Pimento Cheese Sandwiches of the North

Commonly seen in stuffed green Spanish olives, and less commonly in pimento loaf, a disappearing deli staple of old, pimientos are simply a sweet mild red Spanish chili pepper. Pimento cheese, little heard of in the Northern US, is a ubiquitous snack in the South, a piquant combination of cheddar cheese, diced pimentos, mayonnaise and (questionably) other flavorings, the recipe varying from person to person.

Sandwich Tribunal co-founder Thom published what is, to my mind, the ultimate pimento cheese writeup three years ago here on the site, and I’ve been making his pimento cheese recipe–though he would likely protest that it is not actually a recipe, and that he’d never tell anyone how to make their pimento cheese (though he has some opinions about how not to make it)–ever since. It’s been a hugely popular hit for me at parties and potlucks. I show up with a tub of pimento cheese, a tub of deviled ham, and several boxes of crackers, and suddenly I’m everybody’s best friend.

So while I recognize that I have little to add to the pimento cheese conversation at large, it is time that I write about it. But how to approach the subject?

Thom would likely be aghast, but I thought about writing about Kraft Pimento spread.

Kraft Pimento Spread

I did pick up a jar to try it, and even compared it to my current take on Thom’s pimento cheese not-a-recipe, for which, at risk of being called a “junior grade Bobby Flay motherfucker,” I went a little light on the diced onions and added a whole head of roasted garlic.

Pimento cheese vs “pimento spread”

The Pimento spread obviously has a much smoother texture than the homemade pimento cheese, and a far different flavor. It is essentially a combination of cream cheese and pimentos, with some coloring and additional flavor. There’s not much to it, and it certainly can’t compare to the homemade variety.

If you read up on the history of pimento cheese, though, the Kraft version is closer to the origins of pimento cheese than the classic Southern blend of cheddar, pimentos, and mayonnaise (and other ingredients in accordance with one’s own individual idea of pimento cheese). Cream cheese, an American take on Neufchatel cheese, was first invented in the late 19th century, and imported canned Spanish pimentos became popular around the same time. It was Good Housekeeping Magazine who first published a recipe combining the two. In an article titled “The Pungent Pimento” from Good Housekeeping, v.46, Jan-June 1908, there is a recipe for “Pimento Sandwiches”

Saltspoon? About a quarter of a teaspoon

By 1910, commercially-made versions of Pimento cheese were on store shelves, sold by the tin, made in northern factories. Kraft, at the time J.L. Kraft & Brothers, was a cheese wholesaler that developed and patented a method of producing processed cheese by 1915. According to this article, the original version was white (cream cheese based), though they later began producing a version with a processed American cheese base.

The Kraft Pimento Spread (note they do not call it cheese) you can buy in stores today contains cream cheese, water, whey protein concentrate, whey, sugar, salt, vinegar, dried pimentos, gelatin, carob bean gum, lactic acid, pectin, and annatto for color. Maybe it isn’t too close to the original version after all. It’s both sweeter and less flavorful (not to mention pinker) than plain cream cheese. While it would be interesting to try what the original commercially-made versions tasted like (though I don’t imagine a tin would have held up well over the past century), it’s clear that the homemade mayo-cheddar-pimento combination so popular in the South is a vast improvement over its bland Northern antecedent.

For the past few years though, pimento cheese has been experiencing something of a hipster renaissance, showing up in the pages of lifestyle magazines like GQ, northern newspapers like the New York Times and the Boston Globe, and making its way onto the pages of upscale food publications like Saveur Magazine. In 2012, Eater published a pimento cheese heat map with 2 Chicago restaurants showing up with their own takes on the spread. So I ought to be able to find at least a couple local places making pimento cheese sandwiches, right?

I did manage to find two local restaurants serving sandwiches that featured pimento cheese. Publican Quality Meats‘ Reckless Abandon has their house-made pimento cheese on a bolillo roll, supplemented by crispy pork belly, mustard, and pickles. At the time I tried this sandwich, I was unable to break away from work to visit PQM, so I ordered the sandwich online via their web site.

The Reckless Abandon from PQM, delivered

It may not look like much from this angle, but it’s a pretty good sandwich. The bolillo roll is soft, conforming itself around the irregular contents of the sandwich and keeping the whole together. PQM’s pimento cheese is smooth-textured and light colored with an intense cheddar and garlic flavor, nicely complemented by the acidic pickles and mustard. The pork belly has the pinkish color of a cured meat, but not the intense saltiness–it could be smoked, but there wasn’t a strong smoke flavor either. The fat in pork belly crisps up nicely though, providing a great textural contrast to the soft roll and gooey cheese.

The Reckless Abandon from PQM

It’s not a listed ingredient, but I feel certain there were some potato chips added to the sandwich as well, and I submit this photograph as evidence. It did not disturb me to find them there, but I was a little surprised. I had ordered chips on the side, but perhaps I misunderstood the ordering interface. Overall, this was a sandwich that nicely featured the flavor of pimento cheese, though the pimento cheese itself was a little different than what I had experienced previously.

On the other hand, local chain Hannah’s Bretzel, whose Serrano ham and Manchego cheese sandwich (a favorite of mine) I mentioned briefly in my piece on Montaditos, has a pimento cheese sandwich called the Hot Mess. Unfortunately, the first time I tried to order it, I had not read the find print in the online menu stating that they only serve hot sandwiches after 1pm. I assume this is because their ovens are still busy baking bread before that time. In any case, I had to come back a second time, which I hope did not color my impression of the sandwich.

Hot Mess from Hannah’s Bretzel

I like Hannah’s Bretzel, and this sandwich was not bad, but I am not sure where the pimento cheese fit into it. The sandwich contains thin sliced steak, pickled red onions, pimento cheese, and gruyere cheese on Hannah’s signature pretzel bread. The pimento cheese is very stiff in texture, less spreadable than other versions I’ve tried, and between the strong gruyere cheese, the crisp and strong-flavored pretzel bread, the natural pairing of steak and onion, it disappeared in this sandwich.

Hot Mess from Hannah’s Bretzel

The Hot Mess is not a bad sandwich, per se, just an unsuitable showcase for pimento cheese. The Reckless Abandon is better, with a stronger presence of the pimento cheese, so strong in fact that it nearly runs over all the other ingredients. It is kind of an all-or-nothing ingredient, and while I appreciate the ways that our local establishments have tried to incorporate (or appropriate) it, I still like Thom’s version the best, whether spread on a cracker or a celery stalk, melted sloppily in a grilled cheese sandwich, or simply scooped up with a fresh homemade biscuit.

Thanks again for your great writeup three years ago, Thom, and for giving us insight into your vision of good Pimento cheese. Compared to the basic mayo/cheddar/pimentos, yours is a bit on the cheffy side as well, no? But I can’t complain; I still make it several times a year.

Jim Behymer

I like sandwiches.

I like a lot of other things too but sandwiches are pretty great