This Southern Staple Cheese Belongs On Your Deviled Eggs

Pimento cheese might be one of the South's most well known snacks. It's used as a dip for crackers, slathered on white bread sandwiches, or even baked into luscious mac and cheese. The cheesy spread is so often served at picnics and lunches with deviled eggs, so it's only natural to consider a mash-up of the two classics.

If you're not familiar, pimento cheese is a classic combination of grated sharp cheddar, mayonnaise, and sweet pimento peppers, stirred into the perfect marriage of savory and piquant. Everyone's mother or uncle has a secret ingredient, be it chives or bacon, cream cheese or sour cream — but the basic ingredients create the taste that makes the cheese spread so recognizable. The mashed egg yolk and mayonnaise filling of deviled eggs can only get better with a scoop of pimento cheese mixed in. The two textures are similar, and the sweet-sour tang from pimentos gives the egg filling some character and color that are often missing in plain stuffed eggs.

Although one easy option for this twist is to simply mix pimento cheese into the mashed egg yolks of your hard cooked eggs, it's not the only one. The pimento cheese can also be used directly in the hollow of your egg white, with the yolks reserved for another use (maybe a foolproof Hollandaise sauce?). A platter of eggs with alternating fillings would also be a great brunch idea. A tiny scoop of pimento cheese atop your normal deviled egg filling can also be used as a fun garnish.

If thoughts of pristine pimento cheese sandwiches haunt you, we have a great idea for this mash up that takes a page from tasty Japanese-style egg salad sandwiches, often served with a hard boiled egg garnish in the middle. Why not mix your mash your yolks as well as a few egg whites into a batch of pimento cheese. Layer the mixture on soft milk bread with a deviled egg in the center and get ready to bite into the perfectly portable combination of pimento-stuffed deviled eggs.