The Unexpected New York Origins Of Pimento Cheese

There are plenty of foods that are connected to the place where they were created. Take Buffalo wings. The city is right in the name, although the history of what may or may not have been the creation of the Buffalo wing is fascinatingly complicated. Similarly, not only is pimento cheese a huge deal in the Georgia-based Masters tournament, but it's so well-established as a so-called "Southern pate" that this classic is also commonly called "Carolina caviar." But the origins of pimento cheese are about as far away from the country kitchen of a beloved Southern grandmother as it's possible to get.

To dispel any doubts, yes, it absolutely came from New York during a convenient confluence of events. That included the creation of cream cheese (which happened in the 1870s) and the introduction of pimento peppers from Spain. Those things weren't combined in a delightful accident to make an equally delightful spread, but by the turn of the century, practitioners of the Domestic Science movement were sharing recipes that we'd recognize as pimento cheese. 

The Domestic Science movement was in full swing when it developed pimento cheese, but it had already been around for a long time. It kicked off in the 18th century, when there was a surge of textbooks, articles, and literature being written for housewives (and future housewives) that were more than just cookbooks. They combined cutting-edge scientific discoveries about subjects like nutrition, wellness, medicine, chemistry, biology, and physiology with practical advice that could be used in the home every day. One beloved food that came from the movement was pimento cheese.

Although the first published recipe for pimento cheese showed up in 1908, it wasn't long before it was commercially manufactured. That happened in 1910, but why pimentos and cream cheese? Pimentos were lauded for their bright color and their flavor, while interestingly, Domestic Science taught that cream cheese represented purity and modern advances in food, science, and health.

Mayonnaise was an addition that came around World War II, when home cooks started using it in lieu of cream cheese. A few other ingredients got swapped in, including hoop cheese, a grainy, buttery, rich, cow's milk cheese that's a southern staple. How pimento cheese came to be so beloved by the South, though, isn't so straightforward.

Strangely, no one seems to know exactly how this happened, but there are a few theories. It might have something to do with the majority of domestic pimento crops being established in Georgia by the 1920s, while another theory suggests that it was so wildly popular because it would stay fresh when packed in lunches. Yet another theory says that it gained serious traction when adding pimentos to fresh cheese started to be promoted as a way to keep cheese fly-free. Whatever the reason, the ease with which this commercial product could be replicated at home made it a staple that's still popular today in both classic forms and variations like a delicious chipotle pimento cheese.