The Stack
Me (jealous of said Old Fashioned): Which do you mean? The cheese or the pickle?
Tom: The whole stack. A little cheese on the cracker, a bit of onion, the pickle. It's just amazing.
Thus "the stack," or at least its moniker, was born. It's a combination of three recipes, sourced and modified from The Lee Bros, Smitten Kitchen, and The Ktchn, and evolved across three Easters at Julie's uncle's house. It takes a bit of planning: the red onion really ought to be made two days beforehand and the pimento cheese and cucumber pickles at least the day before, giving flavors a chance to meld. That said, it's neither especially time consuming nor expensive. Instead, to use the Lees' term for appetizers, the stack is an impressive graze perfectly suited for large get-togethers.
And it needs to be. I've been in towns with populations lower than Julie's family. As such, this recipe is scaled to feed 36 people. In the likely event you need to feed fewer people than that, scale down the cheese at a higher ratio than either of the pickles.
Red Onion, Pickled in Bourbon
2 red onions, peeled and very thinly sliced
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup pepper vinegar (or rice wine vinegar)
2 tablespoons good bourbon (preferably not cask strength)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
A small palmful of peppercorns
A pinch of fermented red pepper flakes, to taste
Mix all ingredients EXCEPT the onions together in a food safe jar or container with a secure lid. Add the onions, place the lid on the container, and shake vigorously. Refrigerate for at least two days, tossing the mixture whenever you open the fridge. The onions will turn a pleasant pink and soften noticeably. When serving, be careful with the peppercorns. They will not soften noticeably.
Fridge Pickles
10ish Kirby cucumbers, sliced thinly but not peeled
1/2 cup white vinegar (champagne or rice wine vinegar can also work, but do not use apple cider)
2 1/2 teaspoons pickling salt
1 bunch dill, washed
4-8 cloves of garlic, to taste, peeled and gently crushed with the flat side of a knife
A pinch of fermented red pepper flakes, to taste
Mix the vinegar and salt together thoroughly, in a food safe jar or container with a secure lid. Add the cucumber slices, followed by the garlic and red pepper flakes. Lastly, tuck the bunch of dill into the container and attach the lid. Shake vigorously. Refrigerate at least overnight, tossing the mixture whenever you open the fridge and sneakily trying a pickle or two, cautiously adding salt if needed. As Deb notes in the original recipe, this may seem like insufficient liquid, but over time the salt will leach moisture from the cucumbers.
Pimento Cheese
24 ounces sharp cheddar (not pre-shredded)
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
12 ounces jarred pimento*
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Fermented hot sauce, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
Shred the cheddar using either a box grater or a food processor (you'll be creaming this together with the other ingredients, so it neither needs to be pretty nor exact). In a large mixing bowl, begin to combine the cheddar with the cream cheese and mayonnaise. When this gets boring, as it will, drain the jarred pimentos into the mixture, then dice them roughly before adding to the mix. Continue mixing until you have a creamy, combined spread.
Taste and add other flavoring ingredients as needed. Refrigerate at least overnight. The sweetness of the pimento will permeate throughout the spread as it sits, so don't be alarmed if what you've made tastes mostly of cheddar cheese in the beginning.
*The Lees suggest roasting your own pepper for this, using the liquid trapped inside the pepper in the same way you use the jarring liquid in my recipe above. I've done this, and the extra sweetness/brightness is marginally worth the extra time, but I rarely have access to the oven during holidays, when Julie is busy baking. You'd want 2-3 red bell peppers, roasted, skinned, and chopped, for this.
Assembling the Stack
Remove the pickles from their brine, leaving behind garlic cloves, dill, and peppercorns. Any liquid that's separated from the pimento cheese should be stirred back in as well. Always taste everything before serving it.
I like to put the pickles and cheese in a compartmentalized dish with a basket of fancy crackers beside it, to suggest the idea that all three are meant to be eaten together. People seem to get the idea. If you're traveling with the dish, as we always do, tuck a spread of plastic wrap around the onions to prevent their stronger smell from infecting the surrounding foods.
