preserved, and stuffed into the cocktail olives inside your refrigerator, you may be surprised to learn this pepper is even more frequently found in the spice cabinet. Dried and ground, this mellow pepper is otherwise known as paprika – a spice commonly used to make taco seasoning, chili powder, and barbeque sauce. Alone, regular or smoked paprika is often used to top deviled eggs or mixed into a pot of Spanish rice.

Versatile in use and mild in flavor, the pimiento pepper finds its way into a vast array of recipes hailing from many different cuisines.

The History of Pimento Cheese

Exactly where and how modern-day pimento cheese was invented is debatable and comes down to your own personal definition of what qualifies as "pimento cheese," so we'll go back to the beginning and let you decide.

Advances in Manufacturing

Invented in the 1870s, cream cheese first got its start as the American answer to Neufchatel cheese. What began in the name of efficiency – as a way to stretch ingredients and circumvent the more laborious processing and aging required to produce classic Neufchatel cheese – ended with the creation of an entirely new dairy-based spread.

Developed by mixing plain cream with Neufchatel curd before molding the resulting blend into the small, rectangular "bricks" still found in contemporary grocery stores, cream cheese quickly surpassed its predecessor in popularity and holds fast today as a universal fixture of nearly every dairy case in America.

Around the same time as domestically developed cream cheese was exploding into popularity in the northern US, a new import was also making its mark. Canned and jarred pimiento peppers, imported from Spain, had come to be considered an upscale and fashionable delicacy in modern households of the era.

A New School of Thought

Embodying the industrial advances of the time period, a movement known as Domestic Science (laying the groundwork for the popularity of Good Housekeeping Magazine, the introduction of home economics classes, and the eventual rise of Martha Stewart Living) began to gain traction. Led by women, this movement sought to classify, categorize, organize, improve, and structure domestic "sciences" such as cooking, caring for the home, and child rearing.

It's only natural that such a movement would have seized upon both modern-day, industrially produced and packaged cream cheese as well as the trendy and sophisticated pimento pepper and combined them into the first version of pimento cheese: a mild and spreadable mixture often found layered thinly on delicate white bread and included with other fashionable tea sandwiches of the era.

The Spread of a Good Thing

As time passed and industrialization progressed, bottled and canned goods became more and more affordable. This, in conjunction with the development of domestic pimiento pepper farms, led to the proliferation and wide availability of canned and jarred pimientos among all social classes. It wasn't long before pimientos, along with "hoop cheese" or "rat cheese," could be found in many kitchens all over the nation.

Made by compressing cottage cheese curds with cheesecloth and a cheese hoop to squeeze out all the whey and then forming the drained curds into rounds and sealing them with wax, hoop cheese was simple and cheap to make for farmers throughout the US. Because it didn't require a factory to produce and could be made at home, hoop cheese (with a flavor similar to a very mild cheddar) was much more commonly found in southern farm kitchens than the northern favorite, cream cheese.

As the popularity of mass-produced and affordable pimento cheese spread, it wasn't long before a new variation of pimento cheese arose. Combining shredded hoop cheese, canned pimientos, and mayonnaise, this new iteration of pimento cheese added robust flavor and a more substantial texture to what had previously been a food item reserved for spreading thinly on delicate finger sandwiches.

A Lasting Legacy

Cheap, filling, and simple to make, this new variation of pimento cheese quickly took hold. What had begun as a bourgeois tea-time delicacy found its lasting roots alongside chicken, tuna, and egg salads as a humble and affordable staple of factory workers' and farmhands' lunches throughout the US. Packed in brown paper sacks or sold off mobile lunch carts, crackers and sandwiches topped with pimento cheese quickly became a reliable comfort food to replenish workers' energy at a midday break.

Interestingly enough, the popularity of the original cream cheese-based "pimento cheese" spread eventually died down and was largely forgotten, leaving behind its legacy in the form of an indelible mark on the regional cuisine of southern America. Today, almost anyone you ask for their opinion would answer that pimento cheese is as classically Southern as sweet iced tea and peach pie.

Found slathered on biscuits, sandwiched between layers of bacon and fried green tomatoes, baked into muffins, stirred into grits, stuffed into deviled eggs, and spread on classic plain white bread, pimento cheese now winds its way through the menus of contemporary upscale eateries and casual fast food chains alike.

How to Use Pimento Cheese

If confusion over exactly what to do with finished pimento cheese is what brought you here, you're in luck: The answer is just about anything.

As a spread. From croquettes and crackers to pretzels and crostini, pimento cheese marries well with a wide variety of snacks and finger foods. Aside from the classic pimento cheese sandwich, which usually consists of two pieces of plain white bread with a generous layer of pimento cheese slathered in between, you will find that pimento cheese makes an excellent addition to many hors d'oeuvres.

Included as part of a cheese plate, a dip option for crudité and pretzel sticks, an element of a charcuterie board, or a topping for crackers, pimento cheese is extremely versatile. Delicious and spreadable, this cheesy mixture can be included as a component in many appetizers and snacks with a pleasing result.

As an ingredient. Almost anywhere you can use cheddar cheese, you can use pimento cheese. Add it to your mac and cheese recipe for a creamy kick. Stir it into grits for bold breakfast flavor. Layer it on a BLT for a hearty lunch. Use it to top burgers, chicken breasts, hot dogs or pork chops. Serve it alongside fried green tomatoes, put it in your quesadilla, or layer it on fried potatoes and broil it in the oven for a hot and delicious plate of gooey, crispy, loaded french fries. Stuff it into hollowed out halves of avocado with a dash of lemon juice for a cold summer lunch option or bake it into yellow squash and serve hot for dinner.

There's really no wrong way to use pimento cheese (unless you're trying to use it in a cheesecake, but you do you), so feel free to work it into all your favorite cheese-based recipes.