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
I love pimento cheese. I remember momma making it as a kid it was such a treat.
oh girl – I bet I’ve got 20lbs of pimento cheese on my butt & thighs!! The main way we used to eat as kids was to melt the Velveeta in the microwave and pour in the pimentos. I remember once in the early 90’s we had a quick ice storm after torrential rains. I was a Sheriffs dispatcher then. Trees had fallen all over the county and it looked like a war zone. We were out of power for days and stayed at the Best Western. My aunt Debbie Blakely stayed in the room with me. I brought some of that pimento cheese we had in the fridge. She had a FAT FREE angel food cake and we sat on the bed that night dipping the cake in the pimento cheese. Now, I admit that doesnt even sound good. But at the time, times were hard!!
Now I try every p-cheese recipe I come across and Ive never had a bad one. One recipe I have calls for a little lemon juice & Tabasco, some have cayenne pepper,one with worscestshire, another of my favorites has cream cheese, monterey, cheddar and P.Deen’s house seasoning. Like we love to say in the South … “It’s all Good!”
As long as I remember I always loved pimento cheese but I don’t remember anyone in my family making it at home. Mama and my Grandmas mostly cooked “from scratch” – even my Daddy avoided what he called “brought on” stuff. (That meant things bought at the store that you could just as well make at home.) All I can figure is that there wasn’t a long tradition of pimento cheese in the family. We were in southeastern KY – yes, in a “holler” and what you ate you mostly raised. We didn’t have cheese except when it turned up in the “commodity box”. I can imagine pimento cheese being a rather exotic novelty once we began moving out to BIG CITIES like Knoxville.
When I was in my 20s I lived in Italy. It wasn’t my idea; I didn’t want to be there (long sad story I won’t bore you with) and I was so homesick I thought I would die. I longed for familiar things like plain hot dogs, door knobs (rather than handles), dogs who understood English.
Anyway, I figured out how to make pimento cheese…HOW I cannot imagine. I know it involved buying something at the import store but can’t recall what. It was DIVINE! I practically lived on it and credit it with saving my sanity if not my very life.
Apparently, I repressed a LOT of memories from that time and the recipe for pimento cheese disappeared along with a lot of other stuff. Since then I have searched for the perfect pimento cheese. Most of the store brands are too vinegary. Some are too sweet or not cheesy enough. But THIS RECIPE!! Now this sounds like a winner!
Christy, I think you have done it again, girl. I’ll be making some of this before the weekend is over. Thanks already cause I’m that sure it is going to be GREAT.
~gives your shoulders a big ole squeeze~
Wow at the comments!!!!!
I just love y’all!!!!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
I LOVE pimento cheese & my mother always made it this very same way when I was a kid. I’d much rather have the Velveeta version than the real cheddar cheese version anyday. Thanks for bringing back good memories!
I forgot another favorite way that we eat pimento cheese. Sometimes, I heat up a bowl of it in the oven just until it’s gooey (it looks like that mayo/artichoke/parm dip), and we eat it with tortilla chips. I think this is my husband’s favorite way to eat it. I’ll have to make it for our at home date night soon! Thanks for reminding me.
Dear Christy
As with Stephanie, I’d never heard of pimentos with or without cheese, but your sandwich looked so nice and all the comments were so heartwarming , I’m going to the shops right now to see if I can see them.
I really do feel as though I’m sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea chatting with friends when I am on this site.
Keep up the good work.
Bless your heart, hun.
Hi Sue,
All of us SP folks need to get you here to the USA to go grocery shopping….just bring an empty extra suitcase. Christy will bring the Moonpies for starters, I will spring for the Pimentos tee hee.