Holy Provel, Batman!

 

 As a food anthropologist I have been a huge fan of Atlas Obscura's food feature, Gastro Obscura. After years of reading about weird and wonderful foods that are served nowhere near Central Texas, one day it suddenly  occurred to me that I could make pretty much anything that didn't call for esoteric equipment or ingredients that I could not source due to shipping restrictions. 

 Something that has intrigued me for a long while has been Provel cheese. Provel is a St. Louis staple, a Velveeta-like concoction of Swiss, Provolone and white cheddar with an added smoke flavor that was invented in the 1940s to feed the need for a pizza cheese with a 'clean bite'. In years past I had seen Provel in our local stores, but not since before the plague. When I decided that I was going to use Provel in my first couple of recipes I started looking. Local store websites would say they had it, but it was nowhere in sight when I went to or called the stores. So I turned to online, and was excited to see claims of people buying it off Amazon. Sadly it was not meant to be, as they, like the local stores, were out or no longer carried it. A quick Google led me to a strike, Goldbelly had it! I clicked on the link, and there it was in all its radiant processed cheese glory. Then I saw the price and amount. They only have it in 10 pound blocks for the low, low price of $85.

 Nope, not happening. So a bit more searching turned up a plethora of recipes to make it, and that's the route I went. Most of the complaints about the various recipes is that they weren't processed like Provel, just a mix of the three cheeses grated together. A bit more searching turned up a Swiss/cheddar processed cheese locally, but alas, they didn't have it, and the nice deli person even called around to other stores for me. So I settled on our local store's version of a white cheddar Velveeta, some Swiss and Provolone that were not high end so I could achieve closer to the processed texture the complainers were bitching about.  

 

After blending the melted cheese and liquid smoke I poured it into a container to firm up so I could slice it. After finishing the cheese, I picked the Gerber sandwich to start with. 

 The Gerber sandwich was invented in St. Louis in 1973 by Ruma's Deli by a man named Dick Gerber, next door neighbors to the deli owners. They let him use their kitchen to make a sandwich, and they were so impressed with it that they put it on the menu and named it after Mr. Gerber. The sandwich is a hot open faced merging of ham and Provel on French or Italian garlic bread. 

 I grabbed some ham, (I used Black forest, although I suspect plain 'boiled' ham lunchmeat would probably be more traditional.) butter, garlic, my version of Provel and some lovely fresh French bread my husband made for this recipe.

I made the garlic butter and assembled the sandwiches. A slather of garlic butter,

some ham,

And the homemade Provel,

then into the oven to get all hot and melty. 

And there you have it, a Gerber sandwich!

Biting into the warm layers of cheese and ham were divine. The cheese blend stretched a little like good melted cheese should, the ham was hot and slightly crisped at the edges. It was a little dry, but the flavors of garlic butter and cheese played off each other well. It is very filling, and while I had every intention to stuff myself with a whole sandwich, I stopped at one half and saved the rest for another meal. It reheated great in the microwave and I had some house made slaw with it. 

 I loved this sandwich and will definitely make it again. If you are in a mood to experiment, there are tons of recipes online for both the Provel substitute and the sandwich. If you have made one or eaten one in the St. Louis area, please share your experience in the comments below!