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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. |
The original PC - pimento cheese loyalty spread across South The Commercial Appeal It's hard for people from other regions to understand the fuss over pimiento cheese in the South. They may not even know that it's the original PC, so abbreviated long before personal computers were invented or the notion of political correctness was voiced. It is always perfectly correct to serve PC at any gathering below the Mason-Dixon. You could, in fact, call it the paste that holds the South together. "It's a food that does not exist outside the South," said Melissa Hall, an Oxford, Miss., resident who sifted through almost 300 recipes for and essays about pimiento cheese and tested 30 entered in a recipe contest sponsored by the Southern Foodways Alliance. The SFA, which is headquartered at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at University of Mississippi, seeks recipes for traditional Southern foods in an annual contest that culminates at its fall symposium in Oxford, Miss. The contest supports the organization's mission: "to celebrate, preserve, promote and nurture the traditional and developing diverse food culture of the American South." All of the entrants, except one from Canada, had ties to the South, Hall reports. The Canadian entry was one of several for cooked pimiento cheese, a recipe that she assumed the northern cook picked up in a 1940s edition of "The Joy of Cooking." Nan Griffin Davis, who lives in Oxford, submitted the winning recipe but gives absolute credit for it to her late aunt, Ella Hughes Griffin Sides, who lived in Davis's hometown of Coffeeville, Miss. "I was so honored they chose her recipe and she would have been so pleased to have it recognized," Davis said in a telephone interview. The three top winning pimiento cheeses as well as a few specialty types were sampled during a reception at a recent Southern Foodways Alliance symposium in Oxford. Sides, her niece reports, was a wonderful cook whose repertoire included more complicated delicacies such as caramel cake, chocolate pound cake, beef tenderloin and homemade rolls, boiled custard and tea cakes. She prepared fruitcakes at Christmas, which she made and gave away because she thought she should, not because she liked fruitcake. "But when anyone was ill, had a death in the family, had company coming or there was a church gathering, she came with her wonderful platters of sandwiches," Davis said. "Then that's what people expected and wanted her to bring." When Davis's parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, Aunt Lella, as she was called, brought her usual contribution, pimiento cheese sandwiches on thinly sliced bread. "Most of them didn't make it out of the church kitchen. My friends who were helping us had pretty much devoured them before we could put them out," Davis said. When Davis wanted to learn exactly how to make them, Sides said: "First you make the mayonnaise." "I interrupted her and said that I was not going
to make homemade mayonnaise so just tell me the proportions on cheese,
pimiento and spices. Occasionally Davis makes PC with Hellman's mayonnaise
and a little extra lemon juice. The seasonings in the mayonnaise give the PC its special
flavor. "I could literally take the mayonnaise and eat it off
a spoon," she said. Davis and her sister-in-law Libby Griffin assumed the pimiento cheese duties at family gatherings. "I stuff it in celery for Christmas and Thanksgiving and we always have it on the Fourth of July," Davis said. But nothing can take Aunt Lella's place in their lives. "Lella would cook every day as if someone was coming to lunch," she said. "Everyone was welcome to drop in and they did. She seemed to always have chicken salad and pimiento cheese in her refrigerator . . . just in case." Jim Early of Winston-Salem, N.C, was another finalist in the PC competition. He remembers spending Saturdays at his "camp," a special place behind the boarded walls of the attic, accessible by slithering through a small opening in the rafters onto an island of carefully spread planks over the ceiling joists. There he would watch the "Buster Brown Show" as he enjoyed his favorite treats: his mother's homemade pimiento cheese sandwiches, her homemade fried apple pies and cold fresh milk from a neighbor's cow. His mother ground the sharp Cheddar cheese in a #2 University Sausage Grinder before blending