Happy National Cheese Lover’s Day, Greenville. With all this cheese on our mind, we started to think about the South’s beloved spread – pimento cheese. The popular cheese, which usually consists of cream cheese/mayonnaise, cheese, and pimentos (cherry peppers), is typically served on bread, crackers, vegetables, and sandwiches. Pimento cheese can be found on many menus around the Upstate, but what is the history behind it + why is it so popular in the South?
Though there are some debates, research traces the popular cheese’s origins to 1870s New York State, which is also the birthplace of cream cheese. During this time in the 1800s, Spain started importing sweet red peppers (also known as pimentos) to America. The original Spanish name is actually “pimiento,” but eventually print sources dropped the “i” and the spelling became “pimento.”
Soon, the two ingredients of pimentos + cream cheese were joined together in matrimony, and the cheese world was forever changed with the birth of pimento cheese. Cheese manufacturers started to blend the ingredients and commercially-made pimento cheese was officially placed on the market. Eventually, once World War II was over, pimento cheese brands that were once sold in grocery stores stopped becoming available due to a loss in public interest. People in the South began to make their own recipes from scratch and incorporated the spread into their meals.
Some southerners started using “hoop cheese” (a firm, dry + white cheese) instead of cream cheese and mixed it with pimentos, which led to the creation of southern homemade pimento cheese.
Have a taste for some local pimento cheese? Check out these favorite Greenville spots.
Restaurants with 🔥 pimento cheese:
🧀 Husk Barbeque | 722 S. Main St. | Husk has a Southern Burger with a kick and, you guessed it, pimento cheese.
🧀 Duke Sandwich Co. | 1001 Poinsett Hwy. | For over 100 years, Greenville has been enjoying Eugenia Duke’s sandwiches – pimento cheese was one of her staples.
🧀 Soby’s New South Cuisine | 207 S. Main St. | Add a little bit of *spice* to this pimento cheese served on fried green tomatoes.
🧀 Bacon Bros. Public House | 3620 Pelham Rd. | Bacon jam + pimento cheese grits. Need we say more?
🧀 Strossner’s | 21 Roper Mountain Rd. | Look no further for your afternoon pick-me-up than a Strossner’s snack box complete with grapes, a slice of cake, and pimento cheese and crackers.
