I grew up with Pimento Cheese. My grandmother made it and my mom (known locally as Miss Anne) made it. My mom’s pimento cheese was legendary in NE Georgia. I had no idea how popular her Pimento Cheese was until I started making it for the cheese plates I sell on the patio at Blue Haven Bee Company and Wine Bar. For the Saturday viewing of The Masters this past April, the cheese plate of the day featured three pimento cheeses: The Masters Pimento Cheese, Miss Anne’s and a Manchego Pimento Cheese I created for the plate. The response more than a little surprised me. I had made five eight-ounce tubs of each of the three Pimento Cheeses and sold out halfway through the event.
Since then I have been creating a few other recipes and selling them both at Blue Haven Bee and at Sweet Combs of Honey in downtown Lavonia. My ingredients are simple: only natural (think “real”) cheeses, Duke’s Mayo (THE only mayo you can use in The South), roasted red peppers, garlic and pepper. I also add jalapeno and bacon to some recipes.
Again, as I mentioned, I was surprised at the response because I grew up eating “real” Pimento Cheese. I assumed everyone made their own favorite recipe… but it turns out many don’t. Why not? I have no idea but I’m going with the flow… recently one of my customers did give me a clue by mentioning that my Pimento Cheeses were better than those sold in the local grocery stores.
Well, I decided to do some recon and visited the local grocery store and read the ingredients on every brand. With the exception of Palmetto, which is one of the best commercial pepper cheese spreads (not as good since the original creator sold her recipe to a corporation), NONE of the Pimento Cheese Spreads were made with “real” cheese. The first ingredient in one was “Salad Dressing”; another was “Salad Cheese” which had as an ingredient “palm oil”. You’d think the first ingredient would at least be “Imitation American Process Cheese” aka fake cheese. The “cheese” used in every recipe was some form of “Processed American Cheese”.
And that explains why my Pimento Cheeses are a hit…
Pairing Suggestion: Add a dollop of Kelly’s Jelly Habanero to the top of you Pimento Cheese… holy smokes!!! Available at Blue Haven Bee.
You can purchase Kelly’s Jelly online by clicking here.
You can contact me via phone 360 921 9908, marcellathecheesemonger (@) gmail.com, Facebook or Instagram to order one of my small batch cheese spreads made with Natural Cheeses, always. $5 for eight-ounce tub and $10 for sixteen-ounce tub. My next public event will be Saturday, July 21 at Blue Haven Bee where I will be selling my $10 Cheese Plates on the patio. Come and buy a plate to enjoy with a glass of mead, wine or a beer.
In addition to being an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional, I am a Certified ServSafe Food Production Manager with certifications that also include ServSafe Certified Instructor and Proctor. I am available for cheese events, cheese program development, cheese training, food safety training and 3rd party 
food safety auditing. See my About Me and Resume pages for more details or call me at 360 921 9908 to discuss availability.
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