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Short Stuff: Pimento Cheese! · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh. There's
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Chuck and Cherry's here, um, sitting again on behalf of
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: producer Dave, who actually produces these. So I guess she's
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: maybe in coaching on Dave's territory. I don't know. I
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: don't want to put my foot in that hornet's nest.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: But anyway, this short stuff, like I was saying about pie, Yeah, yeah,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I don't want to say that with Italian because it's Spanish.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: That was close, Um, it's nearby. But the the fact is, Chuck,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: you've just hit upon uh, an artifact of culinary history
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: that there used to be an extra I and pimento,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and everyone said, I don't like this here. I don't
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: like the way it looks, I don't like how it sounds.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I'm getting rid of it, and by god, we did,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and I don't like you. What do I gotta do
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: with it? I'm just a poor pimento farmer. I've has
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: been saying, pimiento, that's what I don't like. Yeah, so
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: this is about pimento cheese, the the delicious, one of
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: my favorite things that you can eat here in the
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: South that many people most people I think associate with
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the South, Yeah, for sure, but it's not actually from
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the South, is it. No, it's started in New York,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: they think. As a matter of fact, Yes, what indeed
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: chuck um around World War One? And even more what
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: than that pimento cheese for almost no resemblance whatsoever to
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: what we think of as pimento cheese today. It had
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the pimentos, those pimento peppers from Spain that are much
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: milder than your average hot chili pepper, but they'll also
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: have like a little bit of a little bit kick
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: to them, and they're worth putting in um mixed together
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: with um cream, cheese, mustard and some chives. That was
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: the original pimento cheese. And it doesn't that sound delicious?
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I don't think it sounds very good. But apparently America
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: around World War One was just absolutely nuts for it.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Not just World War One. Apparently from about the nineteen
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: twenties up to the nineteen forties, that form of pimento
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: cheese was all the rage. Yeah, it was easily tinned,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: it was easily shipped. I think soldiers it was a
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: big part of their rations in the war. Man so
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: it was a little slice of home. Okay, I could
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: see it like that in a little green can, and
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, depending on what kind of mustard
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: if it was. I'm not not the biggest mustard guy.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: But there are some kinds of Coleman's, some kinds of
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: brown mustard I will eat in other things, but not
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: just on its own. Have you had Coleman's yellow, fancy
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: yellow mustard. Yeah, I'm not into yellow mustard at all. Okay,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: this is more brown. I know what you're saying. Totally
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: get it. Give Coleman's a chance, and what it doesn't matter.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: It's just you know how Dukes is just somehow different
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: in all the best ways as far as mayonnaise goes.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Coleman's is just that way with yellow mustard. It's not
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: like it's like, oh, this is what yellow mustard is
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: supposed to taste like you know what I mean, I'll
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: have to see. I mean I I historically have not
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: had a yellow mustard I've ever liked at all. And
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: I generally don't like mustard at all, but I changeally
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: will like it in a dish. Okay, you're telling me
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: to try something I really kind of hate. I'm telling
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: you thinking that I will like it because you like it.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm just trying to turn you onto something
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I think is going to change your life. That's all
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I'm saying. Just try I just I just don't like mustard.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: I'll try Colemans and maybe it's maybe it doesn't taste
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: like mustard. Just get yourself a little just a little bowl,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: not a big bowl, and then you know, put a
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: bunch of Coleman's mustard in it, gate yourself a spoon. God,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: give it a half an hour. That makes me want
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: to rouse, then and then see what you think. So
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: cream cheese as pimiento cheese, those sweet little red pimmy
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: into peppers. Uh. In the eighteen hundreds, late eighteen hundreds,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: they started coming to America from Spain, and you know,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: people liked him. They were colorful, they were mild, they
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: weren't very spicy at all, and Americans of that era
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: thought that it was very very palatable thing to them. Yeah,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: and cream cheese was pretty new around the same time too,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: So people said, let's see what happens when we put
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: these together, and they said, oh, this is really good.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: And so that version of pimento cheese sandwiches started popping
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: up and like good Housekeeping cookbooks and things like that,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: and so um uh, food companies started mass producing. They
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: they made mass produced versions like the soldiers got in
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: World War One. That stuff was flying off the shelves.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: And so if you were having you know, um friends
