On the Glory of Pimento Cheese and My Variations

Having been raised in North Carolina, schooled in Florida, and settled in South Carolina, I have spent all my life in “The South,” and I can’t think of a time when I wasn’t aware of pimento cheese.  I never really liked it until I moved to Greenwood, South Carolina, and tried the pimento cheese that is house-made at Corley’s Market and Grill.

This pimento cheese tastes fresh, and each flavor component is distinct: cheddar cheese, mayo, pimento peppers, salt, and pepper.  It melts nicely when piled by the spoonful on a burger, and it makes a killer grilled cheese.

In short, I love Corley’s pimento cheese, but I have also experimented with making my own, with great success (I have to admit). 

To really understand pimento cheese, one must realize that there are really only three key ingredients: cheese, mayonnaise, and peppers. 

Once this is all understood, the possibilities for home-cook variations are incredible.  I have arrived at two custom variations, one with chipotle peppers, and another with fresh jalapeños and cilantro.

Version 1 (Chipotle): grate two cups of sharp cheddar cheese in a basic box grater or whatever you have on hand; Add about 1/4 cup of mayo, one canned chipotle pepper, about a teaspoon of the adobo sauce from the can of chipotle peppers, salt and pepper to taste.  Stir all ingredients together with a spoon or food processor to combine and break the cheese into smaller bits. Chop the chipotle pepper before mixing the ingredients unless you mix with a processor. (Disclaimer: I don't really measure anything when I cook, and this isn't a recipe but a loose blog-post description of how I make something--adjust everything as needed!)

This produces a cheese spread that is more flavorful than the traditional pimento cheese.  It has more heat than pimento cheese (pimentos aren’t spicy at all), and the smokiness that comes with all chipotle peppers (a chipotle pepper is a smoke-dried jalapeño).

Version 2 (Jalapeño): follow the same process as Version 1, substituting one whole fresh jalapeño, diced, and about three tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro. 

This version is great because of its combination of the sharp, clean heat of the jalapeño and the fresh flavor of the cilantro, with the heat being simultaneously cooled by the cheese and mayo.  It has a quick and satisfying punch of heat, but it doesn’t have the extended and unpleasant burn of biting into a raw hot pepper.

As I have already indicated, the three big tests for pimento cheese are the burger, the grilled cheese, and the cracker. My two variations pass these tests, but they pose an additional problem: pimento cheese takes its name from the pimentos.  Since I don’t use this boring pepper, my cheeses are some kind of bastardized cheese spread.  I can’t call them “Chipotle Cheese” and “Jalapeño Cheese” because no one has ever heard of such things; I can’t call them “cheese spreads” because such a name would conjure images of Velveeta or Cheese Whiz (yuck!).  So, I’m willing to declare any combination of cheese, mayo, and peppers “pimento cheese” and allow myself to take liberties with the variety of pepper that joins the cheese and mayo.  In honor of Lewis Black, I’ll refer to my decision on terminology as “the soy milk rule” because, remember, no one would buy “soy juice.” 

I hope you try my variations on pimento cheese; if you have your own, I would love to hear about it!

Food in Greenwood

Every semester, I teach a composition courses that require students to write.  What they write about is entirely up to me.  And, since food is one of the most universal elements of human condition, I always ask them to write at least one essay on an issue related to food.  They might choose to write about how our food is produced, how organic and conventional foods are different, how animals in the food system are treated, how workers in the food system are treated, or any other number of things—what they choose to write about is ultimately up to them.

Inevitably, my students want to know what I eat.  I don’t necessarily want to reveal such things because they are so personal.  I worry about what they’ll think if I tell them my goal is to remain as organic and as local as possible.  A revelation like that might confirm their suspicions that professors are oddballs and somehow elitist; it might make them feel judged if their relationship with food is the complete opposite of my own. 

Despite my reservations, however, there are some beans I’m willing to spill, and when I spill ‘em it often becomes obvious that my students are missing out on some of Greenwood’s real treasures. 

Just last week I explained that my favorite street in Greenwood is Maxwell Avenue, for three reasons:

1.  The Mill House, which has awesome sandwiches including an outstanding meatball sub, a huge selection of craft beers, and a brick oven that turns out the best pizza in Greenwood. My favorite pizza features a pesto cream sauce, fresh mozzarella, and sundried tomatoes.  
2. Kickers, which deserves an entire blog post for a lot of reasons, including a constant array of awesome soups, onion rings, pimento cheese burgers, and samosas.  If you go only once, you should order the samosas.  A friend of mine from St. Croix tried them and said they were just like the ones she used to get back home.  I’ve never been to St. Croix, but I can testify to their magnificence just the same—they’ll blow your mind.  I’m not going to tell you exactly what they are—just order them!
3. The Uptown Market  Stands, which feature fresh produce from growers like Early Bird and Parisi Farms.  Just today I went there and got three heads of broccoli, a half-dozen spring onions, and about a dozen crook-neck squash from Parisi Farms for eleven bucks.  It just does not get more fresh, local, and affordable than that.

My students were uniformly unfamiliar with Maxwell Avenue, so for those that read this blog, here is a map:

For those whose map-reading skills have atrophied with the proliferation of GPS devices and smartphone aps, from Lander University you go south down Montague Avenue/Main Street/Hwy 25 (note Greenwood’s proclivity for complicated street names) until you see Greenwood Community Theater on your right—it’s hard to miss.  Take a right at the first traffic light past the theater—that’s Maxwell Avenue, aka Highway 10/McCormick Highway (yes, another complicated street name).  

For those who just aren’t good with directions, this little video will show you exactly how to get to Maxwell Avenue.

 If Maxwell Avenue is the center of my relationship with food in Greenwood, everything else radiates out from there.  Nearby are my other local favorites:

 T.W. Boon’s , where you can find Greenwood’s best shrimp and grits (I have proclaimed myself an authority on shrimp-n-grits), fried zucchini, and very good live music on the weekends.

Howard’s On Main, which is somewhat like Panera except that it’s a local enterprise, the Howard who gave the place his name is actually the guy in the kitchen making your sandwich, and there is a bar in the back of the restaurant where, again, you can catch some great live music.

Corley’s Market and Grill, where during lunch hours you can get the best burger in Greenwood along with the town’s only fresh-cut fries.  I can’t say enough about the glory of a pimento cheese burger, so I have to say that this local masterpiece can also be procured at the Corley’s Grill. The market also offers in-house specialties like crab dip and shrimp dip, great local products like Happy Cow Milk, and an outstanding selection of (very affordable) beer and wine.  It’s also worth noting that Corley’s employs real butchers who will do whatever you want them to do with your meat.

These are not the only places in Greenwood that play a role in my relationship with food, but they are among the most important.  They are my favorites, and they are places that everyone in Greenwood should enjoy.  If you haven’t been to these places, you owe it to yourself to go.