Sep 6, 2013
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(updated 9/28/2028) True story: St. Louis-born in a decidedly un-foodie time, I did not know that provel and provolone were two different cheeses until after I had moved to California and was married with a baby. Really. I had a sudden taste for one of those delicious house salads we used to get from Talayna’s back when there was only one enormous and dirty location in DeBaliviere, before it got all prettied up and moved.The salad was an enormous mound of iceberg lettuce with a few Greek olives, cherry tomatoes, croutons, and delicious gooey tubes of provel cheese, all tossed together with the house dressing, a garlicky creamy Italian that my BFF assured me her mother said was very close toMarie’s.
I made the salad that night with provolone and was disappointed. Where was that soft, gooey cheese I craved? I confessed to LL being confused that the provolone in California was so – different from my midwestern cheese.
“But we called it provel,” I reasoned. “Maybe there’s some difference.”And that’s when I learned they’re two completely different cheeses.
“Provel is like Velveeta,” he opined. “It’s processed. It’s not even cheese. I’ve never seen it around here.” To this day, I have no idea how my native California-husband knew about all those years ago when, at the time, even my all time favorite the late Anthony Bourdain hadn’t. He just knows things, it’s his superpower.
All St. Louisans know, though, that provel IS a kind of cheese, a pasteurized processed mixture of cheddar, Swiss, and provolone. It has a low melting point, which gives that gooey quality on salads and and that velvety quality on pizzas. It’s synonymous with St. Louis’s Imo’s pizza. People either love it or hate it, there’s not a lot of in-between.
For a while provel was just something I have once a year when I snuck in anImo’s pizza on visits to my family. One year I hauled a 5-pound block of provel back in a suitcase and fobbed it off on friends. But then, I found a nice piece on a now-deleted CNN subpage with a recipe for provel. Homemade provel? Count me in.
I was suspicious of the added liquid smoke in the recipe, though. In my mind, provel isn’t a smokey cheese at all. This could be the make-it-or-break-it ingredient. I bought thisLazy Kettle brand Liquid Smokethat claims to be all natural with no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. I may earn a small commission if you click through to Amazon to purchase the liquid smoke.)The aroma was very strong to me, and so I used only 4 drops instead of the full teaspoon the original recipe called for. Then I melted the cheeses together and chilled.
My homemade provel was perfect. I knew it wasn’t just wishful thinking, because I made pizzas that night without letting anyone know I made the cheese. Kid One, a yearly Imo’s Pizza veteran, took a big bite of my provel-and-mozzarella topped pizza with bacon, tomato, and garden greens. BLT pizza, as it were. He face turned thoughtful. He took another bite and chewed more slowly, then asked, “What is this? It tastes like the pizza we get when we visit Grandma and Grandpa.” Yes. We were sharing childhood food memories from different places in time.
Epicurious, Eatocracy
This is a homemade version of the gooey processed white cheese popular in St. Louis.
4 from 7 votes
Print Recipe
Course cheese
Ingredients
- 1 cup shredded white cheddar
- 1/2 cup shredded swiss
- 1/2 cup shredded provolone
- 4 drops liquid smoke
Instructions
Grate the three cheeses and place in a bowl
Add liquid smoke and mix well
Melt together in a non-stick pan on low heat, stirring frequently
When the cheeses are melted together, stir one last time and move to a container.
Let cool.
Keep refrigerated.
Cheese pizza from St. Louis’s Imo’s has a mixture of provel and mozzarella on a super thin crust
Provel cheese is a St. Louis cultural icon with a sticky history. Blogger Andrew Mark Veety wrote this very well-researched piece complete with oral histories. Fascinating.
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Jack Montyon September 7, 2013 at 1:17 pm
I’m based in the UK and am passionate about making cheese at home (which is why I created a free book on the subject at http://www.homemadecheese.org) but I’d never heard of provel cheese!
A really interesting article – I think I’m going to try your recipe.
Thanks,
Jack.Reply
lifeinaskilleton October 1, 2013 at 10:23 pm
Hi Jack, I would love to know what you thought about the provel. I am looking forward to browsing your book – I’m new to cheese making but find my enthusiasm makes pretty good cheese no matter what. The provel is really a mashup so is different, but the flavor is certainly unique. Thanks for visiting and writing.
Cheers,
MaggieReply
Mon July 11, 2016 at 4:29 pm
Provel is at the heart of a “St. Louis style pizza” thin crust, generally cut into square shapes. Good stuff.
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Tonion September 9, 2019 at 9:13 pm
Aw, somebody else remembers the ‘dusty plastic plants’ location of Talayna’s! The general spider-webbiness of the place never stopped us from going there at midnight for a house salad and some of those fabulous doorstop-sized hunks of cheese garlic bread, though, did it?
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Mark Kristianon November 1, 2013 at 7:49 pm
This recipe is no where close to real Provel cheese. I apologize, but the consistency is completely off and it doesn’t melt the same. The taste provides a minor Provel undertone, but it’s still not even close!Reply
Chris Allenon February 28, 2014 at 6:00 am
I lived in St Louis for two years and absolutely fell in love with Imo’s. I’m quite the foodie, and tried to replicate it in 96, with no luck. Wanted to try again tonight, and there you were. Thanks.
