Add cayenne pepper and a good amount of crumbled bacon for a TX twist

My husband loves the stuff. He's from Tennessee and his sister still lives there. She's quite opinionated about "southern" food, LOL, and tells me it must include both cheddar and cream cheese. Doesn't matter much to me, I don't really like cheese, but my daughter tells me the cream cheese helps it melt into a gooey grilled cheese sandwich.

Somehow I'm sure no one would turn down any of it, no matter the recipe.

Annie

I don't make it often, but I do enjoy pimiento cheese, too. Mine includes the cream cheese, fresh parsley, garlic and pecans with the usual sharp cheddar, mayo and cream cheese. I actually should make some soon to go on sandwiches before the cucumber plants kick the bucket.

Gee, we were just talking about pimento cheese when getting ready for Irma, lamenting the old Kraft Pimento-cheese-in-a-juice-glass. I'm sure yours was very much better, but that was pimento cheese in my young days. :)

My mother always put some Worcestershire sauce in hers.

We use the recipe from glenda_al on this site. It is just wonderful.

Annie, I think they still sell them -- they're with the Velveeta.

Interesting, Martha. They haven't sold them anywhere around here for many years. They'd be quite popular as hurricane supplies if they did.

ETA Popular because it's a nice small container that a group of people could eat up easily before it spoiled, if any Kraft product can spoil these days.

Wow, they didn't have pimento cheese, but they did have Old English in a juice glass. Great. Now I have eternal cheese for my hurricane supply cupboard. (Not crazy about velveeta, especially when cooking facilities are limited, but that would last till the end of the world without refrigeration.)

ETA I know real cheese technically doesn't have to be refrigerated, but when it's in the mid 90s, it's not pretty.

I looked today. Here the velveeta is not in the cheese section, it's just on a shelf, and there were jarred cheese sauces but not pimento cheese or the Old English stuff, or anything even like it. The spray cheese in a can is there too. I didn't buy any. (grin)

They did have refrigerated pimento cheese in a plastic tub. I used to buy a brand called Price's, the girls loved it, it was kind of sweet I remember. They didn't have that, they had another brand called Williams, and the same brand of "Bar Cheese Spread".

Annie

Yes, our store has a section of shelf-stable cheese foods, like grated parmesan, velveeta, cheese whiz, etc. It's over by the pasta sauce in jars, clear across the store from the refrigerated real cheese section (where they do have some kind of pimento cheese in a tub, but I didn't pay attention to the name).

This is interesting. I've never heard of using cream cheese in pimento cheese. I've only ever used mayo. May have to try it!

cookebook -- my husband's aunt always used cream cheese in hers but it isn't the "real deal" IMO! But it is good!

I buy Velveeta for a Mexican cheese dip -- like every 5 years -- and of course, they moved it since the last time I bought it and I can never find it for I forget and look first in the cheese section because I never remember that it really isn't cheese (BIG GRIN). So when I ask an employee where the Velveeta is, she gives me a look like what planet are you from, lady, EVERYONE knows where the Velveeta is! LOL!

I loved pimento cheese as a kid. There was a ladies' auxiliary tearoom in Memphis and they served little sandwiches, with the crusts trimmed off, of course. Mother and I thought that was a special treat when I was little. Maybe 10 years ago, I tried to recreate pimento cheese, using a similar recipe to the OP, but it wasn't the same, not at all. Either my tastes have changed completely, or without my Mother and the trimmed crusts and being 8 years old, it just doesn't thrill me any more.

I LOVE pimento cheese! The crust must be cut off the bread! Our cookbook club cooked from Frank Stitt’s cookbook The Southern Table one year. “Miss Verba’s Pimento Cheese” has got to be the best I’ve ever tasted.

• 1 pound sharp yellow cheddar
• 1/4 pound cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
• 3 large red bell peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded, and chopped
• 1/2 cup homemade mayonnaise or best-quality commercial mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Splash of hot sauce, such as Tabasco or Cholulu
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

Instructions

1. Grind the cheddar in a food processor fitted with the grating disk, or grate it on the small-holed side of a hand grater.

2. Transfer the grated cheese to a bowl, add the cream cheese, white pepper, bell peppers, mayonnaise, sugar, hot sauce, and cayenne, if using, and blend all together thoroughly.

3. Refrigerate and serve chilled. (The spread will keep for several days in the refrigerator, but it usually disappears long before then.)

I use something similar to Bbstx, but add Worcestershire, no sugar and use Hellman's. Fresh roasted red bells are the best, along with good White cheddar. Yeah, my pc is pale.

I have never had pimento cheese (except, perhaps, that Kraft stuff when I was young). Shouldn't the above recipe include pimientos - which, I think, are not the same as red bell peppers. I don't recall ever seeing a pimiento pepper for sale here except as jarred pimentos.

Rose, pimentos are customary in pimento cheese, but Miss Verba’s recipe is excellent with roasted red bell peppers.

Look what came in my email box today - Garden and Gun’s take on all things pimento cheese

I also prefer pimientos, but jarred roasted red peppers are fairly similar, just a bit less flavorful.

I have grown pimento's before and if I recall, though they were fairly interchangeable with red peppers. I have a feeling pimento cheese started with them because they are super easy to grow, much easier than red bells.

Either way, I'm not a fan of the brined taste in the jarred kind of either.

Ah, I like that bit of saltiness to offset the sweetness the mayo gives.

Note, Miss Verba’s Pimento Cheese does not call for jarred (heaven forbid!) roasted peppers, but rather freshly roasted red peppers.

When my aunt was still living, every time I visited her, I was given pimento cheese sandwiches (no crust, of course) “for the road” when I left. You never know when you are going to need sustenance on the 90 minute drive home!

My sister and brother-in-law are especially fond of Pigmento sandwiches, grilled pimento cheese and bacon.

I only use cream cheese in mine when I'm trying to stretch the cheese I have on hand. Usually use pimentos (jarred), but sometimes sub home roasted peppers if that's what I have. And, here in Mississippi, we ALWAYS add cayenne and grated onion.

Love pimento cheese, but never make it. I should.

I remember the jarred cheeses. My mom bought the pineapple version. Nasty!

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/products/kraft-jar-cheese-old-english-sa-1093.aspx