In the south, pimento cheese is about as controversial as BBQ. Everyone has their own recipe, their favorite type of mayonnaise, and their own secret ingredient or two. Their grandmother’s recipe was certainly better than your grandmother’s recipe.
After several attempts to create a pimento cheese that our family loves, I’ve finally gotten the recipe tuned in. Feel free to make this your own by tinkering with the second cheese and some of the spices, as you prefer.
This dish serves well as a simple snack, an appetizer, on a white bread sandwich with a fresh garden tomato slice, or my favorite, as a side with a slow-smoked Eastern NC BBQ sandwich. Regardless of how you choose to eat it, you’ll definitely make this recipe more than once!
“Carolina Caviar” Pimento Cheese
This Pimento Cheese recipe combines the best parts of the classic with some extra flavor and subtle hints of spice to keep you coming back to the bowl over and over.
Equipment
- 2 Large Bowls
- 1 Cheese Grater Handheld works fine, but if you have the mixer attachment, use it to save time.
Ingredients
- 1 Pound Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese Block style preferred
- 1 Pound Monterrey Jack Cheese Block style preferred
- 1 Block Cream Cheese Room Temperature
- 1 ¼ Cups Duke's Mayonnaise Duke's is a MUST
- 6 Tablespoons Diced Pimentos or Chopped Smoked Red Peppers About one medium jar
- 1 Teaspoon Onion Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Smoked Paprika
- ½ Teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Pepper
- ½ Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
- ½ Teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ½ Teaspoon Lemon Zest
Instructions
- Start by blending the mayo and the spices in a large bowl. Make sure these are well incorporated before proceeding.
- Add your room-temperature cream cheese now, and break it up as much as possible. I use a wooden spoon here, and rub the cream cheese against the side of the bowl to get it blended as much as possible, and eliminate big cream cheese chunks in the final product. You can use a mixer here as well.
- Now add your pimentos. You can also substitute finely diced smoke red peppers from the jar here, for a slightly sweeter taste. Mix well with a wooden spoon.
- Finally, grate your cheeses into a large separate bowl. I try to put a small block of both types of cheeses into the grater at the same time so that the two are incorporated through the grating process, and less stirring overall is required.
- Add your mayonnaise mix to the freshly grated cheese, and stir gently with a wooden spoon. The cheese will eventually begin to clump together and appear a consistent color and texture. When this happens stop stirring to keep it from getting mushy.
- Refrigerate overnight. The mayonnaise will slowly get absorbed by the cheese and the texture will be a bit firmer. You can always add more mayonnaise if you like a little looser consistency.
- Share and enjoy!