it with pimientos, Duke's mayonnaise and black pepper. He's jazzed up her version with some cream cheese, Worcestershire sauce and roasted red peppers in addition to the pimientos and sliced jalapeno peppers. "Almost 60 years later on a Saturday when the wind is howling and sleet mixed with snow pelts the window pane, I long for my 'camp,' a thick pimiento cheese sandwich, a fried apple pie and cold sweet milk," he wrote in an essay accompanying his recipe. It's "menta cheese" to Beth Edelstein of Timonium, Md., the other finalist, who is originally from Georgia. In her family, celebrations and seasons were marked with the spread. Here's what she wrote. "Summer brought bare feet, sweet tea and menta cheese samitches. When school started, the very favorite samitch from the Roy Rogers lunch box was menta cheese, Thermos-squished and scrumptious. "In November we were thankful for menta cheese in celery sticks, so elegant in a crystal dish. Santa Claus's treat? Well, menta cheese, of course. He never left a bite. "Valentine's Day meant tiny mounds with itty-bitty pimiento hearts on top. Almost too beautiful to eat, but eat it we did with abandon, with crackers and with fingers." Pimientos, a heart-shaped red pepper, were grown by the Indians. Early Spanish explorers took seeds back to Spain and then merchants and settlers reintroduced it to the New World, most probably in Georgia first. "Today people seem to be most serious about pimiento cheese in South Carolina, where it is used as a topping for hamburgers and hotdogs," Hall said. Hall said entries in the contest broke down into several categories: Classic renditions with cheese, pimientos, mayonnaise, salt, pepper and maybe a pinch of sugar were the most plentiful. The next big group added Worscestershire and/or Tabasco sauce. Next came versions with pickles - sweet relish or chopped dills. A few had chopped hard-cooked egg. Many added onion and/or garlic and sometimes horseradish. Another group of recipes called for cooking the cheese and pimientos with evaporated milk and pouring into a mold and chilling it for a spread. Served warm, the PC is a sauce for vegetables. "Gourmets" added nuts, whiskey, balsamic vinegar and different cheeses. Quite a few added cream cheese for creaminess. "Some people used the contest to eulogize a relative," Hall said. "Others remembered having pimiento cheese for specific occasions - holidays, after school or after youth group meetings." After preparing at least 30 versions of PC for the contest, Hall thought she would become too jaded to enjoy it again. "But that didn't happen," she said. "I made a batch of it recently for company." LELLA'S PIMIENTO CHEESE The mixture should be a solid color with no bits of pimiento visible. Use the spread as a filling for sandwiches made with thinly sliced white and wheat bread, Pepperidge Farm brand preferred. Source: Nan Davis of Oxford, Miss., who got the recipe from her late aunt, Ella Hughes Griffin Sides LELLA'S HOMEMADE MAYONNAISE Note: Raw eggs can be a source of salmonella. Pasteurized whole eggs, which are safe to use, are now available in some Memphis supermarkets. Source: Nan Davis NEW SOUTH JALAPENO PIMIENTO CHEESE Remove from processor or blender and, if not using immediately, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. The taste of the jalapenos intensifies with storage. Repeat process with remaining ingredients. * He uses Tillamook sharp Cheddar. Source: Jim Early of Winston-Salem, N.C., who says he prefers mild PC with sweet iced tea; a slightly spicy version with wine (doesn't say what kind of wine) and a spicy version with longnecks. BETH EDELSTEIN'S MENTA CHEESE Drain the juice from a jar or two of chopped pimientos and add to the cheese. Stir. Add Hellman's mayonnaise, just a little at a time. Taste. Keep adding cheese, pimiento, pepper and mayonnaise until it tastes right. You'll know. The trick is to stop when it tastes right and not when
you've eaten the whole bowl. That's it. Source: Beth Edelstein, a native of Georgia who now lives in Timonium, Md. PIMIENTO SAUSAGE BALLS Source: California Associated Pimiento Growers CREAMY PIMIENTO CHEESE SOUP Puree mixture in food processor, then return it to the saucepan. Add remaining broth and bring to a simmer. Stir in cheese, whipping cream and peppers and continue to simmer until thoroughly heated. Serves 4 to 6. Source: Associated California Pimiento Growers
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