Today I am going to talk about Cheesecakes!
I found this great site where one can find lots of information about the History of Cheesecake, including this old recipe from England in the mid-16th century.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/Cheesecake.htmv
For those of you who are cheesecake virgins, this creamy delight is made with few, simple ingredients (traditionally). It has eggs, milk, sugar, cream cheese, and if you want a crumbly bottom, a graham cracker crust.
I compared two recipes of cheesecakes. One was from the cookbook 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 days", and one from the Food Network.
Mid-16th Century Recipe for Cheese Cake:
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.
Paula Deane’s New York Cheesecake:
Prep time: 55 minutes
Ingredients
Crust:
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 7 tablespoons butter, melted
Filling:
• 12 ounces cream cheese , softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• Chocolate glaze, for serving, recipe follows
• Cherries, for serving
• Whipped cream and/or powdered sugar, for serving
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Crust:
In a medium size bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs with the sugar and butter. Mix well and place in the bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform cake pan. Make sure to press against the sides and bottom of the pan. Place into oven and bake for 8 minutes. Let cool.
Filling:
Prepare the filling by beating cream cheese. Mix in sugar and vanilla while beating until well blended. Add in eggs and combine. Pour mixture into prepared crust. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate overnight.
When ready to serve, top with chocolate glaze, cherries, whipped cream and or powdered sugar.
Chocolate Glaze:
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 (1-ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
In a medium saucepan melt butter over medium-low heat. Add chocolate to the butter. Whisk in sugar, whipping cream, cocoa powder, vanilla, and salt. Whisk until combined. Cook over medium-low heat for 2 minutes while whisking constantly.
Yield: 10 to 12 servings
When looking at both recipes, the graham cracker crust appears to be a modern invention. The older version of the cheesecake is also a lot simpler. It has only five ingredients, where as Paula Deane’s New York Cheesecake has about nine ingredients (not including the ingredients for chocolate glaze) The modern version of this recipe is much more complex but also much more detailed, giving people a better idea of how to actually make it. In the older version there are a lot of things missing that we would consider crucial to making a good recipe. For instance, what about the cheese? The old recipe never specifies what cheese to use, when cheese is the main ingredient. Could it be that the maker of the old cookbook assumed everyone knew what cheese to use or did the cake not require a specific kind of cheese? Cream cheese wasn’t invented until the 19th century, when American dairymen attempted to replicate the French cheese Neufchatel but instead invent cream cheese. The website whatscookingamerica.net says that cheesecake used to be made with this French cheese. From this fact you could deduce that even though New York seems to be the cheesecake current residence of choice, it was in fact a European import. With a bit more reading you could find out that the first cheesecakes where made by the Ancient Greeks that was sometimes used as a temple offering. Nowadays people serve cheesecake for dessert to impress their guests.
The one thing that doesn’t really change in the making of cheesecake is that 1) It requires soft, unripened cheese, sugar, and eggs, and 2) It is always baked.
When looking for cheesecake recipes I had a hard time settling on the right one to talk about, there are just so many! Not only can you find recipes for a basic New York Cheesecake, but there are also recipes for what I call hybrid cheesecakes. Paula Deen has another cheesecake recipe called “Cheesecake Parfait” and Giada de Laurentis makes individual mini cheesecakes infused with chocolate and orange. Of course, cheesecake is ssubjected to the ingredients at one’s disposal. Cinnamon, chocolate, and orange was not very common in European cooking in the 1500’s being imports of either the New World or the Middle East.
It was very cool looking at all these different cheesecake recipes, especially the hybrid cheesecakes, because I realized that even if the structure of the modern recipe has become very standardized, there is still lots of room for creativity!
Well that is it for now,
Till next time!
I found this great site where one can find lots of information about the History of Cheesecake, including this old recipe from England in the mid-16th century.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/Cheesecake.htmv
For those of you who are cheesecake virgins, this creamy delight is made with few, simple ingredients (traditionally). It has eggs, milk, sugar, cream cheese, and if you want a crumbly bottom, a graham cracker crust.
I compared two recipes of cheesecakes. One was from the cookbook 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 days", and one from the Food Network.
Mid-16th Century Recipe for Cheese Cake:
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.
Paula Deane’s New York Cheesecake:
Prep time: 55 minutes
Ingredients
Crust:
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 7 tablespoons butter, melted
Filling:
• 12 ounces cream cheese , softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• Chocolate glaze, for serving, recipe follows
• Cherries, for serving
• Whipped cream and/or powdered sugar, for serving
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Crust:
In a medium size bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs with the sugar and butter. Mix well and place in the bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform cake pan. Make sure to press against the sides and bottom of the pan. Place into oven and bake for 8 minutes. Let cool.
Filling:
Prepare the filling by beating cream cheese. Mix in sugar and vanilla while beating until well blended. Add in eggs and combine. Pour mixture into prepared crust. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate overnight.
When ready to serve, top with chocolate glaze, cherries, whipped cream and or powdered sugar.
Chocolate Glaze:
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 (1-ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
In a medium saucepan melt butter over medium-low heat. Add chocolate to the butter. Whisk in sugar, whipping cream, cocoa powder, vanilla, and salt. Whisk until combined. Cook over medium-low heat for 2 minutes while whisking constantly.
Yield: 10 to 12 servings
When looking at both recipes, the graham cracker crust appears to be a modern invention. The older version of the cheesecake is also a lot simpler. It has only five ingredients, where as Paula Deane’s New York Cheesecake has about nine ingredients (not including the ingredients for chocolate glaze) The modern version of this recipe is much more complex but also much more detailed, giving people a better idea of how to actually make it. In the older version there are a lot of things missing that we would consider crucial to making a good recipe. For instance, what about the cheese? The old recipe never specifies what cheese to use, when cheese is the main ingredient. Could it be that the maker of the old cookbook assumed everyone knew what cheese to use or did the cake not require a specific kind of cheese? Cream cheese wasn’t invented until the 19th century, when American dairymen attempted to replicate the French cheese Neufchatel but instead invent cream cheese. The website whatscookingamerica.net says that cheesecake used to be made with this French cheese. From this fact you could deduce that even though New York seems to be the cheesecake current residence of choice, it was in fact a European import. With a bit more reading you could find out that the first cheesecakes where made by the Ancient Greeks that was sometimes used as a temple offering. Nowadays people serve cheesecake for dessert to impress their guests.
The one thing that doesn’t really change in the making of cheesecake is that 1) It requires soft, unripened cheese, sugar, and eggs, and 2) It is always baked.
When looking for cheesecake recipes I had a hard time settling on the right one to talk about, there are just so many! Not only can you find recipes for a basic New York Cheesecake, but there are also recipes for what I call hybrid cheesecakes. Paula Deen has another cheesecake recipe called “Cheesecake Parfait” and Giada de Laurentis makes individual mini cheesecakes infused with chocolate and orange. Of course, cheesecake is ssubjected to the ingredients at one’s disposal. Cinnamon, chocolate, and orange was not very common in European cooking in the 1500’s being imports of either the New World or the Middle East.
It was very cool looking at all these different cheesecake recipes, especially the hybrid cheesecakes, because I realized that even if the structure of the modern recipe has become very standardized, there is still lots of room for creativity!
Well that is it for now,
Till next time!
Comments
some of the differences in language between old and modern recipes are worth pointing out, although we've discussed many of them already in class (like the old recipes always starting with "To make..." and "Take...", and the old-fashioned spelling). Also interesting old-fashioned grammar, such as "the space of three houres" instead of "for three hours". Also the use of "season" to describe the use of sugar and butter; we probably wouldn't consider those "seasonings" any more..