IMOs Replica recipe

[Justinmonusmc]

Hey Pizza Connoisseurs,

I've been on a relentless mission lately to mirror the taste and texture of Imo's Pizza in my humble kitchen. But alas, every attempt thus far has fallen short of capturing that iconic flavor and texture that we all know and love.

Here's the dilemma: every "copycat" recipe I've tried vehemently opposes the use of yeast, opting instead for baking powder to achieve that sought-after crispy crust. Yet, upon scrutinizing the ingredients of a bona fide Imo's Pizza crust, what do I find? Yeast! It's there, albeit in a modest amount, but it seems like a crucial detail overlooked by these supposed replicas.

So, pizza pals, I'm at a crossroads and in dire need of your expertise. Has anyone stumbled upon a copycat recipe for Imo's Pizza that embraces yeast as a key component? Or perhaps you've concocted a formula that comes  close to the real deal? I'm ready to dive into the kitchen, armed with dough and determination, if it means finally achieving that elusive flavor and texture.

Any help or guidance is much appreciated. Thanks much.

[nanometric]

Welcome to the pizzamaking forum. Here is a good way to find what you're looking for (i.e. better than the forum's own search tools):

In a browser window, enter your search terms in the address bar, one space between each term, then add site:pizzamaking.com after all of the search terms. An example of such a search is below, along with a link to the results it produces.

"Imo's" pizza yeast site:pizzamaking.com

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Imo%27s%22+pizza+yeast+site%3Apizzamaking.com&oq=%22Imo%27s%22+pizza+yeast+site%3Apizzamaking.com&aqs=chrome.0.69i59.549j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Notes:

- In the search above, Imo's is in double-quotes to exclude posts containing the common acryonym, "IMO"

- To find only results with posts from a specific member, such as the Dough Doctor, include "Dough Doctor" in the search terms:

"Imo's" pizza yeast "Dough Doctor" site:pizzamaking.com

[KaleidoScoops]

I recommend looking at reddit user houseofprovel's posts. They seem to have really put a lot of effort into getting the dough and cheese recipes down.

https://www.reddit.com/r/food/comments/1984jav/homemade_st_louis_style_pizza/

[HouseofProvel]

Hey Pizza Connoisseurs,

I've been on a relentless mission lately to mirror the taste and texture of Imo's Pizza in my humble kitchen. But alas, every attempt thus far has fallen short of capturing that iconic flavor and texture that we all know and love.

Here's the dilemma: every "copycat" recipe I've tried vehemently opposes the use of yeast, opting instead for baking powder to achieve that sought-after crispy crust. Yet, upon scrutinizing the ingredients of a bona fide Imo's Pizza crust, what do I find? Yeast! It's there, albeit in a modest amount, but it seems like a crucial detail overlooked by these supposed replicas.

So, pizza pals, I'm at a crossroads and in dire need of your expertise. Has anyone stumbled upon a copycat recipe for Imo's Pizza that embraces yeast as a key component? Or perhaps you've concocted a formula that comes  close to the real deal? I'm ready to dive into the kitchen, armed with dough and determination, if it means finally achieving that elusive flavor and texture.

Any help or guidance is much appreciated. Thanks much.

I think I replied to your message on the Reddit. It looks like you are on the same pizza journey I went on a few years ago. Kinda isn't fun that everything you read online about St. Louis style pizza is either written by someone from out of town that hates the stuff, someone that has never eaten the stuff, or someone parroting bad/misinformation or some combo of all three.

My plan is to do a full write up on how to make St. Louis style pizza at home. I've been recipe testings to include dough, sauce, and at home Provel cheese. Hopefully that should be out soon but I really, really want to make sure I get it right before I do it. 

Edit: Just wanted to add that you're right, Imo's uses yeast. Every pizzeria in St. Louis uses yeast. I can't find a single example of a pizzeria in St. Louis ever not using yeast. I'm not sure where that no-yeast thing came from but it didn't come from someone working in a pizzeria in St. Louis.

[Mental]

Looking forward to seeing the full guide when it's ready. I've been playing around with some variations of a thin, cracker like dough for a while on and off. Thanks for all the input so far.

[brownSys]

I worked at Imo's for 3 years mostly as a cook back when I was in college. I think it's going to be very difficult to replicate the crust to any meaningful degree because it came to us premade. 

Not premade dough balls but the actual finished shells. They came in bags with the shells stacked 20-50 high separated by some kind of plastic sheet. They were manufactured.

That is probably well known but maybe not. 

I can say that the shells were docked when they were made, but not with a typical docker the spacing of the holes were equidistant and further apart than you see with a typical docking tool. The shells are not rigid but somewhat flexible. They are not wet at all and they seemed to have some kind of thin coating on them. They would dry out, become rigid, and easily crack if left out of their bag and fridge too long. 

If you are in the St Louis area I believe you can still purchase the shells at grocery stores like Dierberg's and Imo's branded provel and sauce are also available at grocery stores in the St Louis area. 

The sauce as I recall was  3 tomato sauce cans, 2 tomato paste cans, 3 cans of water (i think maybe 2 maybe 4), a LOT of sugar, and some kind of seasoning packet that came on the truck that delivered the shells. This was cooked down at low heat from about 11am-4pm at a simmer stirred occasionally. 

Cheese was provel not Imo's branded, don't recall the brand name. It came in very large bricks and was grated with a machine. 

[nanometric]

I worked at Imo's for 3 years mostly as a cook back when I was in college. 

Time frame ?

[brownSys]

Time frame ?

2008-2011

[brownSys]

A few more details that might help for someone really trying to get it exact.

On the sauce I said "a lot" of sugar. If I recall correctly it was about 3 red solo cups full give or take a cup because I don't remember exactly. I do remember always thinking "that is a lot of sugar". The "cans" I mentioned are the typical restaurant size cans, like paint cans.

Oven:

Between 500 and 550 can't recall exactly I want to say it was 505 or 515 but somewhere in there for sure. These were conveyer ovens and cook times were ~5mins. Usually pushed them back a bit at the end to get some extra color when we weren't too busy.

Toppings:

All toppings under the cheese except for bacon, pineapple, and anchovies. Beef and Italian Sausage were completely raw in 5-10lb bags. To apply you put your hand in the pizza sauce, grab a fist of beef/sausage with sauced hand. Pinch between your thumb and pointer finger and smash onto sauced shell with thumb of the other hand. Bacon was full strips partially cooked and smothered in some kind of fat. Came in a large bags.

Order of operation's: Sauce, sausage/beef/chicken, pepperoni/Canadian bacon, green pep/onion/mush/olive, cheese, bacon/pineapple/anchovies, sprinkles

Cheese varied by the cook. They had a chart but no one ever used it. Lighter was better.


Sprinkles:

"Sprinkles" was a mixture of either grated parm or grated Romano. Wanna say it was Romano. With about 10% oregano added in. We always "sprinkled" a good amount of this over the finished pizza before it went in the oven.

[nanometric]

@brownSys

Thanks for the inside scoop. FWIW here are the crust ingredients, from the IMO's web site:


https://prod.imos.pchi.link/app/uploads/2022/10/PizzaCrusts_Ingredients_Imos2022.png