Recently I had lunch with a group of colleagues at Zingerman’s Roadhouse in Ann Arbor, Mich. We were looking over the menu and one exclaimed,”Oh, pimento cheese! They have pimento cheese! Have you ever had it?”
I was surrounded by non-Southerners. Some had tried it; most had never heard of it.
Pimento cheese reared its Southern head twice on that menu. Once, as an appetizer (at $5.75) and in a main dish pasta, called Pimento Cheese and Peppered Bacon Macaroni, for $18.50. Someone at the table ordered the macaroni dish, and when it arrived, my fellow diners viewed it as scientists pondering a microscope slide.
“This is pimento cheese?”
Isn’t this interesting? What kind of cheese is this?”
“So I guess you just make the pimento cheese sauce and mix it in with the macaroni and bacon.”
Being the well-brought-up Southern girl I am, I smiled, nodded and took the taste that was offered.
But, just between you and me, here are my answers:
No, this is not pimento cheese.
No, it is not interesting. It is weird. Pimento cheese is made with sharp orange cheddar. It is NOT made with white cheese.
You do not make “pimento cheese sauce.” It’s not a sauce, it’s a spread.
Can you tell I’m a pimento cheese purist?
Well, by golly, I’ve got a right to be. Like most Southerners my age, I grew up eating pimento cheese. My mom made it in a big bowl, covered it and kept it in the refrigerator. Summer lunches were either sandwiches of pimento cheese or tomato, both served on Bunny Bread white. For a special treat, my mother might toast that pimento cheese sandwich until the filling got all melty.
Who could have predicted that our little pimento cheese would grow up to be a trendy food?
Well, it’s happened. Pimento cheese is popping up everywhere. Food blogs all over the country are extolling the virtues of this Southern classic. In Texas, they’re serving it with Fritos. One food columnist called it the “South’s answer to queso dip.” Restaurants are serving it with BLTs, in a spread with pineapple and pita points. New York magazine called it “the country bumpkin of hamburger toppings.”
Nation’s Restaurant News, a magazine for the food-service industry predicts pimento cheese will be the fourth biggest restaurant trend in 2011 (behind neckmeats, whey and kumquats). I promise I am not making this up.
When my non-Southern dining companions found out that I’d been eating pimento cheese since I was a tadpole, they peppered me with questions about how to make it at home. It’s the easiest thing in the world, and I’m going to tell you how to do it, so you can impress all your friends and be trendy.
(If you want to serve this with neckbones and kumquats, you’re on your own.)
Pimento Cheese