Homemade Pimento Cheese Spread??
Pimento Cheese (better than that stuff you buy at the store!!)
Thanks to BobS and Jose at the Addicted to BBQ forum
Mother’s Everyday Pimento Cheese
ingredients
1/2 lb extra-sharp Vermont white Cheddar
1/2 lb extra-sharp aged New York (orange) Cheddar
1 (7-oz) jar pimentos, drained and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
cayenne to taste
2/3 cup mayonnaise preparation
Finely grate cheeses into a large bowl. Stir in pimentos, black pepper, cayenne, and salt to taste with a fork. Then stir in mayonnaise, mashing mixture with fork until relatively smooth. (It should be flecked with small pieces of pimento.)
Scrape spread into a crock or jar and chill, covered, at least 2 hours to allow flavors to develop.
If you really want to make this pimento cheese the way my mother does, and you happen to own a hand-crank meat grinder, run the two cheeses once through the fine blade of the grinder into a mixing bowl. Mother simply used to grind the pimentos with the cheeses, but now she prefers to mash them with a heavy fork on a plate until they break up into tiny pieces.
She uses homemade mayonnaise but also endorses Hellmann's (a.k.a. Best Foods).
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Foster's Pimento Cheese
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (4 oz.)
1 1/2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese (6 oz.)
1 cup shredded smoked Gouda cheese (4 oz.)
1 red sweet pepper roasted seeded and chopped
1 green sweet pepper roasted seeded and chopped
1 cup good-quality mayonnaise
1 jalapeno pepper seeded and finely chopped
1 tbs cider vinegar
1 tbs honey
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Cilantro leaves or flat-leaf parsley
Mix together cheeses and roasted peppers in a large bowl. In a medium bowl combine mayonnaise, jalapeno, vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper; stir to blend.
Stir mayonnaise mixture into cheese mixture; mix well. Season with additional salt and pepper, if desired. Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to I week. Garnish with cilantro. Makes about 4 cups.
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This is recipe #1
The only tinkering I did was NO cayenne, but did add some smoked paprika. Good stuff, for sure
Next time will add some chopped pickles. Time after that I plan on playing with some Black Mustard BBQ Slather and/or horseradish to the recipe.