When Southern Living magazine recently put together its list of the 12 Most Legendary Southern Recipes of All Time, hot pepper jelly and cream cheese stood proudly alongside such classics as a deviled eggs, hummingbird cake and even sweet tea.
I always thought I was well-versed in Southern cuisine, but hot pepper jelly and cream cheese – usually served with Ritz crackers or saltines – had somehow eluded me. “How could that not be amazing?” I thought, salivating over something I had never even tried before.
I remembered that In the Curious Kitchen, a Newport-based small-batch food company, sold a version of hot pepper jelly. As a fan of their pimento cheese, boozy cherries and beer cheese, I figured I’d give it a try. Curious Kitchen owner MK Hennigan told me her pepper jelly is identical to the one her mother made for holidays and special occasions while she was growing up in Frankfort, Kentucky, and that she still hand cuts the peppers herself.
While some preparations call for heating the cream cheese and jelly in the oven, I went old-school, simply slathering the jelly over a brick of cream cheese and surrounding it with saltines.
The spicy pepper jelly had the right amount of sweetness and the cream cheese gave it a luxurious creaminess that made it taste like a more expensive dish than it is. Hennigan’s version is more spicy than sweet, something she achieves by including the seeds from the jalapeno peppers.
The editors of Southern Living said you can zhuzh-up the dish by adding pecans on top or using goat cheese instead of cream cheese. But why mess with something so perfect? It might seem almost too simple to bring to your next pot luck or summer celebration, but my bet is no one’s going to complain. You can order In the Curious Kitchen hot pepper jelly at inthecuriouskitchen.com.
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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: If you’re not putting this on top of cream cheese, you should be
Reporting by Keith Pandolfi, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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By Keith Pandolfi, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
