At some point shredded cheese got invited to the party and packaged cream cheese got swapped for mayonnaise (often homemade) and pimento cheese was elevated from a thing of convenience to a labor of love. At a time when imported canned pimentos were considered a luxury, farmers in Georgia started cultivating those sweet peppers closer to home and so, along with expanded availability, popularity spread to the South. Turn of the century homemakers discovered that the mixture of cream cheese and canned pimentos made for a quick appealing sandwich.Īll good food stories have elements of migration. Born in the late 1800s as a convergence of newly manufactured American cream cheese, newly canned and imported Spanish peppers, and the newly minted word “home economics” which favored canned goods for their ease and orderliness. Pimento cheese heritage began not in the South but in New York City, as a product of industrial food and mass marketing. Pimento cheese varies from fridge to fridge from grandmother to grandmother. Most will agree however that pimento cheese is basically a mixture of grated extra sharp cheddar, chopped pimento peppers and mayonnaise (though some will swear by salad dressing). The Appetizer: Homemade Pimento Cheese Dipĭid you know: Ask someone from the South what goes in pimento cheese and chances are the description will sound a little different from the next Southerner you ask. Though not of the South, the South has adopted it as its own and we think improved and perfected it.įried Green Tomatoes – Fried green tomatoes topped with pimento cheese, bacon scallions, and ranch dressing The dish became popular in the South after the release of the book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and the movie Fried Green Tomatoes. For him the message is clear: fried green tomatoes did not come from the South. Moss, author of The Fried Green Tomato Swindle and Other Southern Culinary Adventures, “Fried green tomatoes first appeared in 19th century cookbooks in the Northeast and Midwest section of the country.” The only Southern mention he could find before 1970 was from a 1944 Alabama newspaper which printed a recipe. The dish was first brought to this country in the 19th by Jewish immigrants.Īccording to Robert F. Toasted Ravioli – Flash fried beef ravioli, tomato sauceĭid you know: Surprisingly, fried green tomatoes did not originate in the South. The word toasted is actually a misnomer – you might think they come out of the oven but Angelo Oldani named them such because he felt the word toasted was more appealing than fried. Everybody loved them and soon every restaurant on the Hill was serving a variation. When Oldani saw what happened, he tried to salvage the ravioli by brushing on some grated cheese. Angelo had a pot of boiling oil on the stove and the cook thought it was for the ravioli so he dropped them in the oil. The first toasted ravioli seems to have been made in the 1940s at a restaurant called Angelo Oldani on the Hill, the Italian neighborhood where both Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola grew up.Īccording to legend, Angelo the owner was busy and told a new assistant, a German cook, to prepare some ravioli. Did you know: What spicy chicken wings are to Buffalo, NY, toasted ravioli is to St Louis, MO.
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