Spreading a little Pimiento Cheese on Thanksgiving
Everybody knows that Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday and it will be this year on Thursday, Nov. 24, but not in the Duncan household. We are celebrating it with children and grandchildren and great grandchildren in Eugene on Saturday, Nov. 19. It will actually be at the home of my granddaughter, Sarah Beth Byrum.
The early celebration is intended to accommodate those working family members who will be coming from out of town and would have to rush back for a Friday workday, if we had the big feast on Thursday.
Different family members are expected to bring the trimmings for the feast day while my granddaughter will be responsible for the big bird. My wife is the pie contributor and perhaps a salad or two. Others will bring the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, English peas, assorted breads and of course appetizers.
You might think I would be expected only bring myself. If I tried that, I’d probably be dining at McDonald’s on a turkey burger. My responsibility as it has been for years is to bring the old Southern pimiento cheese, made from the special recipe of the Duncan family, probably dating back to the Scotland.
The recipe has been passed down from generation to generation. I attended my sister, Frances’ 90th birthday in Florida earlier this month. You better believe it, the Duncan pimiento cheese was prominently on the buffet serving table at the reception.
Pimiento cheese was already made and stored in the refrigerator at her house, when I arrived for the visit, but we made short work of that supply. My sister showed me an electric cheese grinder she had received, one she couldn’t exactly figure out how it worked. I used my exceptional mechanical genius (you can laugh because that is a family joke) with only a peek or two at the instructions to get it working. Frankly, I could have done it faster by hand using just a metal grader.
I had plenty of expeience in that regard. My mother would put my brother, Joe and me to work with a metal hand grater and believe me she wanted the cheese grated fine. It was all right until you got near the end of the cheese block. Then you had to pay particular attention not to grate your knuckles.
I don’t remember if my family ever made its own cheese, but we did have a cow and my mother made buttermilk and would trade a gallon of buttermilk to the Coca Cola distributor for a case of Coke.
In these modern times I used a Mouli shredder. Growing up, I can remember no such luxury. Today, I grow my own pimiento peppers, roast them and freeze them until its time to make pimiento cheese.
The Oregonian food page recently featured a recipe for pimiento cheese. It was almost like the famous Duncan Pimiento Cheese recipe, but not quite. I would be remiss for not including the recipe here:
Pimiento Cheese
Cheddar cheese, your preference of sharp or medium, grated very fine (I prefer the sharp mixed with medium)
1 jar of pimientos chopped fine (I grow my own and roast them, then freeze them for later use)
Seasoning salt to taste (I usually eliminate this because of my sodium restrictions)
Mix the grated cheese and pimientos with enough mayonnaise to make a spread. (You can use light mayo to save on the fat content)
I have a Moulin grater to grate the cheese, but lately I have been buying fine shredded cheese and using my hand mixer to blend it with the pimientos and mayonnaise. It works and saves a lot of time over using the Moulin grader.
The object is to make a smooth spread.
Have some this Thanksgiving. It will be a hit.
(Bill Duncan can be reached by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470)