Cheesecake

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Cheesecake
My first cheesecake cropped.jpg
Baked cheesecake topped with raspberries
TypeVarious
Course Dessert (predominantly) Savoury (eg. smoked salmon cheesecake)
Place of origin Ancient Greece
Main ingredients Cream cheese, sugar, pie crust (graham cracker crust, pastry, or sponge cake)

Cheesecake is a dessert made with a soft fresh cheese (typically cottage cheese, cream cheese, quark or ricotta), eggs, and sugar. It may have a crust or base made from crushed cookies (or digestive biscuits), graham crackers, pastry, or sometimes sponge cake. [1] Cheesecake may be baked or unbaked, and is usually refrigerated.

Contents

Vanilla, spices, lemon, chocolate, pumpkin, or other flavors may be added to the main cheese layer. Additional flavors and visual appeal may be added by topping the finished dessert with fruit, whipped cream, nuts, cookies, fruit sauce, chocolate syrup, or other ingredients.

Culinary classification

Making a crustless cheesecake (video)

Modern cheesecake is not usually classified as an actual "cake", despite the name (compare with Boston cream "pie"). [2] [3] Some people classify it as a torte due to the usage of many eggs, which are the sole source of leavening, as a key factor. [4] [5] Others find compelling evidence that it is a custard pie, [3] [6] based on the overall structure, with the separate crust, the soft filling, and the absence of flour. [7] [ failed verification ] [8] Other sources identify it as a flan, or tart. [2] [3] [9]

Savoury cheesecakes

Smoked salmon cheesecake is a savoury form, containing smoked salmon. [10] It is most frequently served as an appetizer or a buffet item. [11] [12] A smoked salmon cheesecake was a prize-winning recipe in 1996 in Better Homes and Gardens' Prize Tested Recipe Contest. The recipe called for the use of Swiss cheese along with the more usual (for cheesecakes) ricotta. [13]

History

An ancient form of cheesecake may have been a popular dish in ancient Greece even prior to Romans' adoption of it with the conquest of Greece. [14] The earliest attested mention of a cheesecake is by the Greek physician Aegimus (5th century BCE), who wrote a book on the art of making cheesecakes (πλακουντοποιικόν σύγγραμμα—plakountopoiikon sungramma). [15] The earliest extant cheesecake recipes are found in Cato the Elder's De Agri Cultura , which includes recipes for three cakes for religious uses: libum, savillum and placenta . [16] [17] [18] Of the three, placenta cake is the most like modern cheesecakes: having a crust that is separately prepared and baked. [19]

A more modern version called a sambocade, made with elderflower and rose water, is found in Forme of Cury , an English cookbook from 1390. [20] [21] On this basis, the English chef Heston Blumenthal argues that cheesecake is an English invention. [22]

The modern cheesecake

The English name cheesecake has been used only since the 15th century, [23] and the cheesecake did not evolve into its modern form until somewhere around the 18th century. Europeans began removing yeast and adding beaten eggs to the cheesecake instead. With the overpowering yeast flavor gone, the result tasted more like a dessert treat. [24] The early 19th-century cheesecake recipes in A New System of Domestic Cookery by Maria Rundell are made with cheese curd and fresh butter. One version is thickened with blanched almonds, eggs and cream, and the cakes may have included currants, brandy, raisin wine, nutmeg and orange flower water.

Modern commercial American cream cheese was developed in 1872, when William Lawrence, from Chester, New York, was searching for a way to recreate the soft, French cheese Neufchâtel. He discovered a way of making an "unripened cheese" that is heavier and creamier; other dairymen came up with similar creations independently. [25]

Modern cheesecake comes in two different types. Along with the baked cheesecake, some cheesecakes are made with uncooked cream cheese on a crumbled-cookie or graham cracker base. This type of cheesecake was invented in the United States. [20]

National varieties

Cheesecakes can be broadly categorized into two basic types: baked and unbaked. Some do not have a crust or base. Cheesecake comes in a variety of styles based on region:

Africa

South African rose cheesecake South-African Rose baked Cheese Cake.JPG
South African rose cheesecake

South Africa

One popular variant of cheesecake in South Africa is made with whipped cream, cream cheese, gelatin for the filling, and a buttered digestive biscuit crust. It is not baked, and is sometimes made with Amarula liqueur. This variant is very similar to British cheesecake. This cheesecake is more common in British South African communities. [26]

