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Welcome to the Southern Foodways Alliance -- an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture with headquarters at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi.

The Southern Foodways Alliance documents and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the American South. We set a common table where black and white, rich and poor -- all who gather-- may consider our history and our future in a spirit of reconciliation.

Great Pimento Cheese Competition
Finalist 1

finalist 1 | finalist 2 | finalist 3

Nan Davis
Oxford MS

Lella’s Pimento Cheese
I grew up in Coffeeville, just down the road from Oxford. It was and is a small, close knit community where everyone knows almost everyone and people take care of each other. My family is still there, and my "Pimento Cheese Story" is about my very special aunt who lived there her entire life, with the exception of the time she was in business school, until her untimely death in 1996. We, and her many close friends still miss her terribly. She was one of those people who have a deep impact on the community in which they live. An indication of how closely her pimento cheese sandwiches were associated with her is indicated by the fact that her minister, Daniel Hathorne, mentioned them in his sweet eulogy for her. He said that he didn’t know who had been making the pimento cheese sandwiches in Heaven before she got there, but they were going to have to move over now because she was going to be in charge.

Her name was Ella Hughes Griffin Sides, she was named for her Grandmother, Ella Hughes Stovall Gum. She loved her name and you could tell who grew up with her because they all called her Ella Hughes, as opposed to just Ella, of her later life. My brother Hilly, could not say Aunt Ella when he started to talk and he called her “Lella”. It stuck and eventually even people outside the family called her by that name. Lella was famous, and I do mean famous, for her pimento cheese. While other people prepared casseroles as a preferred "funeral" food, "Lella" would arrive with a huge platter of delicious pimento cheese sandwiches. It is not that she didn't have other items in her food repertoire, she was a marvelous and experimental cook. (When she would eat out, she would come home and try to replicate something if she enjoyed it.) She just knew that everyone loved (and expected) her sandwiches. So, anyone was ill, had a death in a family, had company coming or there was a church gathering here she came with her wonderful platters of sandwiches. She made them for my parent's fiftieth wedding anniversary, but most of them never made it out of the church kitchen, my friends helping with the celebration and family members sneaking back had pretty much devoured them before we could put them out. When a relative lost her mother, her granddaughter Beth Mann then either 3 or 4, took the sandwiches that Lella brought to a back bedroom because she didn't want to share them!

My favorite story about the sandwiches, however, occurred when I wanted to learn how to make them. I called Lella and asked how she made her sandwiches. She started with "Well, first you make the mayonnaise". I interrupted her and said that I was not going to make homemade mayonnaise, just to give me the proportions on the cheese, pimentos, and spices. There was a long pause and then she said "Well, you might as well not bother"-- in her mind if you didn't make the mayonnaise and start from scratch, you might as well get Mrs. Weaver's!!

Lella's sandwiches were not that unusual, I don't suppose, they contain the same ingredients that most recipes do--perhaps it was just the extra dose of love that went into them that made them so good. I know that raw eggs are not recommended today, because of the risk of salmonella--but you better believe that when I make these sandwiches--I make the mayonnaise!!

One note, because Lella loved to cook, she was always on the cutting edge as to what new accessories were out for the kitchen. Once she fell in love with them she might keep them forever and nurse them along because she loved what they did and how they did it ( her oven/stove combination was an example of this) but she always wanted to try new things, therefore she was the first person I knew (and maybe the first person in town) to have a microwave. She got her Cuisinart food processor when they first came out and loved it--I don't know that her original model was ever replaced--she gave me mine because she thought that everyone should have one and mine is still going 21 or 22 years later. Consequently, the way her recipe reads has references to the food processor, while that was certainly not how she made it in her early life, gallons of pimento cheese have come out of her kitchen prepared with the food processor. So first . . the mayonnaise . . .

The Recipe

"Lella's” Mayonnaise

Makes about 1 cup of mayonnaise, we usually double it to have enough to also spread on the bread

1 egg
1 cup oil (add 1/4 in the beginning, reserve 3/4 cup)
1/2 tsp dry mustard
dash cayenne
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tablespoon Lemon juice
onion powder to taste

Place all ingredients in food processor (or blender), reserving 3/4 cup oil. Add remaining oil slowly while processing

(We use the metal blade on the processor) As I have said, my processor is old, but the tool to push food in the processor has a tiny hole to allow air in. (I don't know if they all do.) My sister-in-law, Libby Griffin discovered this trick while learning to make Lella's mayonnaise. If you put the pusher in the opening and pour your oil in the pusher--it allows a tiny constant stream of oil to be added to the mayonnaise while you are processing. Using this method, we never have the mayonnaise separate.

Please understand, Lella was an old timey cook. She didn't often use measurements (usually the only time was when she was baking) so that is why the recipe reads as it does. If you consider it I will try to work on some measurements if you deem them necessary.

Lella's Pimento Cheese

Cheddar cheese, grated, about 1/2 a food processor full
1 small jar whole pimentos
dash onion powder
dash red pepper
dash Worcestershire sauce
pinch sugar (less than 1/4 tsp)
Homemade mayonnaise


Blend grated cheese and pimento in food processor until well blended. Add mayonnaise as needed, blend again, add other ingredients, blend.

(The pimento cheese is a solid color and you cannot see the pimentos once blended)

Note: Lella loved Pepperidge Farms very thinly sliced bread, both white and wheat. She would cut the edges off the bread (of course!) and spread just a dab of mayonnaise on one slice of bread, and then thinly spread the pimento cheese on the other side, put the slices together and add the sandwiches to the platter. Cover them with a dampened tea towel (again, of course!) until all were made. (She always made up the entire batch of pimento cheese into sandwiches while it was freshly made and pliable.) She would then wrap the whole shebang with Saran Wrap within an inch of its life, and put them in the fridge. (You don't mess around with mayonnaise). When it came time to take the sandwiches to the event, she would leave them out a few minutes to return to room temperature. ( I don't mean to imply that she made the sandwiches far in advance, for example, she usually rose around five in the morning, if she needed them that day she might go ahead and make them, and take them to a friend in early afternoon.)

(If absolutely necessary, if I am taking the sandwiches to an event, not family I will substitute Hellman’s—but never for family, they would not forgive me!—Also there is currently a problem getting Pepperidge Farms bread in Oxford.)

The Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award

Each fall, the SFA (with support from the Fertel Foundation) honors an unsung hero or heroine, a foodways tradition bearer of note, with the Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award.

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