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April Showers Bring: Pimento Cheese Sandwiches (and the Masters)
The American South was my home for 42 of my nearly 54 years (so far) on this earth. In those aforementioned years, I don’t remember ever not knowing about (and understanding the importance of) the Masters and the sacred institution that is the Augusta National Golf Club. For a true Southerner, attending the Masters is, if not a rite of passage, definitely a bucket list item. That’s probably also a true statement for any avid golf fan.
Since I’m not a true Southerner — now, that’s not to say I don’t have a lot of Southern qualities — 42 years is a long time, am I right?! It was inevitable that I adopt at least some Southern traits. But I digress… As a Damn Yankee™ northerner by birth, I always assumed a forgiveness of sorts for never (ever) caring about golf. Yes, golf courses are (usually) pretty beautiful, and Augusta’s course is second to none. See the photographic evidence below:
Nov 10, 2020; Augusta, Georgia, USA; Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson walk along the no. 13 fairway during Tuesday’s practice round for the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Davis Tucker/The Augusta Chronicle
Confession: I do miss the trees with all that beautiful, haunting Spanish moss. Sigh, again, I digress…
Yes, I’ve played golf, and several of those times were on very nice courses. It was pleasant to spend time with friends out in the sunshine and sure, it was slightly entertaining to swing the club and see how well I could do. But really, it was a great big “meh” for me.
All of that backstory to get to this gem of an article that was published earlier this month on Atlas Obscura:
The Sandwich Scandal at the Heart of the World’s Greatest Golfing Event
Now, that’s a great headline. Almost as good is the URL slug: /masters-pimento-cheese-sandwich/
Of course, I had to read it, and I was not disappointed. This story has everything:
— Great writing
— Sports Golf (sorry, couldn’t resist)
— Drama and secrets (more than a few)
— A reference to the Keebler elves (what?!)
— “Embittered pimento czars” caught up in “PimentoGate” (I have to know more!)
— Sandwiches (not just sandwiches, but pimento cheese sandwiches)
— and, what is allegedly the recipe for the pimento cheese sandwiches served at the Masters in Augusta
Pimento cheese sandwiches were a staple in my childhood and, for the love of all that is holy, I wanted that coveted recipe. Not ashamed to admit that its connection to the epitome-of-all-that-is-Southern Masters tourney was a large part of the allure. Also not ashamed to admit that I searched for other pimento cheese-related content on the web — and felt really, really Southern doing so. That is, until I found this interesting article that said this:
The first time I really looked into the history of pimento cheese, I wrote a long article that opened, “Pimento cheese has a dirty little secret. The ‘pâté of the South’ isn’t really very Southern at all.”
After devouring that article, this Damn Yankee™ northerner by birth had a good laugh and said, “Well, bless their hearts.”
Pramanti Bros. puts the Fries and coleslaw on the sandwich – the only place that you could go after a night of partying in my youth that was open full tilt.
https://www.goodfoodstories.com/primantis-pittsburgh/
Toto – we’re not in Atlanta anymore…..
This is why federalism is important. I have no idea what this secret code means.
Yep. As the article states, Primanti’s has now branched out into a regional chain, and has offshoots in several malls in Western PA and WV (and Ft. Lauderdale? WTH? Must be a lot of ‘burgh geezers in FL, is all I can figure) . None of them has the ambience of the original in the Strip District (not that kind of strip), which–the article fails to mention–only came into its own after about 1AM and involved some of the rudest wait staff known to man. The triggering and insults that accompanied your sammich being thrown on the (greasy, sticky) table in front of you had to be heard and seen to be believed. Mr. She and I were delighted to introduce his kids to Primanti’s many years ago. It was one of the formative experiences of their childhoods.
My guess is the owners like to go to Florida and now have a way of writing it off for taxes
🤣🤣🤣🤣
I think it has something to do with elephants. And “jumbo.” As in Mrs. Jumbo, perhaps representing countries who admire elephants as symbols of “strength, endurance, and intelligence.” And “Dumbo.” A scene that often makes me cry:
Not so secret, after all.
In any event, fried “jumbo” (baloney, nothing to do with elephants) sandwiches are a Pittsburgh staple.
From the South Boston, VA Speedway website:
Refreshment Stand Limitations:
I’m one of the ones who doesn’t, and Bing was no help.
Fried bologna!
Lol. I’ve been a southern boy almost my entire life and have never heard the term.
Thank You!
Don’t forget deep-fried, beer-batter bacon:
ummmm… not sure what to think of that
delicacyidea, seeing how bacon is already fried. Why ruin a perfectly good piece of bacon by adding breading?! ;)Fried baloney is alright. I’ve had it before. I wouldn’t make a special trip for it.
Fried Spam sandwiches, though. That’s good eatin’. My uncle didn’t agree. He said that he hadn’t had any Spam since Anzio and he didn’t miss it at all.
Beer batter.
Yum! Probably helps the dip stick to it better.
Ahhhh… See, I missed that detail. Cheers!
I’ve had something like that but we usually just put it on crackers. Never would have thought to make a sandwich from it.
Put onions, peppers, cheese, zucchini or sweet potato in there instead of bacon and I’m all in
Didn’t they ban Dumbo?
My wife refuses to eat Spam, though I’ve always been fond of it. Fried is good.
If you go to the right state fair, you can get deep fat fried butter. That’ll do your arteries some good.
They have that here. But fried Twinkies are probably better
I think they may have dropped a warning label on it. There are crows in the movie whose accents have been judged ‘stereotypical” and therefore are verboten. These crows are also just about the only characters that treat Dumbo as if he had value. They are capable of seeing past trivial details of appearance and value others for themselves.
Imagine that.
Presentation . . .
My mother always bought Treet, the Armour Star spam-like product. We kids liked it. The first time I tried Spam, I was not impressed. We definitely felt it didn’t measure up to Treet. We ate Treet cold or fried in sandwiches and sometimes fried at breakfast instead of bacon or sausage.
Secret: I’ve always loved fried scrapple best.
Now you’re talkin’! Family friends had a farm and made it fresh. Such a treat.
I’d love to know how they spiced it.
As best I can remember, the cook in The Thin Red Line (whose name I can’t recall)’s goal was to feed his company hot meals, which consisted of fried spam sandwiches.