St. Louis-style pizza
Flagship profileSt. Louis's distinctive unleavened, cracker-thin pizza topped with regional Provel cheese and cut into small party squares.
- Origin
- United States, St. Louis
- Thickness
- very thin
- Bake temperature
- 230-260 celsius (typically 245 celsius)
- Bake time
- 480-720 seconds (typically 600 seconds)
- Skill level
- intermediate
- Domestic oven
- good
- Time commitment
- 1-2 hours given minimal fermentation
- Topping density
- moderate
Origin and history
Associated closely with Imo's Pizza, founded in St. Louis in 1964, defined by an unleavened, cracker-thin dough and Provel — a regional processed cheese blend — rather than mozzarella, cut into small squares.
Defining characteristics
- Unleavened or minimally leavened, very thin, cracker-crisp dough
- Uses Provel, a processed cheese blend distinctive to the St Louis area, rather than mozzarella
- Cut into small squares ('party cut'), similar in spirit to Chicago tavern-style
Visual guide
Dough
- Hydration
- 40-50 percent of flour weight (typically 45 percent of flour weight)
- Salt
- 1.5-2 percent of flour weight (typically 1.8 percent of flour weight)
Mixing: Machine mixed to a firm, low-hydration, minimally leavened dough
Kneading: Brief mixing; the dough is not meant to develop significant gluten structure
Shaping: Rolled very thin with a pin
Expected crumb: Minimal, dense, cracker-like
Tolerance: Very low hydration and minimal or no leavening make this one of the most distinct doughs among major US styles
Common failure modes
- Puffs up unexpectedly if leavening is not kept minimal, losing the intended flat, cracker texture
Flour choices
Low gluten development is essential to the style's unleavened, cracker-thin, dense crust.
Produces a chewier crust that departs from the style's core identity.
Extra gluten strength fights the deliberately flat, cracker-thin, unleavened crust this style is defined by.
Construction and bake
- Roll dough very thin
- Apply sauce
- Apply Provel cheese
- Add toppings
- Bake
- Cut into small squares
Traditional method: Deck oven or domestic oven, moderate-high heat
Common modern adaptations
- Provel is difficult to find outside the St Louis area; a blend of provolone, low-moisture mozzarella, and white cheddar is a common approximation
Techniques
Achieves the cracker-thin, dense base that defines the style, with no fermentation rise to compensate for uneven rolling.
Keeps the unleavened base perfectly flat through the bake.
Flavour and texture
A very crisp, cracker-like bite with the distinctive smooth, low-stretch melt of Provel cheese
Serving
Cut into small squares ('party cut')
Cut into a grid of small squares rather than wedges · Several squares per person, shared
Ingredients
Ingredient intelligence
Sauce
A standard sauce beneath the distinctive Provel cheese, applied thinly given the cracker-thin, unleavened crust.
Cheese
A smooth, low-stretch processed cheese blend distinctive to the St Louis area, replacing mozzarella entirely and giving the style its characteristic melt.
Toppings
A common topping choice atop the cracker-thin crust and Provel cheese.
Construction order
Derived from this style’s own structural ingredient data — see the construction order & topping load guide for why order varies by style.
- Sauce: Cooked tomato sauce
- Melting cheese: Provel cheese
- Primary topping: Italian sausage
Build guides
- St. Louis-style pizza with Provel and a cracker-thin crust
An unleavened or barely-leavened, cracker-thin dough topped with Provel — a smooth, low-stretch processed cheese blend distinctive to the St Louis area — and cut into small squares. One of the most structurally distinct doughs in the whole catalogue: almost no rise at all.
Domestic adaptation
Achievable at home, though sourcing genuine Provel outside the region requires an approximated cheese blend
Common mistakes
- Substituting a stretchy cheese like standard mozzarella, which changes the characteristic smooth, low-stretch Provel melt
How it tastes and eats
- Crust texture
- Very thin, cracker-crisp and unleavened or barely leavened, so it is uniformly brittle with no chew anywhere.
- Crumb texture
- Essentially none — closer to a biscuit or cracker than to bread.
- Sauce impression
- Sweet, and noticeably so — the sweetness is a genuine regional characteristic rather than an accident, and it plays against the cheese's tang.
- Cheese impression
- The most distinctive element by far: Provel is a processed blend that melts to a smooth, gooey, almost sauce-like consistency with a faint smoky tang, quite unlike mozzarella's stretch.
- Topping balance
- Applied to the edge over a thin base, with the Provel dominating the impression regardless of what else is on it.
- How it is eaten
- Cut into small squares and shared, eaten by hand. A local style that is genuinely polarising outside the region, almost entirely because of the Provel.
Aroma
- Provel's distinctive smoky-tangy note
- Sweet cooked tomato
- Toasted cracker crust
What makes it distinct
Compared with Chicago tavern-style pizza
The clearest tell is the cheese: Provel is smooth and gooey with a smoky tang where tavern-style mozzarella stretches and browns. St Louis sauce is also noticeably sweeter.
Provel is close to universal in St Louis but some places offer mozzarella, which changes the pizza's identity substantially.
Related and comparable styles
- Similar to Chicago tavern-style pizza
Both are thin, cracker-crisp, square-cut Midwestern styles, though St Louis uses Provel cheese and a more minimally leavened dough.
Compare
Sources and evidence
Show sources and evidence
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch — history of Imo's Pizza and Provel cheese — St. Louis Post-Dispatch