Pimento Cheese; apparently it's a Southern thing?

Originally Posted by Grayland

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Not really a cheese I'd go out of my way to get either, but:

LAND O LAKESÂ

Cheddar Cheese is the winner of the 2007 ChefsBest™ Award for Best Taste. The ChefsBest™ Award for Best Taste is awarded to the brand rated highest overall among leading brands. American Culinary ChefsBest™ is the independent judging organization dedicated to recognizing and honoring the best tasting product in America. All of the independent professional chef judges are certified Master Tasters.

Why will argue this to the bitter end. He's the same guy that posted in the "Southern Food Appreciation" thread that all southern food sucks. His rationale is that it is usually prepared by incompetent cooks. Pointing out that italian food made by an incompetent cook sucks didn't seem to register.

http://www.styleforum.net/showthread...d+appreciation

He's overly argumentative and comically elitist. In fifty years he will be that bitter old codger on the porch (eating the finest English cheddar cheese of course) telling everyone else about how everything sucks.

Get him used to his future by just ignoring him. Or at least not responding, because there are some subjects that he has valuable knowledge on.

Originally Posted by tdangio

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So you'd put $15/lb 5 year old cheddar in pimento cheese?

As quickly as he'd grind prime tenderloin to make meatloaf.

Originally Posted by FLMountainMan

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Why will argue this to the bitter end. He's the same guy that posted in the "Southern Food Appreciation" thread that all southern food sucks. His rationale is that it is usually prepared by incompetent cooks. Pointing out that italian food made by an incompetent cook sucks didn't seem to register.

http://www.styleforum.net/showthread...d+appreciation

He's overly argumentative and comically elitist. In fifty years he will be that bitter old codger on the porch (eating the finest English cheddar cheese of course) telling everyone else about how everything sucks.

Get him used to his future by just ignoring him. Or at least not responding, because there are some subjects that he has valuable knowledge on.

I know it. Here is the Why argument:

1st - Pimento cheese is a crap product made with processed cheese, until real southerners chime in and say it isn't made with processed American cheese.
2nd - Processed cheese and cheddar cheese are no different until he learns there is a difference
3rd - Well, the cheese in the link is crap cheddar anyway until he sees that it actually is a decent representative of American cheddar cheese.

The next step is:
4th - Well, I don't like pimento cheese anyway. Well then, go the f@*^ away!

Originally Posted by Grayland

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I know it. Here is the Why argument:

1st - Pimento cheese is a crap product

That's it right there. Sorry, I should have said 'factory-mass-produced-extruded cheese' instead of 'procesed cheese'. Economy of words can bite sometimes.

FLMountainMan is still having reading comprehension problems.

I grew up in the South. We mainly had pimento cheese stuffed celery, but we did eat pimento cheese sandwiches from time to time. I didn't like them as a kid, but have grown to appreciate them a bit more as an adult, more as a cultural thing than anything else. Probably haven't had one in years, though.

Originally Posted by why

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That's it right there. Sorry, I should have said 'factory-mass-produced-extruded cheese' instead of 'procesed cheese'. Economy of words can bite sometimes.

FLMountainMan is still having reading comprehension problems.

Cheddar cheese isn't extruded at all.

"The term "cheddaring" refers to an alternate form of pressing. The curds are allowed to coagulate into a large mass, cut into medium-sized slabs that are stacked, left to drain, then restacked and left again. When they reach the desired uniform consistency, they are milled into small pieces, placed in cloth-lined molds and pressed for at least 12 hours. After that, they are aged and eventually are sold whole (or cut into small slabs or blocks). The desired curd texture of cheddar is often compared to the striations of meat in a properly cooked chicken breast."

p. 52 - The Cheese Plate by Max MaCalman and David Gibbons

Jeez, I feel like the only kid who never knew there was a Santa Claus. I've lived in TX pretty well all my life, and can't remember ever having Pimento cheese on anything. Then again this was San Antonio here.

Originally Posted by Thomas

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Jeez, I feel like the only kid who never knew there was a Santa Claus. I've lived in TX pretty well all my life, and can't remember ever having Pimento cheese on anything. Then again this was San Antonio here.

