A favorite snack when I was growing up was pimiento cheese spread on saltine crackers. Call me plebeian if you want to, but I think it’s tasty, and have always kept a plastic tub of pimiento cheese spread in my refrigerator. I can eat the whole tub in one sitting. And, I have the waistline to prove it!
Platter of Pimiento
I’ve been experimenting with eating vegetarian foods these last few weeks and am always on the lookout for recipes. A few weeks ago I read an article in the Texas Electric Cooperatives Magazine (not my usual choice of magazine, but in a hospital waiting room you take what you can get). A woman named Juddi Morris lamented that in California people were ignorant about pimiento cheese and claimed:
I know this sounds incredible to any self-respecting Texas woman who whomps up a batch of pimento cheese while she’s cooking breakfast, soothing a crying baby, shooing a husband off to work and shuffling two snail-moving kids out to the school bus. After she gives it a taste test, she spoons it into a crock, shoehorns it into the fridge and begins her day.
All this without breaking a sweat or before she shifts into her I am W-O-M-A-N mode.
Do whut?
I am a self-respecting Texas woman … 5th generation, not to brag or anything … and I never in my life whomped up a batch of pimiento cheese, nor do I remember any woman in my family doing so! What in Thunder was that woman babbling about?
I read the rest of her article called Spread The News, and decided that I would not be outdone by some gal who deserted her Native Land to live in California. Her recipe called for grated cheese, chopped onion, pimiento, olives, mayonnaise, and capers.
Capers? Yes, she has been living in California too long. I figure I’m probably the only woman in my family who knows what a caper is, let alone has ever actually eaten one. Capers are “pranks or tricks” in Texan vocabulary — not a food.
{Note: Please realize that I do not harbor a sense of superiority to any other state (including California), but as a Native Born Daughter it is required that I affect an attitude of elitism. It’s written in the handbook.}
I decided to try her recipe without any changes or additions, just to see if she was full of hot air. Here is her version:
Juddi’s Pimento Cheese
1 pound grated longhorn or mild or sharp Cheddar cheese
6 ounces chopped pimiento
1/2 cup minced onion
1/2 cup chopped green olives
3 teaspoons capers
2/3 cup Hellman’s mayonnaise
Use the following ingredients to your taste: drops of Tabasco, squeezes of fresh lime juice, minced, pickled jalapeño peppers or other peppers of your choice.
Mix all ingredients and add anything else you think would be tasty.
I also decided to try a version of pimiento cheese that I found on Paula Deen’s website. Bless her heart, Paula is not a Texan, but she is a true Southerner. You can hear it in her voice. Nobody would could fake that accent.
The recipe she had called for cream cheese along with the shredded cheeses, and did not include olives or capers! That sounded a little more like the pimiento cheese to which I am accustomed. I’ll let you follow the link to find that recipe in a printable version.
I “whomped” up two batches of pimiento cheese and gave them the taste test. Both were delicious, but I didn’t trust my judgment, So, I put together the above tray of pimiento cheese sandwiches and celery stuffed with the spreads.
I took it down to my buddy, Joel, who is one of the barristas at Jupiter House Coffee (my coffee shop). He knows I’m trying to eat like a vegetarian at the moment and has been sharing recipes with me and agreed to a taste test.
The taste test
His favorite? Paula Deen’s recipe won because it tasted “smooth.” He said he “loved” them both, and perhaps just wasn’t ready for the taste of green olives at 9:00 in the morning. I gave him the platter of treats, and he seemed genuinely pleased to get them. In fact, he said his Daddy like pimiento cheese and he wanted to “whomp up a batch for Father’s Day brunch.” Spoken like a True Texan.
He seemed to be pleased.
I’m going to experiment with these recipes a bit and see if I can find a taste that is “just right.” Do any of y’all have a recipe for pimiento cheese? Or, did you think it came from a plastic tub just like I did?
Other posts you might enjoy:
{ 10 comments }
Well, I thought it just came from a plastic tub. Never gave much (any) thought to how it got in the tub to begin with. I remember pimiento cheese sandwiches from my childhood in Tennessee, but there sure weren’t any olives or capers in the stuff my granny dished out. I think I’d have to stick with Paula’s version. Thanks for jogging the old memory bank, Shelly!
.-= Van Sutherland´s last blog ..Sunset in a small town =-.
I’ve never seen a tub of pimento cheese. We used to get little glass jars, that later became juice glasses, and spread it on Ritz Crackers. Daddy was from NY!
disclaimer – I still like the stuff, but rarely buy it. And I’d venture to say the Paula Deen version is probably closer to the little jar of Kraft Pimento Cheese (though I think it was called Old English Pimento Spread at one time): http://www.kraftrecipes.com/Products/ProductInfoDisplay.aspx?SiteId=1&Product=2100061257
.-= Kathleen C´s last blog ..Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival =-.
Try this vegetarian lasagna. You can play with it. The key is the eggplant and portabello musrooms. I use chopped spinach in mine as well.
http://www.oprah.com/food/Vegetarian-Lasagna
.-= Jamie´s last blog ..Lena Horne – A Woman For All Ages =-.
Hmm. I have pretty good Southern credentials, and ours came in little glass jars that you could then save and use as juice glasses. No capers. Now I’m wondering if my Grandma would have known what a caper was.
.-= Anne´s last blog ..A Short Break =-.
No I know why I never felt like I fit in while living 25 very long years on California. Growing up in Hobbs, NM we were very familiar with this cheesiness and mom made it all the time from scratch. We rarely bought it. Now a Texas, it’s Pimiento Cheese once again. Of course I buy the little tub in Clinnons made by the store staff for the past 50 years.
I know the ways of Californians and understand the place of the caper. I like capers. But I am not Californian. I just lived there. They don’t know a thing about the Texas diet.
.-= Anita´s last blog ..Amherst, Nebraska =-.
Paula Dean’s version of this is my favorite, but Mr. Tucker prefers the one by Juddi. Anita, you should try making the stuff from scratch … it really is better. Anne, it doesn’t matter if Grandma knew what a “caper” was … she probably cooked pretty darned well. Jamie, I tried that vegetarian lasagna and it is yummy! Kathleen, I forgot about Ritz crackers! Now, I have to go buy some. And, Van … I’m happy to jog your memory any time I can
California is going to get a taste of what real pimento cheese should taste like. A brand from Pawleys Island, South Carolina called Palmetto Cheese is going to Costco around the San Francisco area. Wish them the best of luck and hope California is ready for some good southern pimento cheese.
Too bad I’m not in the San Francisco area very often, Nathan. If it comes to Texas, I will look for it
You might be able to find it at Central Market if you’ve got one. I hope you can try it. There’s nothing like some good pimento cheese.
I’ll give it a try, but I have to drive 25 miles to find a Central Market
Comments on this entry are closed.