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: over for you know, finger food or something like that,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: you would probably serve pimento cheese sandwiches, but it would
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: be a pimento spread that you would buy at the
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: store and spread onto bread and then there you go. Um.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: And that is nothing like what pimento cheese is as
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: we think of today. And the whole reason that it
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: made this transition was because the South is wacky. And
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I think, Chuck, we should take a message break and
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: then come back and talk about how the wacky South
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: took pimento cheese and made it many times better. That's right.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go have a spoonful of mustard and vomit
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: and be right back. All right, So pimento cheese is
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: all the rage all of a sudden, Uh, They've they've
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: dropped that I and the recipes in America, so people
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: finally understood it here in the US. They started mass
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: producing it, and it was in grocery store, and then
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: the South steps up and says, it's even here in
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Georgia as a matter of fact, and said, you know what,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: I think we can grow these little peppers right here.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Can we have some seeds Spain. Yeah. In fact, Griffin,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Georgia became the pimento capital of the United States. It's right.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: They got the seeds from the Spanish consulate in the
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds and by the time nineteen sixteen rolls around,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: they they're harvesting the stuff. They're making it rain with pimentos,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: and people are going crazy. So so Griffin, Georgia was
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the pimento capital during that first cream cheese pimento cheese
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: boom between the twenties of the nineteen forties. Um. But
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: the thing is in the South, Um, either there wasn't
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: easy access to cream cheese or people were just like,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I don't like this Yankee cream cheese stuff. Let's try
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: something that I'm too. So they took what was a
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: mass produced cheese spread and just aided to decoct it
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: into their own thing. The South kid and they they
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: kind of took the idea of pimento cheese and like
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: turn it into something totally different. They got rid of
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the cheese, the cream cheese, they did away with the mustard,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: they didn't have anything to do with chives, and instead
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: they said, let's keep the pimentos, so we can still
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: call it pimento cheese, but let's change absolutely everything else.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: And it's kind of chuck akin to saying, like, uh,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: this this deviled chicken spread that's mass produced that you
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: you make a sandwich out of. Let's figure out a
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: way to alter that and call it chicken spread. Still,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: but then that will become the new chicken spread, and
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the other chicken spread will be lost to history. Basically,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: what's it? What's a chicken spread? You've never had chicken spread?
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: A It is a salty delight, chuck. Is it like
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: tuna fice salad or something or chicken salad? Yes, No,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: it's actually basically whipped chicken with a mild chunks in it. Still,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: you just it's as salty as the day is long,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: and you just put it on some bread and you've
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: got a little sandwich, so don't add anything else to it.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: You just chicken spread on breader toast, plain breader toast
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: and eat and um, like you'll you'll prune up from
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: from all of the salt that suddenly invade your body.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: But it's really tasty, if not really really bad for you.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: I think I know what you're talking about, because when
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I worked at Golden Pantry and Athens in college, there
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: would be uh, like road workers would come in during
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: the middle of the day and get like potted chicken,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: tin chicken and salteens for their lunch. Is that what
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: it was? Yeah, Or Vienna sausage would be on the
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: same aisle with it, Okay. Yeah, if you just look
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: slightly to the left of the Vienna sausage, you're gonna
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: find the devil chicken spread. Blow the dust off of it.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: It's so good, though, I mean it's tasty. It's not good.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Good's the wrong. It's just a tasty, terrible snack all
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: right here in the South, like you said, they said,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: let's change it up all together. And so we don't
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: like that cream cheese. We don't eat bagels down here
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: in the South. Uh, let's find something else that's white
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: and delicious and abundant. And that thing is mayonnaise. They
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: replaced the cream cheese with mayonnaise added other cheese. You
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: still I gotta cheese, sure, I think just because you know,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: they felt guilty about not adding cheese. Just having mayonnaise
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: and pimentoes, that wouldn't be a dish. But they added
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: shredded cheese, usually cheddar, and apparently it's your preference, up
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: to your preference whether you use sharp or mild cheddar.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: But that's the other big ingredients. So you've got pimentos, mayonnaise,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: shredded cheese. You basically have pimento cheese with just those
