Miss Verba’s Pimento Cheese

I do not have fond memories of pimento cheese. When I was a child, we always had a carton of the (unnaturally) bright orange, grocery store brand in the fridge, which my dad used to scoop onto everything he could get his hands on. Sometimes he would wave a sandwich smothered in the stuff under my nose, and I would run away screaming my little head off.

It wasn’t until college that I found an appreciation for this Southern staple. Every time my roommate Ben went home to Raleigh, North Carolina to visit his grandma, he would return with a vat of homemade pimento cheese…you know, the real thing. I didn’t even know it could be homemade; I had always assumed it could only be processed in a mysterious factory off the New Jersey Turnpike, along with Twinkies and Moon Pies. My roommates and I would stand around the kitchen slathering slices of Wonder Bread with the chunky spread and shoving it into our mouths, all while thanking our lucky stars for grandmas. (Classy, right?)

Serve pimento cheese as a dip at parties, or like every good Alabama girl does – on white bread. And dad, if you’re reading this, don’t be too jealous!

PIMENTO CHEESE

Source: Dixie Caviar

1 pound freshly shredded sharp cheddar cheese (I like to use a mix of white and yell0w)
1/4 pound cream cheese at room temperature
1 (4 ounce) jar diced pimientos, drained
1/2 cup mayonnaise (homemade or Duke’s), or more or less to taste
1 tablespoon pickle juice
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder, or more to taste
A few big splashes of Worcestershire sauce
Kosher salt, to taste

Combine the shredded cheddar cheese, cream cheese, pimientos, mayonnaise, pickle juice, garlic powder, and Worcestershire sauce and mix together thoroughly Season with kosher salt, to taste. Serve with saltine crackers or make sandwiches (white bread only!). This will keep for around 3 days with homemade mayonnaise, or up to two weeks with commercial, although it never lasts that long. YIELDS: 2 cups

HOMEMADE MAYONNAISE

Source: Dixie Caviar

1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup canola oil
Kosher salt
Black pepper

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the egg yolk, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, cider vinegar, and a pinch of salt. Using a hand held mixer on medium speed, slowly add the canola oil drop by drop until the mixture becomes light and thick (this can take a couple of minutes). After adding about 1/4 cup of the oil, the mixture should be stable and emulsified. You can then add the oil in a slow steady stream until all of the oil is incorporated. Taste for seasoning. Add salt if necessary and quite a few generous turns of the pepper mill set on the coarsest setting. YIELDS: 3/4 cup – 1 cup