Apparently Pimento Cheese is southern, but it should probably be more well known

Time: 40 Minutes

Ingredient Availability: 4/5

Difficulty: 1/5

I think the first time I tried pimento cheese was when my dad’s side of the family went on vacation in Florida probably 10 years ago. If I remember correctly, one of my uncles made it and it was a favorite snack of the trip. Every now and then I have pimento cheese and I kinda always wondered how it was made. Now I get to try it out for myself, at least how it’s made according to Rodney Scott and his Cookbook. By the way, I only made a half recipe this time around.

Key Ingredients & Omissions:

None of the ingredients are particularly special, but this is one of those cookbooks that recommends specific name brands for certain ingredients and no explanation as to why. The recipe calls for Coleman’s mustard powder and Duke’s mayonnaise. I couldn’t find the former, so I just used ground mustard powder. I already had a jar of Hellman’s and Kraft mayo, so I used that instead of Duke’s. You should be fine if you do the same. Nothing else was left out or changed. Also, be sure to leave your cream cheese out before starting so that it is room temperature when you’re ready to mix it in.

Tools:

• Bowls

Cooking Review:

Rib Rub: 11 minutes

Unless you’re a Rodney Scott fanatic, you probably won’t have his rib rub ready to go for this recipe. It took me 11 minutes to make a half batch of this seasoning, which may sound like a long time, but most of it was just freshly grinding the black pepper.

Shredding the Cheese & Mixing Mayo with Cream Cheese: 18 minutes

I thought about using my food processor to shred the cheese, but I didn’t feel like cleaning it up for such a simple recipe. Sure, it took a little more elbow grease, but I think we all could probably use a little more activity. Once I had half a pound of shredded cheddar, I mixed the mayonnaise and cream cheese together. I had let the cream cheese sit out for about an hour and a half before starting, which definitely made it easier to mix, but there were still some lumps here and there.

Finishing: 10 minutes

I mixed the seasonings and pimentos into the mayo mixture then folded in the shredded cheddar. I was sure to mix everything as well as I could to get rid of any cream cheese lumps, but I’m sure there were a few missed. At this point, the pimento cheese was ready to try.

Analysis:

I used celery as my vessel to deliver the pimento cheese, as it is a accompaniment recommended in the book. While I was able to tell that the pimento cheese had a nice flavor, the celery had a pretty strong flavor itself, so I had to go back and get another scoop just for the cheese. The rib rub definitely sets this dip apart from other pimento cheeses I’ve had. It’s clear that it adds some depth and complexity to the cheese that most others don’t have. I think this pimento cheese is pretty well balanced, with some creaminess balanced by the sharpness of the cheddar. Despite the brown sugar in the rub, it isn’t very sweet at all, which I don’t mind. The pimentos kind of take a back seat, which is a little disappointing.This could easily be solved by adding some more, though. With all that being said, I’m going to give this an 8/10. If you eat it with something with a milder taste, like crackers or tortilla chips, you’ll definitely notice the bolder flavors this pimento cheese provides. There’s always room for improvement (almost always), but this recipe does do a pretty good job.