Classic Carolina Caviar Recipe
The traditional recipe is simple: Sharp cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, pimentos, salt, and pepper. You can adjust the ingredients up and down as you wish. In the dorms they use Velveeta, but that stuff is one electron from being plastic, so I recommend real cheese. You can buy pimento in jars or you can make your own simply by fire roasting your own sweet bell peppers.
Ingredients
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1 pound sharp cheddar cheese (try getting smoked cheddar)
- ½ cup mayonnaise Duke's is a Southern favorite
- 6 ounces fire roasted sweet red bell pepper about 1 whole pepper
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon Morton Coarse Kosher Salt
Optional
- 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle powder or more to your taste
Method
- Prep. Take the cream cheese out and let it soften at room temp. Fire roast the red peppers and chop them into 1/4-inch (6mm) bits. Grate the cheddar on the big holes of a box grater.
- Mix. In a big bowl, with a fork, mix together the mayonnaise, pepper flakes, salt, black pepper, and sugar. Add the cream cheese and squish it around until it is pretty well incorporated. Add the cheddar and mix until coated. Add the bell pwpper chunks and stir. Taste and add more of anything you want. I like to liven it up with a little dried chipotle. There is plenty of room for personalization. Do you prefer Miracle Whip?
- Optional. Throw the whole thing into the food processor and whup it up until it is fairly smooth as shown in the stuffed tomato above. There will be some fine granular texture. That's OK.
- Rest. Although pimento cheese is quick and easy to throw together, it needs a few hours, overnight is best, for the pimento flavor to migrate into everything so every bite has optimal flavor. But don't let it sit around for days. It tends to get watery.
- Serve. Serve with crackers, as a sandwich, as a burger topping (highly recommended), and so much more.
Notes
About the pimentos. If you are lazy, you can buy pimentos in a jar. A 4 ounce (113g) jar of pimento has about 3 ounces (85g) of pimentos and one ounce (28g) of liquid, and that is equivalent to about 1 medium red pepper after roasting and skinning (I weighed a large bell pepper at 8 ounces (226g) raw with stem and seeds, and after grill roasting and skinning I got about 5 ounces (142g)). You don't have to be precise about this. If you use jarred pimento, save the liquid in the fridge. It is great mixed in with rice or in a sauce.
About the salt. Remember, kosher salt is half the concentration of table salt so if you use table salt, use half as much. Click here to read more about salt and how it works.
Mix-ins. Many cooks have found ways to personalize their recipe. Common additives are chunks of roasted pecans, grated onions, chopped scallions, Worcestershire, hot sauce or powder, pickle relish, chopped basil, and black pepper. I like to add jalapeños or other hot chiles. Jazz it up if you want!
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