The dish has its origins in the
Northern United States in the early 20th century as a homemade snack spread. A 1908
Good Housekeeping recipe called for soft
cream cheese and minced
pimentos. In 1909, Eva Green Fuller's
Up-to-Date Sandwich Book included a recipe calling for pimentos and
Neufchatel. By 1910 commercial versions had appeared, and ads appeared in parts of the North. According to food writer Robert F. Moss, writing in
Serious Eats, through the period until World War II, the spread "was mentioned in hundreds of newspaper stories and advertisements, but none of them describe it as being in any way a Southern thing". Original recipes called for canned Spanish pimentos, which were expensive; Southern farmers began growing pimentos to supply a less-expensive product.
Southern cooks adapted the recipe using
hoop cheese and mayonnaise. After World War II, the prevalence of the dish decreased in most of the US but kept its popularity in the South, becoming relatively unknown outside that region. By the early 2000s, according to Moss, "an increasing number of Southern writers and chefs started celebrating the humble spread they remembered being made by their mothers, grandmothers, and aunts, and they started publishing recipes for it and even putting in on restaurant menus". ==Ingredients and preparation==