As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Often called “southern caviar,” pimiento cheese is great as a spread, dip and veggie filling. Try it for grilled cheese too!
Pimiento cheese is very popular in the southern United States. Of course like any other great southern creation, it’s made it’s way up north.
There’s literally thousands of recipes for pimiento cheese. Each cook will make it differently from the next.
While sharp or extra-sharp cheddar cheese is the basic cheese in all recipes, you will find recipes using either just cheddar or a combination of cheeses where one of the cheeses is always cheddar. And of course, they all have pimientos as the main ingredient. You can also substitute any jarred sweet red pepper if you can’t find pimientos. Sometimes they are located in the pickle and relish aisle, but you’re sure to find them where the Hispanic foods are stocked. I found mine where the Goya foods were.
What I did was include what I thought were the best elements from all recipes I read. I like cream cheese because it gives a mellow flavor along with a bit of tanginess, so I added a bit to my recipe. All recipes I saw had mayonnaise in varying amounts, so I used an equal amount of mayo to cream cheese.
I used extra-sharp cheddar and a Vermont white sharp. Now here’s the important part about the cheese(s)–you can’t opt for convenience and use pre-shredded. The pre-shredded stuff has additives to stop it sticking together in the bag–one ingredient is corn starch–so the cheese will not get soft and spreadable. You have to shred it yourself, but that’s an easy task if you have a food processor or the shredder attachment for your stand mixer. I used my old reliable box grater–it’s not as easy as the food processor, but it’s easier to clean!!!
Since I like a little “bite” to stuff like this, I included a pinch of hot red pepper flakes in here.
If you do nothing else with this pimiento cheese, make a grilled cheese sandwich with it–it’s HEAVEN!
Pimiento Cheese
Ingredients
- 8 oz yellow extra-sharp cheddar shredded (see NOTES)
- 8 oz white Vermont sharp cheddar see NOTES
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 1/2 cup GOOD mayonnaise i.e. Hellmann's, Dukes, Best Foods, Cain's
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pimientos or jarred sweet red peppers drain them well
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp white pepper black is OK too
- 1/8 tsp hot red pepper flakes optional
Instructions
- In a large bowl, blend the mayonnaise and the cream cheese well.
- Add the pimientos, salt, garlic powder, pepper and pepper flakes (if using); stir well to combine.
- Add the cheeses and stir very well to blend.
Notes
Nutrition
Liz says
Sounds nice Judith. Thank you and have a good weekend.
Judith Hanneman says
You too Liz and a great Memorial Day. Here they say it’s gonna rain 🙁
Angela says
Try making a grilled cheese sandwich (on whole wheat or on rye bread) out of it, super delish-a-tee! Have an enjoyable holiday weekend, Judith 🙂
Judith Hanneman says
I always heard this made great grilled cheese and I found out when I made one with it!!! Have a great holiday weekend too, Angela!
Lisa says
I live in Alabama, and I find my pimentos on the isle with the vegetables, BTW,I have made pimento cheese with pre shredded cheese, and you are right, it doesn’t work well at all! Mine stayed soupy.
Thanks for this recipe, it’s different from mine,
Lisa in Alabama
Judith Hanneman says
Hi Lisa–I think if you got 10 southern cooks together and asked them how to make this, you’d get 10 different recipes (except for the sharp cheddar) LOL…that’s what I observed at least looking at about 15 recipes because I really wanted to try this. Around where I live now, selection is a bit of a problem so it’s not unusual to find what you want in a place you’d least suspect it. 🙂