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shawna buercklinon June 5, 2014 at 10:50 am
read your recipe with great interest since we are transplanted from st. Louis to southern Kansas with no imos close. have it everytime we go to my moms in springfield or my brother in law’s in Elsberry. my suggestion(which I will try as well) is to change out the cheddar, swiss and smoke flavoring and instead, use hoffmans smoky swiss/cheddar cheese. I am able to purchase it from the walmart supercenter deli. it is a processed blend and it is excellent and I believe that if I get it as a chunk then shred it together with the provelone, maybe heat it a little afterwards to meld it together, then chill and shred again, I will have the closest thing I can get til I get to st Louis again to buy the provel rope from the sam’s club or find vivianos store and buy a 5 lb block.
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Debbieon August 25, 2014 at 5:15 am
I have from St. Louis and LOVE provel cheese. Do you melt the 3 cheeses together and then reharden in fridge? I have never combined cheeses together to make 1 cheese so I’m not sure what the process is.
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Debbieon August 25, 2014 at 5:17 am
Never mind, if I had read the whole thing I would have saw that you did melt it. Can’t wait to try. Thank you for posting
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Nikkion September 12, 2014 at 6:40 pm
Thank you!! I am looking for recipes from St. Louis for my football day this weekend. I have never heard of Provel, and it cannot be found here in Florida. This should suffice. 🙂
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boobookittyon November 29, 2014 at 8:08 pm
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I am a native St. Louisan living in Houston and I miss the provel cheese!
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JoeSnowon April 13, 2015 at 5:58 pm
You need to tell your husband that Provel is NOTHING like Velveeta because unlike Velveeta, Provel is actually real cheese. Provel is three cheeses blended together to make what can legally be called “processed cheese”. Velveeta can’t use that label because there is no actual cheese in it. It contains nothing but dairy byproducts blended and formed in a way to resemble cheese, but is not aged with bacteria like real cheese is.Reply
JoeSnowon April 13, 2015 at 6:03 pm
Oh, BTW, I worked in a pizzeria kitchen for a while and what we would do to blend the cheeses for the pizza is to quarter the blocks of cheese than feed mixed quarters from the different blocks through the mechanical cheese shredder together to get a good mix of the different cheeses we used which fell into plastic bins to be sprinkled on top of the pizza crusts when they were ready to go into the oven.
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lifeinaskilleton April 17, 2015 at 3:50 pm
I’ve told him, Joe! At least my kids love it as much as I do. Thanks for your comments; very interesting!
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robon December 13, 2015 at 10:28 am
I want to thank you so much!! I love provel cheese so much, but can only sneak into St. Louis once a year at the most, and 2 imos pizzas and a 5lb block of cheese I brink back only last so long:( but I am craving it for my pulled pork sandwich tonight, I’ll let you know how it turns out!:)Reply
Donnaon March 31, 2016 at 11:59 am
Price Chopper I70 &Noland has the St Louis product ina special case in front of deli with sone other special items
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Ed Hennesseyon June 26, 2016 at 9:27 pm
How exactly did you ‘melt the cheeses together’? I was born and raised in St. Louis and I used to work at a pizza joint that used the Provel cheese. It was awesome. Now, whenever I go back I stop at Costco and buy about 20 lbs of it at a time and bring it back and freeze it. That lasts me a while – but it would be nice to be able to make it myself.Reply
lifeinaskilleton July 21, 2016 at 2:29 pm
Ed, I just grated the cheeses together in a bowl, microwaved it, and stirred often.
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Lisa B.on December 23, 2016 at 5:59 pm
Amazon sells it in 2.5 lb blocks as well as in individually wrapped snack sized thingies.
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Coralon February 3, 2017 at 12:55 pm
I’m so excited to try this on homemade pizza tonight! I don’t have the liquid smoke, so we’ll see how it goes. St. Louis raised, living in Wisconsin.
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Timothy Schroederon February 15, 2018 at 5:32 pm
What part of America’s dairy land do you live in
Reply
Bob Dobbson June 6, 2017 at 9:01 am
Totally going to do this and thanks. BTW: When you say you “grated it again”, what do you mean?
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lifeinaskilleton July 1, 2017 at 5:22 pm
Good question Bob; I grated the cheeses to melt together, then I grated the melted mixture to sprinkle on pizza.
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Amber Kempon April 19, 2018 at 1:51 pm
Omg thank you!! I’m a st.louis native who moved away and never realized this cheese was distinctive to STL lol. I always looked for it and asked in stores in new Orleans where I live and got crazy looks and said never heard of it! Until I met the cheese guy at our local whole foods who happened to be from St. Charles MO. It was he who let me know and told me good luck finding it outside STL ha! I’m excited to try this recipe. I hope it’s the same because proven is the main thing in my fave STL dish. Baked mostaccoili ! If your ever around the stl area check out RUMAS DELI delish food covered in proves lolReply
Tonion September 9, 2019 at 9:17 pm
Oh, and in case you were looking for this, we tried it recently and it sure is close to the dressing on the ‘house’ salad (which is madly addictive, and you can still get it at Ami’s on Manchester Road in Rock Hill.)https://food52.com/recipes/33162-st-louis-creamy-italian-parmesan-salad-dressing
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Lynnon July 11, 2020 at 12:53 pm
My husband of 46+ years was a Missouri boy. As he has gotten older he loves to reminisce about certain foods that he loved to eat. Pizza was his favorite while visiting his grandfather in St. Louis. A few years back we drove through MO and stopped to buy as much provel cheese as possible. We seriously just ran out. I found your recipe, thank God! I am melting it together over a double boiler and then hardening it in the fridge. Pizza night should be a lovely surprise. Thank you!Reply
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