Southerners have strong feelings about the ingredients they allow into lunch staples like chicken salad, pimento cheese and egg salad. That same question got some play recently when Garden & Gun posted an article about how Sean Brock, the James Beard Award winning chef of McCrady’s and Husk, in Charleston, South Carolina, and Husk Nashville, crafts his signature pimento cheese.
Garden & Gun and New York Times contributor Kim Severson tweeted that she didn’t agree with Brock’s recipe, which includes cream cheese along with mayo, smoked paprika and pickled ramps (or bread and butter pickles). Some of Severson’s followers chimed in about the sacrilege, decrying the unnecessarily modern direction Brock had taken this lowly staple. But surely it’s not because the chef’s pimento cheese wasn’t sumptuous in real life. Rather, it’s that such humble eats are anchors to consistency. When we consume them, we’re not looking to be wowed; we’re simply eager to return to the familiar.
Cooler weather or not, I still make chicken salad, egg salad and pimento cheese on a regular basis. They’re fast, cheap and they make me feel good. Usually, they’re eaten quickly at the computer with a side of crackers and cold lettuce. Not much gets added beyond the main ingredient and mayo, but each one still merits their own ritualistic preparation method—as I’m sure they do in your house.
