Brewers fans might not be eager to seek out links between Milwaukee and St. Louis, but, perhaps fitting – from both sides – the link is cheese (Wisconsin's bread and butter) and pizza (St. Louis has a vibrant Italian-American history).

To be more specific, the link is something called Provel, which according to one packaged version is "pasteurized process Cheddar, Swiss and provolone cheese."

In St. Louis Today, Joe Bonwich wrote that trademark research shows that Provel was invented in the 1940s, specifically for use on pizzas in St. Louis, by Tony Costa, of the the Costa Grocery in St. Louis' The Hill Italian neighborhood, and Wisconsin's Hoffman Dairy, which was bought out by Kraft. (A Kraft subsidiary currently owns the Provel trademark.)

Theories abound about the name, which may be a mix of the words provolone and mozzarella, though some say that in its infancy, it was originally called provole.

Not wanting to visit St. Louis yet again without trying its famed Provel-topped pizza, we stopped at one of the many Imo's locations, which are outgrowths of the original Imo's location on The Hill.

We had shredded Provel on a salad. In that setting it had a smoky flavor not unlike the aged and oft-smoked scamorza, and the kids gobbled it up. Its somewhat mushy texture offers a hint to why it's perfect for pizza.

Provel has a very low melting point and because St. Louis pizza has an improbably thin crust, it cooks super fast, which makes a quick-melting cheese a plus.

We ordered a 16-inch pie with plain cheese on half and black olives on half. On the plain cheese side, the Provel melted so thoroughly that it blended into the sauce and if you look at the photo above, you can't distinguish where one ends and other begins. (You can also see the cracker-thin crust – think Zaffiro's – that is delectable.)

Thanks, presumably, to the olives, the cheese and sauce remained a little more distinct on that half of the pizza.

As a family, we were all a little lukewarm on the Provel. It certainly wasn't bad, but I suspect the goopiness of the integrated cheese and sauce is something you have to grow up with to truly love.

Originally, part of the allure of Provel on pizza was its "clean bite," and, indeed, the cheese doesn't possess the stringiness that sometimes makes it challenging to eat pizza without getting more mozzarella on your chin than you bargained for.

We also tried an appetizer of toasted ravioli, another St. Louis specialty invented on The Hill (birthplace of Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola). Best enjoyed hot, these crispy ravioli were stuffed with a slightly spicy beef filling that was a hit with everyone at the table.