Provel cheese

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Provel pasteurized processed cheese for pizza in a 5-pound block

Provel /prɵˈvɛl/ is a white processed cheese particularly popular in Saint Louis cuisine,^[1] that is created through a combination of cheddar, Swiss, and provolone cheeses.^[2]^[3]^[4] Provel has a low melting point and, thus, has a gooey and almost buttery texture at room temperature. It is the traditional topping for St. Louis-style pizza. It is also often used in the preparation of cheese soup and served on salads, chicken and the Gerber sandwich. Some restaurants use Provel for their pasta dishes with white sauce instead of the customary fresh Italian cheese and cream.

Although popular in the St. Louis area, Provel is rarely used elsewhere. Indeed, its use is controversial even in St. Louis, where a tolerance for Provel is as significant a means of establishing one's social identity as the perennial St. Louis question, "Where did you go to (high) school?"

According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch food critic Joe Bonwich, Provel was invented specifically for St. Louis-style pizza more than a half-century ago by the downtown firm Costa Grocery (now Roma Grocery on the Hill, a primarily Italian St. Louis neighborhood), in collaboration with the Hoffman Dairy Company of Wisconsin (now part of Kraft Foods). Bonwich states that Provel was developed to meet perceived demand for a pizza cheese with a "clean bite": one that melts well but breaks off nicely when the diner bites down. Neither of Bonwich's sources at Kraft and Roma had a definitive answer for the origin of the name, although one popular theory is that it is a portmanteau of the words provolone and mozzarella, two of the cheeses for which it is substituted.^[5]

As a processed cheese, Provel is subject to FDA guidelines on labeling cheese.

The trademark on the Provel name, first used in 1947, is currently held by the Churny Company, Inc. of Glenview, Illinois. Churny is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Kraft Foods.

References

↑ The Lexicon of Real American Food - Jane Stern, Michael Stern - Google Books
↑ Hulin, Belinda (2007). The Everything Pizza Cookbook: 300 Crowd-Pleasing Slices of Heaven. F+W Publications, Inc. p. 7. ISBN 1598692593. Retrieved September 30, 2012.
↑ Bonwich, Joe (2012). "Provelology: The study of a made-up cheese with a made-up name". Retrieved 2013-06-21.
↑ Veety, Andrew (2010). "A Brief History Of Provel". Retrieved 2013-06-21.
↑ STLtoday – Entertainment – Dining

External links

"Best use of the worst cheese: Tomato Sandwich made with Provel wins award, Best of St. Louis, Riverfront Times, 29 September 2004
"Famous Gerber sandwich recognized", Riverfront Times, 8 October 2003

v t e Processed cheese

American cheese Cheese spread Cheez Whiz Chesdale Cheese Cup cheese Dairylea Easy Cheese Imitation cheese Kraft Singles James L. Kraft Pimento cheese Pizza cheese Primula Provel cheese The Laughing Cow Velveeta

v t e Kraft Foods Group brands

Condiments	A1 Steak Sauce Bonox Bull's-Eye Barbecue Sauce Grey Poupon Kraft Mayo Miracle Whip Vegemite

Beverages	Café HAG Capri Sun¹ Country Time Crystal Light Gevalia Kool-Aid Maxwell House Tassimo

Convenience foods and baking goods	Boca Burger Calumet Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Planters Shake 'n Bake South Beach Living Stove Top

Dairy products	Cheez Whiz Cool Whip Dairylea Easy Cheese Philadelphia Polly-O Provel cheese Singles Velveeta

Desserts	Jell-O

¹This brand is owned by Rudolf Wild GmbH and manufactured under license by Kraft Foods only in the United States, Canada, and Greenland.

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