I was at an Italian grocery store today because a.) I got paid and b.) I wanted a salami sandwich real bad. I didn't wanna fuck around with no lettuce or tomatoes and shit, just some salami, some Miracle Whip, and some cheese of some kind. So I got me some salami and some bread like usual, and then I had to decide what cheese. You gotta understand that a.) they have like fifty kinds of damn cheese at this place and b.) I had to ask this super-hot young lady to slice it up for me. So I was a little embarassed that of all these cheeses, the one I found myself craving was fuckin' Provel. I mean, PROVEL?!?! I never even heard of Provel until I moved to St. Louis. It's sort of a real mushy, real mild white processed cheese I'd put between a.) Velveeta and b.) American in texture and kind of just neutrally cheese-like in taste. At first my only experience of Provel was of the Oh-My-God-What-The-Fuck-Is-Wrong-With-Your-Pizza-Here variety. But I gradually came to love that mushy cheese on the almost matzo-like crust of St. Louis-style pizza from places like a.) Imo's or b.) Cecil Whittaker's (who, by the way, have a fuckin' awesome logo that for some reason I totally love):
Figure 12: Cecil Whittaker's Awesome Logo
6 comments:
Thanks for being with me.
i admit to being a food snob. i claim to never eat processed foods. but i guess i'm a hypocrite because provel is processed and i can't get enough of it. cheese garlic bread with mozzerella is like hell in my mouth. but provel garlic bread = perfection. i love you fake delicious cheese!
THOSE FUCKING RABBITS!
'Provel is a white processed cheese that is popular in St. Louis, Missouri. Provel is produced with cheddar, Swiss, and provolone. It is soft at room temperature, with a gooey and almost buttery texture, and thus has a low melting point. It is the traditional topping for St. Louis-style pizza, including for example Imo's Pizza. It is also often served on salads, chicken and the Gerber sandwich. Some restaurants go a step further and 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.
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 bitten. 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 combination of the words provolone and mozzarella, two of the cheeses for which it is substituted.
Provel, like American processed cheese, is not legally labeled as simply cheese because it does not meet the moisture content requirements that the FDA holds for a food to be considered cheese. Provel is instead a Pasteurized process cheese.
Fans consider Provel a delicious mildly smoked flavor that is softer than mozzarella, but that still maintains a cohesive consistency that doesn't form messy strings when it is cut.'
i just had provel on the best sandwich at mama toscano's on macklind.
'5 inch beef with cheese and pickles' best fucking sandwich i've had in a long time.
Whoa I ride by there every day, I am gonna stop now and try this sandwich you speak of.
"Well damned if today I just didn't want some lightly toasted Italian bread (that real buttery kind with the sesame seeds on the crust) with a slice of Provel slapped on there right when they came outta the toaster so it would mush up nice, then some salami and a slather of Miracle Whip. God damn, people. God damn. To you doubters: try it before you knock it. To you provel-lovers: I am with you. To the hot young lady at the deli counter: I love you."
Sounds great, except for the disgusting Miracle Whip. I think Miracle whips started as a salad dressing but nobody like it on salad so the made it a sandwich spread, which still is disgusting. Just what I want don't want on a sandwich, sweet and tangy, just throw it away. Mayonnaise is KING. Down with Miracle Whip.
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