More that once I’ve had people say to me, “I wish I knew how to make homemade pimento cheese!” It’s very simple to do and best of all you can adjust it to suit your personal taste. Lately I’ve noticed expensive “gourmet” type pimento cheese products popping up in stores. Make your own – it’s very easy to do, fun, and there’s no exact recipe to follow so be creative.

Your basic ingredients are cheese or cheeses of your choice, pimento, mayonaise or salad dressing. I usually buy diced pimento and dice it a little finer. Buy already shredded cheese or use a grater and shred your own. Shredding your own gives you more flexibility – more cheese types to pick from and should be a bit less expensive. Mix the pimento and cheese together, add whatever extras you may want (more about that in a minute), using a fork gradually add in mayo, salad dressing or a combination of the two, mixing well, to a consistency you like. Refrigerate it in a sealed plastic container.

I used sharp cheese, added a dash of cayenne pepper and onion salt to my last batch. Add anything you like to it. Some suggestions: olives, bananna peppers, jalapeno peppers, a little horseradish mixed into the mayo or salad dressing, cracked black pepper, etc. The possibilities are endless and you can create a result . There are a lot of ready made pimento cheeses available and they are convenient, but few can hold a candle to homemade. Make your own, it’s so simple to do, you know how fresh it is and have full control over the end result. Enjoy!