Let me tell you about this fairy that comes and trades kids' teeth for money. . .

Originally Posted by crazyquik

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Let me tell you about this fairy that comes and trades kids' teeth for money. . .

incredibly timely, as I had tooth fairy duty just a week or so ago. More harrowing experience of my life thus far. Maybe next time I'll forgo the pink tutu.

...

That said, I really don't recall Pimento cheese in San Antonio, at all. None of my friends or family ever had any of it around the house, so even if I was curious...not happening. Besides...now that I think of it, my in-laws have never served it, either.

Now, eating Chicken Fried Steak with flour tortillas - only in S.A.

I grew up in the South (and now live there again), but I've always thought that pimento cheese was disgusting.

Originally Posted by Grayland

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Cheddar cheese isn't extruded at all.

"The term "cheddaring" refers to an alternate form of pressing. The curds are allowed to coagulate into a large mass, cut into medium-sized slabs that are stacked, left to drain, then restacked and left again. When they reach the desired uniform consistency, they are milled into small pieces, placed in cloth-lined molds and pressed for at least 12 hours. After that, they are aged and eventually are sold whole (or cut into small slabs or blocks). The desired curd texture of cheddar is often compared to the striations of meat in a properly cooked chicken breast."

p. 52 - The Cheese Plate by Max MaCalman and David Gibbons

It actually refers to the location where the process was created, and the garbage cheese used in pimento cheese is extruded. Cheese doesn't naturally form itself into bricks.

Originally Posted by why

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It actually refers to the location where the process was created, and the garbage cheese used in pimento cheese is extruded. Cheese doesn't naturally form itself into bricks.

No, you're confused. Cheddar refers to the location where the process was created; cheddaring, on the other hand:


ched·dar·ing [ chà ddəring ]


noun

Definition:

cheese-making process: the process in the manufacture of cheddar cheese when the curd is cut up into small pieces in order to drain the whey


Cheese doesn't naturally form itself into anything. It's placed into a mold or shaped by hand, then sold whole or cut into wedges, bricks, etc.

Originally Posted by why

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Cheese doesn't naturally form itself into bricks.
Milk doesn't 'naturally' separate itself then turn into cheese either, but that doesn't mean that all cheese is 'processed', despite the fact that that there was a process to produce it. 'Processed' cheese has undergone extra processing on-top of what is normally done to produce cheese, normally involving adding stuff that makes it last longer. I can't comment on whether the cheese usually used in pimento cheese is processed or not, but a normal block of cheddar is not 'processed cheese'. If it was then there would be no such thing as cheese that isn't 'processed', since it goes through no more processing than any other cheese unless you're suckling it directly from the teet of a cow.

Originally Posted by why

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It actually refers to the location where the process was created, and the garbage cheese used in pimento cheese is extruded. Cheese doesn't naturally form itself into bricks.

LOL.. and the Roquefort I picked up the other day, I am sure, formed into a wedge shape naturally.

Originally Posted by Sanguis Mortuum

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Milk doesn't 'naturally' separate itself then turn into cheese either, but that doesn't mean that all cheese is 'processed', despite the fact that that there was a process to produce it. 'Processed' cheese has undergone extra processing on-top of what is normally done to produce cheese, normally involving adding stuff that makes it last longer.

I think you're missing my point: cheese doesn't magically take a rectangular shape. The cheddar being referenced is extruded in a factory and tastes like trash. The nomenclature on cheese in America has almost no restrictions, so there's abominations like 'mozzarella' behind deli counters that has no resemblance to actual mozzarella. Ditto provolone, cheddar, parmesan, and pretty much every cheese out there. Calling extruded orange brick cheese 'cheddar' because of the 'cheddaring' process (which, by the way, is just a nominalization of the verb form) is a misnomer as well, since most 'cheddar' cheese isn't even cheddared.

Originally Posted by Scrumhalf

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LOL.. and the Roquefort I picked up the other day, I am sure, formed into a wedge shape naturally.

You're absolutely correct, it didn't form itself into a wedge shape naturally. It was formed into a round and ripened before being sliced into a wedge. Notice the lack of factory extrusion and the addition of an ageing process and innoculation to produce a distinct cheese.