Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Welcome to Fascinating Facts and Tantalizing Trivia

A Hartson Dowd Column

August 21, 2006

A cheesecake is a sweet, cheese-based dessert.

Cheesecake is one of the most common desserts in the world and perhaps one of the oldest involving dairy other than milk.

Ever since the beginning of time, man has been striving to make the perfect cheesecake. Today, there are literally thousands of cheesecake recipes. Everyone has their favorite. But when did this craze really begin? How did we get from the early days of cheesecake to the famous New York Cheesecake that we enjoy today?

Cheesecake was a very popular dish in Ancient Greece. But when the Roman's conquered Greece, the secret fell into the hands of the Romans and nothing's been the same since. Actually, the Roman version of cheesecake was much different from the Greek form of the delicious wonder. Roman cheesecake became known as placenta. It was sometimes baked on a pastry base and other times it was enclosed in a pastry case. The Roman cheesecake was actually often used as an offering to the Gods.

In the first century BC, a gentleman by the name of Marcus Porcius Cato, came up with a wonderful recipe for cheesecake. He lived from 234 to 139 BC. He was a Roman politician. See, even politicians can have good taste in food. This recipe of his was the only work of his that was ever preserved, which is quite ironic since his main focus was in politics. This recipe that he came up with was often given as a temple offering.

It wasn't until 230 AD that the first "modern" recipe for cheesecake was recorded. This was a recipe that was recorded by Athenaeus, a Greek writer. By today's standards, this recipe, which reads as follows, would be considered laughable.

"Take cheese and pound it till smooth and pasty; put cheese in a brazen sieve; add honey and spring wheat flour. Heat in one mass, cool, and serve." That is the actual recipe as it was discovered by archeologists. Quite crude in comparison to the elaborate cheesecake recipes that we have today.

It wasn't until 1000 AD that cheesecake was finally brought to Great Britain and Western Europe. This was done by Roman conquering armies. Shortly after this time cheesecake slowly spread throughout the area. The number of different recipes also started to increase and began to look a little more like the ones we're used to today.

In 1545 the first cookbook containing a cheesecake recipe was printed. The book actually focused more on other types of foods as it was a traditional type of cookbook. But inside was one recipe for cheesecake printed below. To make a tarte of Chese - Take harde Chese and cutte it in slyces,and pare it, than laye it in fayre water, or in swete mylke, the space of three houres, then take it up and breake it in a morter tyll it be small, than drawe it up thorowe a strainer with the yolkes of syxe egges, and season it wyth suger and swete butter, and so bake it.

You will notice the English is quite bad. This was how the actual recipe was printed. Obviously the English language itself has come a long way in 500 years. Since that time, cheesecake recipes have become quite elaborate and quite good. New York Cheesecake is probably one of the most popular. Now that you know how cheesecake came to be, why not run out and get yourself a good slice. You deserve it, after all.

New York Style Cheesecakes are creamy, and smooth, and rich, and dense, and absolutely delicious.  There are two popular cheesecakes in America today, the ones made with cream cheese and the ones made with ricotta.  John Mariani tells us in his 'The Dictionary of American Food & Drink' that Americans have come to know cheesecakes made with cream cheese as 'New York' (or ''Jewish'), and ones made with ricotta 'Italian'.  It is also interesting to note that both types have their roots in immigrant New York City neighborhoods, both start with either a pastry or graham cracker crust, and both use the standard eggs and sugar in their filling.  The only real difference being that one uses cream cheese and the other ricotta and that the 'Italian' cheesecake sometimes contains candied fruit.

New York Style Cheesecake

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons butter or margarine melted
2 pounds cream cheese
1 cup sugar
8 ounces sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup flour
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

In a 5 quart mixing bowl place 2 pounds of cream cheese and 1 cup granulated sugar and mix on low speed until cream cheese is softened and smooth, place in bowl 8 ounces sour cream and continue mixing until well blended, at this time add 2 eggs, mix for 2 minutes then add 1 cup flour, and 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream, mix on second speed until smooth and creamy.

At this time your cheesecake mixture should be fluffy like ice cream as it comes out of the ice cream machine.
Prepare your 10 inch x 2 inches spring form pan, in a large bowl place your graham cracker crumbs and 2 tablespoons sugar, and your melted butter or margarine, then with a wire whisk, whisk them together until well combined, brush onto the sides of your spring form pan a little softened butter so the crumbs have something to hold to, place the crumbs on the sides and bottom of the pan. Now you add slowly to the pan your cheesecake as not to disturb the crumbs too much, now you should have a full pan.

Preheat your oven to 275 degrease and not more, when your oven is hot place the cake in it and bake for 55 minutes then shut off the oven and let it in there for 3 hours, at the end of this time you should have the most beautiful cheesecake you ever seen, let the cake on the table for 1 1/2 hours then place it in the refrigerator for about 2-3 hours. Now remove it from the pan and enjoy.
On this cheesecake you can top it with anything you like cherries, blueberries, strawberries and so on.

Apple Walnut Cheesecake

Apple Walnut Cheesecake wow, can't you just taste it now?  Do you want to know how to make it? Well follow me, just go to Traditional Cheesecake and follow the recipe to the letter, but now here it is, just remove some of the batter and replace it with diced apples, the sweeter the better, but not mackintosh because they will turn to applesauce, you need a firm apple like Granny smith, or Rome apples, put some minced walnuts in the batter too, place the batter in the pan and place some more diced walnuts on top then bake as directed.

We cannot talk about cheesecakes without mentioning the pitfalls, mainly the questions of how do we prevent cracking and when are cheesecakes done?  First, let's talk about cracks on the surface of a baked cheesecake, as this is a common problem and is caused either by over beating the batter and/or by too much moisture being lost as the cheesecake bakes (over baking).  In order to prevent cracks make sure you beat the ingredients at low speed as, unlike a butter cake, you do not want to incorporate a lot of air into the batter, you only want to beat the ingredients until they are nice and smooth.  As far as the over baking of cheesecakes goes, this is a common problem as it is difficult to know when a cheesecake is done.  The thing to remember is that you want the cheesecake to be firm but, if you shake the pan gently, it should still wobble a little, and the center will still look a little wet.  For even though the center may not look fully baked, once it cools it will firm up and be the correct consistency. 

Cheesecakes are cakes that should not to be eaten straight away as they need to cool and then be refrigerated for several hours, preferably overnight, so the flavors have time to blend and the texture becomes nice and firm.  The great thing about cheesecake is that it stores very well and can also be frozen.  To freeze, place the cooled cheesecake on a baking pan and freeze, uncovered, until firm.  Remove the cheesecake from the freezer, wrap it in heavy duty aluminum foil and place in a freezer bag.  Seal and return to freezer.  It can be frozen for several months.  Thaw the uncovered cheesecake in the refrigerator overnight.

Hartson Sager Dowd

hsdowd@telus.net