Cheesecake History:
Ever since the dawn of time, mankind has striven to create the perfect
cheesecake. The earliest history of the art is lost, but we know that
cheesecake was already a popular dish in ancient Greece. With the
Roman conquest of Greece, the secret fell into Roman hands. The
Roman name for this type of cake (derived from the Greek term,)
became placenta. Placenta was more like a cheesecake, baked on a
pastry base, or sometimes inside a pastry case. They were also called
libum by the Romans, and were often used as an offering at their
temples to their gods.
1st Century A.D. Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 B.C.) was a Roman
politican. His treatise on agriculture, De Agricultura or De Re Rustica,
is the only work by him that has been preserved. He wrote about
farming, wine making, and cooking among other things. This is his
recipe for libum, the small sweet cake often given as a temple offering:
Libum to be made as follows: 2 pounds cheese well crushed in a
mortar; when it is well crushed, add in 1 pound bread-wheat flour or, if
you want it to be lighter, just 1/2 a pound, to be mixed with the cheese.
Add one egg and mix all together well. Make a loaf of this, with the
leaves under it, and cook slowly in a hot fire under a brick.
Small cheesecakes were served to athletes during the first Olympic
Games held in 776 B.C. on the Isle of Delos.
230 A.D. According to John J. Sergreto, author of Cheesecake
Madness, The basic recipe and ingredients for the first cheesecake
were recorded by Athenaeus, a Greek writer, in about A.D. 230:
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.
1000 A.D. Cheesecake were introduced to Great Britain and Western
Europe by the Roman conquering armies. By 1000 A.D., cheesecakes
were flourishing throughout Scandinavia, England, and northwestern
Europe.
1545 A cookbook from the mid 16th century that also includes some
accounts of domestic life, cookery and feasts in Tudor days, called A
Proper newe Booke of Cokerye, declarynge what maner of meates be
beste in season, for al times in the yere, and how they ought to be
dressed, and serued at the table, bothe for fleshe dayes, and fyshe
dayes, has a recipe for a cheesecake:
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.
New York Cheesecake:
New York cheesecake is the pure, unadulterated cheesecake with no
fancy ingredients added either to the cheesecake or placed on top of
it. It is made with pure cream cheese, cream, eggs, and sugar.
Everybody has a certain image of New York Style Cheesecake.
According to New Yorkers, only the great cheesecake makers are
located in New York, and the great cheesecake connoisseurs are also
in New York. In the 1900s, cheesecakes were very popular in New
York. Every restaurant had their version. I believe the name New York
Cheesecake came from the fact that New Yorkers referred to the
cheesecakes made in New York as New York Cheesecake. New
Yorkers say that cheesecake was not really cheesecake until it was
cheesecake in New York.
1929 Arnold Reuben, owner of the legendary Turf Restaurant at 49th
and Broadway in New York City, claimed that his family developed the
first cream-cheese cake recipe. Other bakeries relied on cottage
cheese. According to legend, he was served a cheese pie in a private
home, and he fell in love with the dessert. Using his hostess recipe
and a pie she made with ingredients he provided, he then began to
develop his own recipe for the perfect cheesecake. Reuben soon
began to serve his new recipe in his Turf Restaurant, and the
cheesecake quickly became very popular with the people who
frequented Reubens Broadway restaurant.
Neufchatel Cheese:
A soft unripened cheese originally from Neufchatel-en-Bray, France:
The supporters of this cheese claim that it is the oldest Norman
cheese. They argue that a text from the year 1035 A.D. mentions the
production of cheeses in the Neufchel-en-Bray countryside. In fact, it
was born officially in 1543 in the ledgers of the Saint-Aman Abbey (of
Rouen) where a cheese was termed Neufchatel. At that period the
cheese was probably already matured in the cellars of that country
that was covered naturally with penicillium candidum.
It is known that since the Middle Ages the Neufchatel cheese had
many shapes, depending on fashion or simply on the moulds the
producer owned! The legend explains that the heart shape is due to
the young Norman women that wanted to express discreetly their
feelings to the English soldiers during the wars in the Middle Age
During the XIXth century, the production of Neufchatel increased
strongly and Napoleon III is said to have received a huge basket of
Norman cheeses containing lots of Neufchatel cheeses that he
appreciated. At that moment, it was known as one of the best French
cheeses and was consumed all over France. Nevertheless, slowly, its
production decreased more specifically, after the Second World War.
The producers and the market laws are responsible for that
disaffection since the production of cheeses has become less
attractive than the sale of the milk to huge dairies.
Cream Cheese:
1872 American dairymen achieved a technological breakthrough that
ushered in the Modern Age of cheesecakes. In attempting to duplicate
the popular Neufchatel cheese of France, they hit upon a formula for an
un-ripened cheese that was even richer and creamier (they named it
cream cheese). William Lawrence of Chester, New York, accidentally
developed a method of producing cream cheese while trying to
duplicate the French Neufchatel.
1880 The Kraft foods website states that the Empire Cheese
Company of New York began producing PHILADELPHIA BRAND Cream
Cheese for a New York distributor called Reynolds. In 1912, James
Kraft developed a method to pasteurize cream cheese (Philadelphia
cream cheese), and soon other manufacturers of dairy products
offered this newer kind of cream cheese.
Related Recipes:
Tarte Tatin History
Gooey Butter Cake History and Recipe
Lamington Cake History and Recipe
Charlotte Russe Cake History
Comments and Reviews
2 Responses to Cheesecake History
1.
Sally Erikson
October 21, 2016
The recipe I have for cheesecake has flour and all my friends who are better bakers than I
tell me I am wrong. I argue that the reason is whyi t is called cheesecake is because it has
flour in it. I must be wrong, but my recipe is from one I have from Philadelphia cream
cheese. Could I possibly be right since it was originally made with flour?
Reply
Linda Stradley
October 21, 2016
A good share of cheesecake recipes call for flour or cornstarch. That being said,
other cheesecake recipes do not call for it and use eggs as the thickening.
Flour or starch binds moisture in the cheesecake. If you use it or not depends on
your recipe, the total amount of liquid and the other binding ingredients like eggs.
Flour helps keep cheesecake from cracking and it doesnt alter the texture. Using
just eggs, gives the cheesecake a more custard or souflle-like cheesecake.
Follow the recipe you are using and use whatever the recipe calls for.
Reply
