South Carolina · Starter
Pimento Cheese
- Easy
- 15 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a warm current of chile, finishing long and savory.
Ingredients
- 400g sharp cheddar, grated by hand
- 120g cream cheese, softened
- 150g mayonnaise
- 100g jarred pimentos, drained and chopped
- 1 tsp Worcestershire
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp cayenne
- Black pepper
- Crackers, celery, or white bread
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg · fish · celery
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Reviewed by hand
Method
- Grate the cheddar yourself on the large holes: pre-grated cheese will not bind properly.
- Beat the cream cheese and mayonnaise smooth.
- Fold in the cheddar, pimentos, Worcestershire, onion powder, and cayenne.
- Season with black pepper and mash lightly so it holds together but stays coarse.
- Chill an hour. Serve as a dip, a sandwich, or a burger topping.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Mashing & puréeing 114 recipes
- Smooth to the degree the dish asks for, judged on the tongue rather than by eye: no lumps, no fibres, no grit, unless texture is the point.
- No gluey elasticity: a spoonful drops cleanly off the spoon rather than stretching in a rope behind it.
- The consistency holds: it mounds on a spoon and stays there, neither slumping flat nor standing so stiff that a spoon has to cut it.
- Nothing separates on the plate: no water or fat weeping out into a ring within a minute of serving.
- The colour is even throughout, with no streaks of unincorporated fat, liquid, or seasoning at the edges of the bowl.
Where it goes wrong A starchy ingredient met a high-speed blade, so the cells burst and released their starch: what should be light comes out as an elastic glue that lifts off the spoon in one mass.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Alpine white (dry Riesling, Grüner)
- Also Right
- Champagne: bubbles scrub richness
- From the Taps
- Bière de garde
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling apple
Melted cheese coats; acid and carbonation scrub: high-cut whites and Champagne keep the fondue from winning.
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