Now you can tell your out-of-town friends what EXACTLY makes a great St. Louis-style pizza, plus dazzle friends and family with amazing pizza facts.
- 93 percent of Americans have eaten pizza within the last month, thereby making PIZZA more American than Apple Pie or a Big Mac hamburger.
- Pizza originated in Naples, Italy.
- Pepperoni is the most popular pizza topping in the United States.
- When do people order the most pizza? The most pizzas are ordered on SUPER BOWL Sunday.
St. Louis-Style Pizza
Every once in a blue moon friends tell me, you're the pizza dude, so what exactly differentiates St. Louis-style pizza from others. My basic, uninformed answer is the super-thin crust, combined with provel cheese and is cut into squares. Nothing is wrong with that answer, but let us get a little more specific so we can give our friends a good, thorough answer next time we are asked that question. We should know our pizza and be proud of our region, because sometimes the St. Louis-style comes under attack from out-of-towners and provel cheese haters.
THE LONG ANSWER:
The definitive characteristics of St. Louis-style pizza are a extremely thin crust made without yeast, the common use of Provel processed cheese, and pizzas cut into squares instead of wedges.- The thin, cracker-like crust is made without yeast. The crust is crispy and cannot be folded.
- As a result of its thin crust, St. Louis-style pizza can be layered deeply with many different toppings because of the sturdiness of the cracker-like crust.
- The pizza is cut into three or four inch squares. According to legend, Ed Imo, founder of Imo's pizza back in 1964, was a tile layer and possibly got inspiration from this type of work.
THE CHEESE: PROVEL
Provel cheese was developed by the St. Louis company Costa Grocery
in the 1950s and is made in Wisconsin primarily for the St. Louis market. According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch food critic Joe Bonwichstates 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. Provel is not legally labeled as simply cheese because it does not meet the moisture content required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Provel is instead considered a pasteurized processed cheese.
HOWEVER, it is although Provel is a hallmark of St. Louis-style pizza, two popular St. Louis pizza establishments DO NOT use Provel cheese: Fortels Pizza and Pappo's.
THE SAUCE:
The tomato sauce is often seasoned with more oregano than other
pizza. Some of the sauces have a greater sweetness to them than pizzas from other places in the U.S.
RECIPES TO MAKE YOUR OWN ST.LOUIS-STYLE PIZZA:
Just in case the plethora of pizza places in St. Louis would somehow all shut down, and you would be forced to make pizza yourself, here are two noteworthy recipes to make your own.
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