How to Make Your Own Masters Pimento Cheese Sandwich

By: Golfshake Editor | Wed 05 Apr 2023

Friend of Golfshake, Stewart Armstrong explains how you can make your own Masters Pimento Cheese Sandwich - British Style!

Welcome to the silly season. Pre-Masters content is full of the Par 3 Contest, traditions unlike other, and the occasional social media post featuring relatively inexpensive concession prices ($5 for a domestic beer, if you were wondering). A mainstay of the concession menu is $1.50 pimento cheese sandwiches, the staple diet of journalists working in the media centre. But what exactly is a pimento cheese sandwich? We told Stewart @FuzzyGolf we were sending him to Augusta to find out, but only gave him a bus ticket to Tesco, Market Street, St Andrews. Other supermarkets are available.

Strawberries & Cream at Wimbledon, cricket and Pimms, there are culinary connections between food and sport. The Masters is no different, pimento cheese sandwiches seemingly the ubiquitous choice for the Georgia patrons. However, unless the Augusta lottery Gods have shone in your favour, it’s pretty unlikely you have actually tasted a pimento cheese sandwich. Golfshake set me the task to recreate the southern classic, with ingredients found on the UK high street.

The History

First of all, I need to understand the ingredients of the Masters pimento cheese sandwich, and that is the first hurdle. Like their fellow Georgian counterparts, pimento cheese is as guarded a recipe as Atlanta’s Coca-Cola. The initial servings of Masters sandwiches were provided by a local couple, Hodges and Ola Herndon, who mom and pop style would make the concessions in their kitchen and deliver daily for the patrons until demand outstripped supply in the late 1950s. The contract was taken up by South Carolinian Nick Rangos who for 45 years until the Tiger era met the needs of the hungry visitors. This is when the humble pimento cheese became the go-to filling between slices of bread (egg salad looks on, jealously). Ben Hogan remarked “one of the things you need to do when you come to Augusta, and there are a few, is go over there, [pointing to the food concession] and get yourself a good pimento cheese. Because you’ll never have any better.”

Things changed in 1998 down Magnolia Lane, and not because Tiger decided to serve hamburgers and shakes for the Champions Dinner. With Rangos becoming as elderly as the honorary starters, the pimento contract was awarded to WifeSaver, a local fried chicken restaurant based on Washington Road. The problem was the sandwiches would never taste quite the same again - Rangos refused to share the recipe.

Upon this backdrop of three competing pimento cheese recipes, and with ingredients not available in your typical high street store, could we possibly recreate the Augusta classic? Here’s my best shot.

Pimento Cheese Masters

The Shopping List

100g standard cheddar
100g quality sharp cheddar
100g soft cheese
1 bell pepper
1 chilli
Quarter of an onion (40g)
2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper spice
Pinch of salt and pepper

Cheddar cheese: for this pick your standard medium flavour coloured cheddar cheese. Supermarket own brand good enough for this, go for Cathedral City if you’re feeling flush.

Quality cheese: we now need a contrast to the cheddar, looking for something sharp and with a hint of sweetness. The official recipe probably uses a Monterey Jack, but this is not available in most stores, so I have chosen Orkney cheese (because it’s my favourite), while a Red Leicester would also make a great choice.

Soft/Cream Cheese: supermarket own brand good enough here, only splash for Philadelphia if it’s on offer. Avoid low fat, the Masters is only once a year.

Mayonnaise: good mayo is essential, only use supermarket own brand if you know it won’t be oily, otherwise go for Hellman’s.

Pimento: this is the crux of recipe. A pimento is a type of pepper. Since pimentos cannot be found in the UK (possibly Waitrose?) in this instance we will use a nice quality bell pepper. Pimento peppers are mild and sweet (scoring at 100 to 500 on the Scoville scale of spiciness) but since bell peppers score zero on the Scoville scale, we will need to supplement the bell pepper with a standard chilli pepper, but don’t worry this will be a nice warming kick and not spicy.

Seasoning: cayenne pepper is an absolute must in southern recipes, especially chicken wings and fried chicken. It is by far my favourite in my spice rack, try marinating chicken wings in cayenne and paprika and flour next time you have a BBQ. I digress. You will need cayenne, onion (frozen, chopped is good), garlic powder, salt and pepper.

How to Make

Remove the head from the pepper, remove the seeds and roughly chop it up.
Do the same for the chilli. Do not rub your eyes!
Put the pepper and chilli along with the onion, cayenne, salt, pepper, and pinch of garlic into a blender and give it a quick blip. You are not looking to make a mushy mess, only to do most of the chopping. Leave some texture.
Grate the cheese.
Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl including the mayo and cream cheese. Give a mix with a wooden spoon. If you don’t like too much heat, add the blended mix to the cheese gradually until it meets your taste.

How to Serve (Non-Vegetarian & Vegetarian Options)

Par: serve inside white bread, Masters style.
Birdie: toast some ciabatta bread with a slice of bacon.
Eagle: use as the cheese in a cheeseburger, in a hot dog or with a steak.

So, there you have a pimento cheese style sandwich made from easily accessible ingredients on the high street. If you really wish to delve into your Masters obsession, then why not give it a go this weekend!