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 have never seen velveeta used and I certainly haven’t ever heard of such a smart suggestion for grating Velveeta! My momma always added just a teaspoon of sugar to balance out the tang of the pimentos. It let the punch of the pimento through, but just a tiny bit softer. Thanks, Christy!
Christy you got to know this is a favorite of mine. I first had a pimento cheese sandwich with my Bestfriends grandparents. It was made with sharp cheddar finely shredded and a jar of pimentos with some mayo. Pimento cheese with peanut butter on rye, oh my!
When Mama was telling me how to make it, she said to add a spoonful of vinegar because that’s what made it Pimento Cheese as opposed to a cheese sandwich. Of course, I asked her “What’s the difference?” and she practically just repeated what she’d just told me. LOL.
Neither she nor my dad could explain the taste difference. Just that one was pimento cheese and the other wasn’t. I did it like she told me though and it was pretty good. I used cheddar though instead of Velveeta. I will try Velveeta next time.
I also tried to grill it because that’s what I wanted to do with it in the first place and when it started to get toasty, the insides just pooled out all oily-like. Does anyone know the secret to toasting them?
My mother adds sugar and a little vinegar too!
What you might do is just toast the bread and then spread on the cheese. 🙂
My mom would have us wrap the sandwich in foil and put in frying pan or even better was when she was ironing, she would sit the iron on it and flip it. Would come out perfectly toasted.
I love pimento cheese! I used to keep it the house all the time, but I had to quit because I kept eating it. I’m going to try making this with Velveeta, and see if it’s as good as I remember my mom’s being-always on white bread of course!
When we were growing up we always took a huge container of Nana’s pimento cheese to the beach. We also had a spread that my Nana called lemon nut. Anybody familiar with that? I’m not sure if it’s a southern thing or just a family thing. : )
You know what makes this recipe even better is that Velveeta is on sale B1G1 free at Publix this week! Happy eating!
I really like pimento cheese spread but I don’t remember eating it as a child. My earliest memories of it were after I started going to teas, baby and wedding showers and they would serve little fancy sandwiches of ham salad, chicken salad, and pimento cheese spread. They were good but so tiny. I wanted a dozen , but had to be polite and select only one of each. Does anyone remember the pastel tinted bread? Pink and blue for baby showers-yellow and green for springtime teas. Maybe I will just make a batch of pimento cheese spread and eat as much as I want now and I want it on man sized slices of rye bread. LOL
I enjoyed the treat or treat primer. She writes in a very common sense manner with a sense of humor tossed in. Very reminiscent of you Christy.
You never know what you got til its gone! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine pimento cheese was mainly a regional thing! When I moved up north you could not buy pimento cheese…shoot, the only way to buy cornmeal was in a 1 lb box from the cereal aisle. However this caused me to learn to make my own because my husband will eat this 3 meals a day plus snacks. The only problem is I never could quite get it right. I experimented with all different things and added spices but I never tried making it with Velveeta. Maybe that is what I was doing wrong.
Okay, you`re scaring me. I`m not sure how far up north you are, but since I`m in Canada, I`m definitely crossing my fingers that I`ll be able to find pimentos at the supermarket.
OOOh, I so want to try this recipe. I like `savoury` treats — I don`t have much of a sweet tooth so this is right up my alley!