I always heard that called ‘cowboy caviar’.
I don’t know whether pimento cheese is Southern or not, but we had it all the time when I was a kid, in the North, back in the '50s.
The South Carolina that led the secession which led to the Civil War rises from the murky depths of the past to embarrass the 21st Century South in the eyes of Civilization.
I wish I were shocked.
That would be Texas, big difference. Just ask a Texan. I’m an Iowa girl but all four college roomies were Texans, they cleared that up for me in no uncertain terms.
That’s what we in the Midwest call it too. Very popular at tailgates and my daughter required it at her glittering, elegant wedding reception. There’s a container of it in my fridge as we speak.
I did also. In the ‘50s and ‘60s the store bought version in came in a little juice glass with a pop-off metal lid. I still love that stuff. Cooks used to trade recipes for it all the time-guaranteed to be several in church and Farm Bureau cookbooks. Velveeta Spread, Pimento - 5 oz - Google Search
Sorry about that massive link attempt there. Tried to go back and edit it out but missed the window. Apologies.
The upshot of it is the that Kraft still sells it in the same little glass with the pop off metal lid. My mom never could figure out what to do with all those little glasses, but we were too poor to throw them away.
There may be more to this than a cancel culture thing. Palmetto cheese was manufactured at Duke Sandwich Products, only a couple miles from my home in Easley, SC.
On August 28. 2020 Duke Sandwich Products had already announced a closing facility of one of its other facilities effective August 30, 2020 due to COVID. The inflammatory post by its founder was made on August 25. I know things can unfold quickly in social media, but this didn’t seem to gain traction so fast.
So I am not sure how much Costco pulling their product was related to the owner’s online post and how much was already in the works due to Duke Sandwich scaling back business in the face of COVID difficulties. It hurts to lose an account that big but Duke Sandwich may have no longer been able to meet Costco’s requirements.
(Duke Sandwich Products should not be confused with Duke’s Mayonnaise. Duke’s Mayonnaise is its own southern cultural staple and is made by the CF Sauer company quite nearby in Greenville, SC. Duke’s Mayonnaise has nothing to do with the posts of the owner of Duke Sandwich Products and shouldn’t be at risk of social media backlash. Tell me Duke’s mayo is safe. Lord! Please don’t let this hurt Duke’s mayo!)
Down south they have Palmetto Bugs that are just really huge roaches with a pretty name, so “Palmetto Cheese” doesn’t tickle my fancy.
Liverwurst, the white rind is pure pork fat, and heavenly. I don’t think they make it any longer, so I just have to use regular braunschweiger or liverwurst. sigh I miss nibbling that rim of fat in combination with bread crust [I hated it when people cut the crusts off the bread when I was tiny, crusts were some of the best part of the bread =) ]
When I was a kid, we used to hear from the grown-ups, “Eating the bread crusts will give you curly hair.”
I always ate my crusts. My cousins would give me THEIR crusts.
Didn’t work.
Probably propaganda to keep bratty little kids from wasting food.
~VOW
And here I thought it referred to the official state bird: the palmetto bug.
I’ve bought pimento cheese over the years, including the Kraft stuff in the little glass jars, but I usually make my own. I don’t really use a recipe, just look at a few internet recipes and fake it; I always use good extra sharp cheddar, a little jar of pimentos, cream cheese, a little onion power, a little mustard powder, sometimes a glug of Worcestershire, occasionally something else that pops up.
Saw this post and dontcha know, yesterday in the grocery store spotted Palmetto Cheese. Got home and opened the stuff before I even put the ice cream in the freezer.
It’s good – will buy it again … particularly in light of the crap of Costco removing it … these days I also make a choice to always add something from Goya to my cart … I’m really sick of this PC or social media or whatever-the-hell-is-it crap of people wanting to tell other people what they should or should not do.
You mean like the calls to boycott Costco? That’s totally different, right?
Many years ago as a teen I was working in a supermarket, and someone asked me where the palmettos are. Turns out he was asking for pimentos. Before he corrected his error, I was about to tell him to check the bathrooms.