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: three ingredients. Yeah. And you know, the pimento cheese has
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: become one of those things where every family has their
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: own recipe. Uh, if you're into pimento cheese, and like
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: you said, there are some small variations. You can add
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: some little spices here and there. You can add uh
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: some non cheddars. You can add a few different kinds
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: of cheese if you want. Proportions may change a little bit.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: It's basically the same thing. Um. I've seen people add
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: bacon and jalapenos, and uh, you know, my favorite is
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: the palmetto cheese. But I started have you ever had
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the palmetto cheese? Oh? Yeah, I did my I did
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: some research though, and I'm I kind of fell off them. Well,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: I did that same research and I kind of stopped
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: halfway through because I was like, I don't really know
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: if I want to know anymore? Have you? And I
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: think I mentioned this last time we talked about Palmetto,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: which is when I started to do research. But um,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Queen Charlotte from Charlotte, North Carolina, and they're a stuff
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: you should know a listener. They sent us some if
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: you'll remember, and it is just absolutely amazing stuff. It's
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: really cheese if you can get your hands on, Queen Charlotte. Um,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Palmetto cheese. You got pretty much the best you can get.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: But in the cheese, huh they sent us cheese. You're
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: holding the cheese. This is years ago, and I offered
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: it to you and I think you turned it down.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: I would never just hoard something that somebody sent to
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: as you're crazy, I don't remember. Here. Have some of
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: this mustard they said us mustard and then some other
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: stuff you don't care about. I'll have to try that,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Queen Charlotte. You should Um, yeah, of course I would have,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Like I would not have just hoarded something somebody sent
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: to us. Come on, all right, so, um, the great
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: thing about pimento cheese too, is you can just make
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: it yourself at home, which is just three Yeah, so
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: that's what I would I would suggest trying. Um, you
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: could also chuck, go to the Masters, which are very
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: well known for pimento cheese, right, yeah, they just had
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: the new Fall Classic. So if you go to the Masters,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: even if you've never been to the Masters, like me,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: you know that they have a pimento cheese sandwich there
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: that's like as important as the golf that's being played,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: and they sell them for a dollar d But apparently
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: there was a bit of a scandal because they used
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: a guy named Nick Rangos who made their pimento cheese
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: from the mid nineteen fifties all the way until and
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the Augusta National people said, you know what, we're gonna
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: switch over to somebody else. Why would they do that.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I don't know. They're all about tradition. But get this,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the caterer they switched to is named as their companies
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: called wife Saver, which if I have ever encountered a
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: company that's owned by a man who's not married, it's
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: whoever named wife Saver Caterers? But um, he he couldn't
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: get the recipe from Nick Rangos. Nick Rango said, you
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: know what, you're gonna drop me. This secret recipe is
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: going to stay secret, And in fact, he carried the
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: secret recipe to his grave. But wife Saver figured out
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: how to make it and figured out that there is
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: indeed a secret secret ingredient to that recipe, and they're
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: keeping that recipe secret too. So no one knows how
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: to make the pimento cheese at Augustina National except for
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: uh John wife Saber. And also, you know, if you've
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: if you're from a different part of the country, you've
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: never had it. It's generally eaten cold, like you spread
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: on a cracker. You can you can eat just a
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: pimento cheese sandwich between two pieces of bread, or you
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: can use it as your cheese. If you have like
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: a turkey sandwich or something and you want to use
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: pimento cheese instead of sliced cheese, that's delicious. It's also
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: good with um cheeseburgers. Is the cheese on a cheeseburger. Yeah,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Like you can eat it hot or warm. It's generally
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: served cold, but it is pretty good on a cheeseburger.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: It is good. It tastes totally different hot than it
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: does cold. I mean not not like, oh, this is
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: the hot version of pimento cheese. It tastes like a
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: different thing, almost, Oh you think, I think so. It
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: really brings out the like heat and the pimento. To me,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: I don't find pimentos to have any heat. I need to,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I need to branch out. I need to grow some pimentos.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I'm curious to do that. Go down to Griffin and
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: be like, hey, give me some pimentos. Yeah, you got
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: anything else? I got nothing else. Well that's it for
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: short stuff. Everybody, Tomato cheese Away. Stuff You should know
• 14:10
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