Grandma Lucy’s Pimento Cheese
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Today I’m bringing you a much beloved recipe from the South. From what I read and hear, it isn’t nearly as popular outside of our little geographic region as it is here, but folks in these parts consider it a staple in every home!
Long before the days of snack cakes and convenience foods, Pimento Cheese sandwiches dominated minds when it came to a “quick bite to eat” or a “little lunch”. They were cheap and delicious on plain old white bread, although I serve mine on wheat these days.
I remember going to Grandmama and Grandaddy’s house and finding one or both sitting at their kitchen table having a pimento cheese sandwich and a glass of milk. They’d always ask “Ya want some puh-men-ah cheese, baby?”. I never refused.
I’ve wanted to get this recipe up on here for a while and asked Grandmama how she made her pimento cheese so I could bring you the taste I remember so well. She immediately said “Oh, now if you want the best pimento cheese, you gotta use Velveeta.”
What better time to bring you this than during my time serving as a Velveeta Kitchenista? I hope you’ve been visiting Velveeta It!’s facebook page this month as myself and four other Mom bloggers present a new Velveeta recipe each day but if you haven’t you can still breeze on over there and catch up on all of the wonderful tips and recipes that have been shared so far! Just visit www.facebook.com/velveeta and be sure to drop a howdy to me there this Thursday when I’ll be hosting Tasty Traditions Thursdays!
You’ll need: 16 ounce block of Velveeta, Pimentos, and a little Mayo.
Grate your Velveeta. Now Velveeta is a little on the soft side so I found an easy way of doing this. You remember play-doh? Just get your grater out and place the block of Velveeta against it and press into the grater. It comes out the other side quick and easy as can be and ends up being a lot less work than grating a block of cheddar.
Dump in a jar of drained pimentos. I used the small jar which is about 2 ounces.
Add about 1/2 cup of Mayonnaise. You can add more to taste if you like.
Stir that up well.
Grandmama doesn’t salt and pepper hers so I didn’t either. I found it to be utterly sublime as is but feel free to salt and pepper (and even garlic!) yours if you got a hankerin’ to.
Serve on a sandwich or crackers.
These are a standard at every party, too. There is nothing like little finger pimento cheese sandwiches with the crusts trimmed off to add an air of tradition to a gathering!
Did you eat pimento cheese growing up? Do you have a different recipe or a special Pimento Cheese memory?
Tell me about it in the comments!
Ingredients
- 16 ounce block Velveeta
- 2 ounce jar Pimentos drained
- 1/2 C Mayonnaise
Instructions
- Push Velveeta through a grater until all is grated in a bowl. Add Pimentos and Mayo. Stir well. Salt and pepper if desired. Serve on loaf bread.
Today’s quote is one of those that kinda hits you in layers. Hope you enjoy it!
“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”
St. Francis of Assisi
Thank you for the recipe – I made this today for my husband and he loved it!!
This is something I could eat every day as I love pimento cheese (pim-in-toe as I remember my daddy jokingly calling it). A friend makes the best homemade by using sharp cheddar cheese grated, a block of softened cream cheese, mayo, pimentoes and a dash of garlic powder—yummy. I love the Ruth’s old fashioned that has big chunks of cheese and lots of pepper in it but then I love pepper on everything. This makes me want to make up a batch and indulge on soft white bread with no crusts like the fancy ladies lunches always have.
My Grannie made it with American cheese, mayo, jar of pimento and a little mustard to hers. Before we were married, my husband had his mother call Grannie to get her recipe for pimento cheese. When we lived in Hawaii, my in laws brought us Grannie’s pimento cheese that she’d made for us. Oh, it did taste so good.
Thanks for the memories.
Dear Christy and friends!
I’m from NE Ohio, but pimiento cheese has been with me all my life, so far. (f-f-f-forty nine). Ma was from southern Ohio (near Columbus,) and often made pimiento cheese. At first, just for herself…….
She used sharp cheddar, pimientos, sweet pickles/relish, and Miracle Whip. She also dragged out a big, NOISY electric grinder.
After I started to cook, I usually made it for us. She used the finer grinding plate (hamburger).
She left in 2001, and for a long time, I could not face pimiento cheese at all. Of course, I thought she’d be here longer, and so I never asked her how an Ohio girl found something as truly southern as pimiento cheese?
However, I have started to make small batches of it my new way in the food processor. My new processor has a small accessory work bowl, and it is just the thing for enough pimiento cheese for one person.
I now make it with sharp cheddar, a tiny part of a clove of garlic (I mean tiny part….less than half of a small clove), sweet pickle, and Hellman’s (can’t usually get Duke’s here). Cube the cheese, add the garlic, and a spoon of Hellman’s. I add the pickle and pimiento by hand in a separate bowl. If (as I did on my first try,) you put the pimiento in the processor, it disappears!
It does rock on baked potatoes, but is also very nice in pastry shells. Squirt it through a pastry bag with a drop flower tip….fast and great looking.
I love to go to Toomer’s Drugstore in Auburn and get a grilled pimento and cheese sandwich and a cup of soup on a cold winter’s day. I’ve never tried grilling my sandwich at home. Maybe that’s why this is a treat!
I copied this recipe and will have to try it. I have tried several different recipes for pimento cheese and they have all been variations calling for regular shredded cheese and they were too textured for my taste. I hope this one will be smoother. The ones I have tried also get watery in the refrigerator after a few days. When I was a kid, my Mother would occasionally buy a small glass jar of it and that was quite good. A small jar of it worked for us, as we were the only two out of six that liked pimento cheese. I use it on snack crackers when I want a quick snack. It is also good on pumpernickle bread. Which I have a hard time finding at WalMart, they have it occasionally. I can’t find a decent tasting pimento cheese at WalMart either. I really hate having a large amount of it on hand because I’m the only one that eats it here.
Pimento cheese is wonderful melted & poured over cauliflower or broccoli. My Grands would eat this up. God Bless!
P.S. If you have a recipe for corn dodgers(simular to a flour dumpling only corn meal is used) I would love to have it. My mother would make them and place the dodgers on top of simmering greens. OH! for that taste again.