This gourmet pimento cheese has MS roots and more and more grocers are carrying it

Pimento cheese may not be in the front of everyone's minds, but a recipe that originated in Mississippi and adapted along the way has put Papa's pimento cheeses on hundreds of grocery shelves and in thousands of homes where it brings families together.

"My dad (Lucius Donald Jordan Jr. 'Papa') is from Kosciusko, Mississippi," said Trey Jordan, president and CEO of Memphis-based Pimentos Brands. "He was born in 1929.

"He went to Mississippi College. He was the first guy from MC to go to Harvard Business School. He grew up with a love of cooking and a love of food."

And one of those foods was pimento cheese.

"In his time in Mississippi, pimento cheese was at every event," Jordan said. "He took what he knew from the South and it morphed with what he'd learned."

Pimento cheese becomes a customer favorite

What he learned was about flavors outside the South as he traveled the nation and to other countries. Jordan said in 1993, he and his father got into the restaurant business and became known for several recipes, but an old standby, pimento cheese, became the customer favorite at their Holiday Deli and Ham Company and Pimentos Burgers Bar and Grill locations.

"We were selling about 80,000 pounds a year in our restaurants," Jordan said. "This was out of three restaurants we had; little kind of deli restaurants."

With that type of volume, someone was bound to take notice. In this case, it was Kroger. Jordan said one of their restaurants was located near a Kroger distribution center and employees would come there to eat.

It wasn't long before Kroger approached the Jordans with a proposal, but Jordan said he was so busy at the time, a deal wasn't in the cards.

Then COVID-19 came along.

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Like almost all brick and mortar businesses, the restaurants suffered. So, Jordan shuttered his restaurant career and set his sights on putting Pimentos Brands pimento cheeses on Kroger's shelves.

Jordan said the products are made in Tupelo and he started out personally delivering containers of pimento cheese to 17 grocery stores and success and expansion were almost immediate.

"Quickly, we were crushing it," Jordan said. "We were moved to the Delta warehouse, which means we were selling to Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee."

Jordan said his products are currently in about 300 stores in seven states and that number continues to grow.

"Albertson's is launching us this summer down in Texas and Louisiana," Jordan said.

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Making gourmet pimento cheese that brings people together

Pimento cheese has been around as long as anyone can remember and with good reason. Take a few ingredients out of the refrigerator and mix with a couple of seasonings and you're ready to serve it as a dip or on party sandwiches.

The Jordans took it to a new level, though.

"We use real cheese," Jordan said. "I think that's important.

"We use two different kinds of cheddar cheese and it's aged. We feel like we've got it aged to perfection. Our spices add a little kick to it. Our spicy has a little more kick to it. I think that keeps people coming back to it."

Using the right mayonnaise and the right amount are also big factors in creating something that people will gravitate toward.

"I feel like this product brings people together," Jordan said. "It's bringing family and friends together to do life. At the end of the day, that's what's important."

A versatile pimento cheese

Deborah Coleman of Memphis said she began eating at Jordan's restaurants 30 years ago and even though she was not a big fan of pimento cheese much of her life, what she found in the restaurants won her over.

"The thing about their pimento cheese is the first thing you taste is the cheese, and it doesn't have filler in it," Coleman said. "It's just a high-quality cheese.

"The first taste you get is this blend of cheeses, one of which is sharp, and the pimento flavor after. You can do so much with it. You can have a pimento cheese sandwich. You can have a pimento cheese quesadilla. If you heat up the pimento cheese, you can have a cheese dip."

Coleman said she also serves it on burgers and grilled chicken breasts.

"There are so many uses for it," Coleman said.

Papa's pimento cheese addiction

Carla Parris said she also became a fan of the pimento cheese in Jordan's restaurants in the early 1990s.

"That's when the addiction started," Parris said. "That's about how long we've been enjoying it.

"It's engrained in our family gatherings. It's become kind of a staple at our family gatherings."

And the addiction extends beyond her immediate family.

"My sister-in-law is in the same boat," Parris said. "She's from Philadelphia, Mississippi, and she has to take the pimento cheese with her.

"Whenever she goes down for family gatherings she has to take two or three things of pimento cheese with her. She can't go to family gatherings without pimento cheese with her."

What's next for Pimentos Brands?

Pimentos Brands currently offers Papa's Original Pimento Cheese and Papa's Jalapeño Pimento Cheese, but more gourmet gathering foods are on the way.

"We have about 10 more recipes we're going to bring to the market at some point in time," Jordan said. "We have an incredible chicken salad. We have a Fiesta Pimento Cheese we're close to launching."

And Jordan said they're all customer approved.

"These are things we either won awards for or what our customers loved all these years," Jordan said.

Do you have a story idea? Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Gourmet, restaurant-quality pimento cheese has roots in Mississippi