Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2019 - 63

F L AV O R S

CAFÉ AT WILLIAMS HARDWARE
PIMENTO CHEESE: MAKE YOU SOME!
The popular café in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, closed at the
Camp Sevier. Pimento cheese quickly
end of 2018 after 10 successful years. This is the recipe served by
caught on as an inexpensive, satisfying
the owners, sisters Joyce and Nancy McCarrell. Given the history
lunch for workers in the textile mills of
of pimento cheese, we chose to share a recipe from Upstate South
the Carolinas.
Carolina.
"It was this connection to the working
class that permanently situated pimento
1 pound cream cheese
½ cup diced pimentos
cheese in the South," writes Emily Wallace
½ cup mayonnaise, or more as needed
in Carolina Arts & Sciences. The subject of
1 ½ pounds shredded cheddar cheese
Wallace's master's thesis at the University
1 teaspoon paprika
of North Carolina was pimento cheese.
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
There's another hero in this story,
too-a man who lived right down the
Heat cream cheese in the microwave at half power. Once it's
road from us in East Tennessee. In 1933,
softened, place it in a mixing bowl and add pimentos and mayonnaise. Mix to a smooth consistency with very few chunks of cream
to supplement his $65-a-month salary as
cheese remaining. Combine with remaining ingredients and mix
a teacher in a one-room school, Moody
well. Add more mayonnaise as desired to make pimento cheese
Dunbar of Limestone started selling pepsmoother and easier to spread. Keep refrigerated for up to a week.
per seeds and soon began to can peppers.
His company, now headquartered
CENTER: Zoë Dosher
in Johnson City, became the
and her mother Teri
nation's leading supplier of
use a family recipe for
consumer pimentos.
pimento cheese at The
Riegel, Duke, Dunbar and
Willow Tree.
LEFT: Pimento cheese
hard times converged to
ingredients at Red Clay
make pimento cheese a southern trademark.
Gourmet.
In 2003, the Southern Foodways Alliance
RIGHT: Martin's
at the University of Mississippi sent out a call
Southern Belle pimento
burger has won first at
for pimento cheese recipes and stories. The ofRED CLAY GOURMET
the Big Lick Burgerfest
fice was inundated with them-enough to fill a
six years in a row.
312-page book.
For its capacity to incite pride-filled arguments, pimento cheese ranks very close to barbecue as a minefield take an old family recipe to the
of opinion. The passion for pimento cheese in South Car- wild side with smoked paprika.
olina may be hard to top. We find more pimento cheese- Across town at Cranberries, Dacovered burgers there and even steaks dripping with the vid Read mixes pimento cheese
into cornbread.
molten product.
Tennessee cookbook author
But at Litton's in Knoxville, Tennessee, the pimento-cheesy Thunder Road burger is a huge seller. And in Perre Coleman Magness adds
Roanoke, Virginia, the Southern Belle, served at Martin's red pepper jelly. Chef Sean
Downtown, has won first place for six years in a row at Brock, originally from Wise, VirJOHN PARK
ginia, mixes in pickled ramps
the Big Lick Burgerfest.
"I love smoked Gouda, so I decided to do a 50-50 blend and their brine.
Michele Sawyer flame-roasts North Carolina-grown
with aged sharp cheddar," says owner Jason Martin. "The
subtle smokiness really plays well against the rich ched- jalapeños and blends them into growth hormone-free
dar. For an extra kick of spice, I opted for green Tabasco cheese at her business, Red Clay Gourmet, maker of four
sauce. If there's a secret ingredient, that's it." With a fried different varieties of pimento cheese. The company's
green tomato, bacon, and sautéed Vidalia onions, the Hickory-Smoked Cheddar took second place at the 2019
American Cheese Society competition.
burger is aptly named.
Sawyer calls pimento cheese "uncluttered food." MayPimento cheese ranges from the spartan to the avantgarde. It's tradition-bound, illustrated by stubborn loyalty be that's why we've been loyal to it for so long.
Fred and Jill Sauceman celebrate and study the foodways of
to aging metal cheese graters. And it's open to infinite
improvisation. At The Willow Tree in downtown John- Appalachia and beyond from their home base in Johnson City,
son City, Tennessee, Teri Dosher and her daughter Zoë Tennessee.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019

Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2019

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