Things are getting cheesy – yes, even more so than usual – this week in Lost Recipes. Get out the crackers, folks, because April 17 is National Cheeseball Day, and we’re spreading it pretty thick.
In May 1987, the late, great Montgomery Advertiser reporter Alvin Benn visited a group of talented 4-H club students in Marion at the Muckle’s Ridge Festival. At this point in his career, Alvin had written about almost everything, from civil rights, to serious crime, to events in every corner of the state. Chances are this story was a first for him.
The students – who today would probably be in their 50s – created a cheese ball weighing more than 200 pounds. It wasn’t really a ‘ball’, it was more of a hill shape. Surrounded by 4-Hers in the photo Alvin took, the enormous party food resembled a pecan-encrusted model volcano they were waiting to watch erupt. Instead, they ate it – and then sold it in pieces for $1 as a fundraiser for the 4-H club.
The young chefs also shared the recipe:
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200 pounds of shredded cheese (Alvin said half was shredded by hand.)
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2 liters of chopped olives
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A liter of Worcestershire sauce
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10 ½ ounces paprika powder
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9 ½ ounces garlic powder
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1 cup tobacco sauce (spicy!)
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2 ½ pounds chopped pecans
One ingredient cheeseball makers will notice is cream cheese, which is pretty much a staple in most recipes. If I had to guess, I’d say they left it out for stability reasons; their cheese mound might have collapsed under its own weight if it had a softer interior.
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The kids had a “big cheese” they worked with: Joyce Richardson, Perry County Cooperative Extension Service agent. She told Alvin, “This should be large enough to feed almost any crowd, but if more is needed, just double the recipe.”
Bite-sized cheese balls
One of the oldest references to cheese balls in the Advertiser dates from October 1909. It is also one of the smallest, simplest versions. It is a small ball of cream cheese, with half a walnut pressed into the top. Serve them with walt waffles and cheese straws.
Peach salad surprise
Here’s a fancy cheeseball for fancy parties in 1933.
Mix the cream cheese with the olives. Place a pineapple slice on a lettuce leaf. Fill the center of the pineapple with the cheese mixture. Cover that with half a peach, cut side down. Garnish with a cross of chili pepper strips and serve with French dressing. This should serve eight.
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Kabob with mushrooms and cheeseball
Cheeseballs on a stick, anyone? This one from December 1972 was presented as a New Year’s Eve treat.
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2 oz. cream cheese, soft
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1 tablespoon blue cheese, crumbled
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¼ teaspoon onion powder
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6 drops hot pepper sauce
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½ cup chopped, blanched almonds
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16 oz. whole mushrooms
Combine cream cheese and blue cheese, onion powder, hot pepper sauce and ¼ cup nuts and mix well. Form the mixture into ¼-inch balls, then roll them in the remaining nuts. Skewer a cheese ball and a mushroom on a ‘pretty toothpick’. Garnish it with paprika powder. You should have about 40 hors d’oeuvres.
Pumpkin-shaped walnut cheddar cheese balls
Want a cheese ball for your Halloween party? The Advertiser obliged readers in October 1982.
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8 Oz. grated sharp cheddar cheese
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1/3 oz. cream cheese, soft
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2 tablespoons chopped sweet gherkins
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2 tablespoons mayonnaise
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1 teaspoon mustard
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A few drops of hot sauce
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½ cup chopped walnuts
Mix the cheddar and cream cheese. Then mix in the pickles, mayonnaise, mustard and hot sauce. Let it cool until it is firm enough to form into a ball and then roll it in nuts. That’s the regular cheeseball recipe. If you want a jack-o-lantern-like one, skip the nuts and roll it in crushed cheese crackers. Use a knife or toothpick to create the vertical pumpkin lines. Use walnuts to make the face and stem.
Festive sage cheese ball
The latter from 1998 was the odd one out of the group. As if it were a giant cousin of the 4-H cheese mountain, no cream cheese is used. It is a typical cheeseball size, but two types of cheddar are used.
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1 oz. extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated
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10 oz. sharp yellow cheddar cheese, grated
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4 tablespoons of butter
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2 tablespoons fresh chopped sage
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½ cup chopped pecans
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½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
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½ cup sweet, full port
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30 pecan halves
By then, food processors were a thing, and the recipe called for the cheese and butter to be put in one with sage, nutmeg, and port to be thoroughly mixed. Then pour it onto plastic wrap and form it into a loose ball. Place it in the refrigerator to chill overnight or several days. When you are ready to serve it, shape it into the desired shape. Fill it with the pecan halves and dust with more nutmeg. Garnish as desired and serve with crackers and fruit.
IF YOU TRY
If you decide to try one of these lost recipes, send us a photo and a note about how it went. Send it in an email titled “Lost Recipes” to Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel bee sheupel@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Lost Recipes: Alvin Benn and the Mountain of Cheese
