[1][2] A 1908 Good Housekeeping recipe called for soft cream cheese and minced pimentos.

[2] In 1909, Eva Green Fuller's Up-to-Date Sandwich Book included a recipe calling for pimentos and Neufchatel.

[2] 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".

[5] Pimento cheese can be served as a spread on crackers or celery, scooped onto corn chips or tortilla chips, mixed in with mashed yolks for deviled eggs,[6] added to grits, used as a topping for hamburgers or hotdogs.

According to Southern Living, Rosalynn Carter once made pimento cheese sandwiches on a plane, handing them out to her grandchildren and other nearby passengers.

[16]A similar dish using queso de bola is known in the Philippines, where it is referred to as "cheese pimiento".