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