If you follow my Instagram, then you might be aware that for Christmas at my sister’s house, I brought a cheese ball and 7-Up Jell-O salad. I decided not to share these last month because I will admit I attempted too much for both the blog and Instagram during the holiday season. I kind of burned myself out and decided that it was more than okay to not post any recipes the last week of December. Therefore these got cut from my agenda. Much to my surprise though, those two pictures kept getting clicked from this blog because I do have my Instagram featured on the right hand side of my blog (on the bottom if you are on a mobile device). That blew me away because to be quite honest I usually don’t get too many clicks to Instagram from WordPress. So here is the recipe for the cheese ball and later in the month I will most likely do the 7-Up salad.
My sisters had a southern theme to her Christmas meal so the cheese ball is a play on the classic pimento cheese spread. It is adapted from a recipe I found in one of my recipe boxes and is most likely from the late 1970s to early 1980s. The original recipe made a HUGE amount so for this post I did test it out with all the ingredients halved. It worked perfectly. So if you are making this for less than 10 people use the recipe below and if the gathering is larger, this recipe can easily be doubled.
A quick side note: Don’t fret if for some reason you can not get this to shape into a ball. It happens every once in a while especially if you forget to factor in chilling time in the fridge. Mine, that I made for taking pictures to feature in this post, almost gave me some trouble because I got distracted while measuring out the lemon juice. Therefore it was a almost a little too soft. If this happens to you, just find a cute little serving bowl, pile the cheese spread in, sprinkle with the nuts and serve with the crackers. It will be just as tasty in this presentation as it would have been in the ball form.
Quick update to this post! I happen to find in a thrift store The Kraft Cookbook: 75 Years of Good Food Ideas from 1977. In it, is the recipe for Party Cheese Ball which is the recipe I found in the old recipe box that I adapted this recipe from. So therefore the origin is from Kraft where they say it is a classic and “everybody’s favorite cheese ball-a savory attraction for any gathering, casual to formal”. I love when I find out where a recipe comes from. It is so satisfying!.
Pimento Party Cheese Ball
A recipe for a pimento cheese spin on the classic retro cheese ball.
Ingredients
- 1 8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar (shredding your own works better than preshredded)
- 1 tablespoon chopped pimentos (roasted red peppers can be substituted)
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika (or cayenne if you prefer a little more of a kick)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
- Chopped pecans (about one cup. It depends on how small you want the pecans chopped)
Directions
- Combine together the softened cream cheese and cheddar cheese until well mixed.
- Then mix in the pimentos, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, paprika and ground pepper.
- Chill in the fridge until it is firm enough to shape into a ball usually about 1 to 2 hours.
- Roll in chopped pecans and serve with crackers.
Notes: This recipe uses a small amount of lemon juice. If you don’t want to cut open a lemon that you might not use the rest right away, vinegar can be substituted. Apple cider vinegar would work great in this recipe. Just remember that vinegar is more potent than the lemon juice and therefore use only 1/4 of a teaspoon.
Quaint Cooking 
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