Sweet Mothers Kitchen

The Best Pimento Cheese Ever

by

Pimento Cheese
Ingredients
  • THE RECIPE
  • “Lella’s Pimento Cheese”
  • • Cheddar cheese, grated, about 1/2 a food processor full
  • • 1 small jar whole pimentos
  • • dash onion powder
  • • dash red pepper
  • • dash Worcestershire sauce
  • • pinch sugar (less than 1/4 tsp)
  • • Homemade mayonnaise
  • “Lella’s” Mayonnaise
  • Makes about 1 cup of mayonnaise, we usually double it to have enough to also spread on the bread.
  • • 1 egg
  • • 1 cup oil (add 1/4 in the beginning, reserve 3/4 cup)
  • • 1/2 tsp dry mustard
  • • dash cayenne
  • • 1/2 tsp salt
  • • 1 Tablespoon Lemon juice
  • • onion powder to taste
Instructions
  1. Place all ingredients in food processor (or blender), reserving 3/4 cup oil. Add remaining oil slowly while processing. (We use the metal blade on the processor.) As I have said, my processor is old, but the tool to push food in the processor has a tiny hole to allow air in. (I don’t know if they all do.) My sister-in-law, Libby Griffin discovered this trick while learning to make Lella’s mayonnaise. If you put the pusher in the opening and pour your oil in the pusher–it allows a tiny constant stream of oil to be added to the mayonnaise while you are processing. Using this method, we never have the mayonnaise separate.
  2. Please understand, Lella was an old-timey cook. She didn’t often use measurements (usually the only time was when she was baking) so that is why the recipe reads as it does. If you consider it I will try to work on some measurements if you deem them necessary.
Pimento Cheese
  1. Blend grated cheese and pimento in food processor until well blended. Add mayonnaise as needed, blend again, add other ingredients, blend. (The pimento cheese is a solid color and you cannot see the pimentos once blended.)
Notes
Lella loved Pepperidge Farms very thinly sliced bread, both white and wheat. She would cut the edges off the bread (of course!) and spread just a dab of mayonnaise on one slice of bread, and then thinly spread the pimento cheese on the other side, put the slices together and add the sandwiches to the platter. Cover them with a dampened tea towel (again, of course!) until all were made. (She always made up the entire batch of pimento cheese into sandwiches while it was freshly made and pliable.) She would then wrap the whole shebang with Saran Wrap within an inch of its life, and put them in the fridge. (You don’t mess around with mayonnaise). When it came time to take the sandwiches to the event, she would leave them out a few minutes to return to room temperature. ( I don’t mean to imply that she made the sandwiches far in advance, for example, she usually rose around five in the morning, if she needed them that day she might go ahead and make them, and take them to a friend in early afternoon.)[br](If absolutely necessary, if I am taking the sandwiches to an event, not family I will substitute Hellman’s—but never for family, they would not forgive me!—Also there is currently a problem getting Pepperidge Farms bread in Oxford.)

pimento_cheese_wc_edited-2In 2003, the Southern Foodways Alliance held a Pimento Cheese Invitational, and this is the recipe that topped the other 300 entrants, courtesy of Oxford’s Nan Davis’ Aunt Lella. Pimento cheese with homemade mayo is the bomb! I found this recipe when I lived in Atlanta a few years ago. I was online searching for a good pimento cheese recipe and I found this one on the Southern Foodways website. It was when the site still had stories all over it about everything. It was so quaint, engaging and southern! I just loved that format! Today the site’s a bit different and I can no longer find the pimento cheese recipe on it. But not to fear, it’s available online if you know how to look for it – and it still tastes the same! YUM! The recipe is great and the story behind it is even better! I’ll let you see for yourself and I will include the recipe in it’s entirety – including the story. I especially like the way the recipe tells you to add a pinch of this or a dash of that. This helps make your batch your own because what is a pinch or a dash to you may be different for me. Also, it doesn’t say how much of the homemade mayo to use so I use most of it, but I keep a little extra on the side for cold leftover turkey sandwiches – it’s really good mayo! To Nan and Aunt Lella, thanks for sharing, we appreciate you both!

Photo to follow the next time I make this delicious pimento cheese.  It’s total yum!

 

 

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