Asia

Japan

Souffle-style Japanese cheesecake Souffle-style cheesecake 001.jpg
Soufflé-style Japanese cheesecake

Japanese cheesecake, or soufflé-style or cotton cheesecake, is made with cream cheese, butter, sugar, and eggs, and has a characteristically wobbly, airy texture, similar to chiffon cake. [27] No-bake cheesecakes are known as rare cheesecake (Japanese: レアチーズケーキ). [28]

Philippines

The most prominent version of cheesecake in the Philippines is ube cheesecake. It is made with a base of crushed graham crackers and an upper layer of cream cheese and ube halaya (mashed purple yam with milk, sugar, and butter). It can be prepared baked or simply refrigerated. Like other ube desserts in the Philippines, it is characteristically purple in color. [29] [30] [31]

Europe

Italy

Crostata di ricotta is a traditional Italian baked cheesecake, made with ricotta cheese, chocolate chips and eggs. [32] Also many cakes and desserts are filled with ricotta, like cassata Siciliana and pastiera Napoletana.

Poland

The Krakow cheesecake ("sernik Krakowski") is a baked variety of cheesecake or sernik which uses quark or cottage cheese. [33] [34]

Spain

Basque cheesecake was created in 1990 by Santiago Rivera of the La Viña restaurant in the Basque Country, Spain. [35] [36] It is composed of burnt custard and no crust. It achieved popularity online in the 2010s, helped by a recipe published by the British food writer Nigella Lawson. [36] The Spanish chef Nieves Barragán Mohacho serves hers with a liquorice sauce, which Lawson included in her recipe. [35]

In 2021, Basque cheesecake was widely shared on Instagram and became "ubiquitous" in the UK. [35] In 2023, the British restaurant critic Jay Rayner complained that Basque cheesecake had become overabundant in London. [37]

Switzerland

Swiss Chäschüechli (ramequin in French-speaking parts of the country) are small cheesecake tartlets, savory rather than sweet. [38] [39]

North America

United States

The United States has several different recipes for cheesecake and this usually depends on the region in which the cake is baked, as well as the cultural background of the person baking it. [40]

Chicago

Chicago-style cheesecake is a baked cream cheese version that is firm on the outside with a soft and creamy texture on the inside. These cheesecakes are often made in a greased cake pan and are relatively fluffy in texture. The crust used with this style of cheesecake is most commonly made from shortbread that is crushed and mixed with sugar and butter. Some frozen cheesecakes are Chicago-style. [41]

New York
New York-style cheesecake Plain New York-style cheesecake.JPG
New York–style cheesecake

New York–style cheesecake uses a cream cheese base, also incorporating heavy cream or sour cream. [42] The typical New York cheesecake is rich and has a dense, smooth, and creamy consistency. [43] [ better source needed ]

Galleries

Cheesecakes from around the world

Fruit cheesecakes

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dessert</span> Sweet course that concludes a meal

Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, biscuit, ice cream and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts. In some parts of the world there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shortcrust pastry</span> Base used for a tart, quiche or pie

Shortcrust is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart, quiche, pie, or flan. Shortcrust pastry can be used to make both sweet and savory pies such as apple pie, quiche, lemon meringue or chicken pie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pastry</span> Various baked products made of dough

Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water, and shortening that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as bakers' confectionery. The word "pastries" suggests many kinds of baked products made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder, and eggs. Small tarts and other sweet baked products are called pastries as a synecdoche. Common pastry dishes include pies, tarts, quiches, croissants, and pasties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pie</span> Baked, filled pastry

A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit, nuts, fruit preserves, brown sugar, sweetened vegetables, or with thicker fillings based on eggs and dairy. Savoury pies may be filled with meat, eggs and cheese or a mixture of meat and vegetables.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple pie</span> Dessert pie made with apples

An apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling is apples. Apple pie is often served with whipped cream, ice cream, custard or cheddar cheese. It is generally double-crusted, with pastry both above and below the filling; the upper crust may be solid or latticed. The bottom crust may be baked separately ("blind") to prevent it from getting soggy. Deep-dish apple pie often has a top crust only. Tarte Tatin is baked with the crust on top, but served with it on the bottom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crème caramel</span> Custard dessert with soft caramel on top

Crème caramel, flan, caramel pudding, condensed milk pudding or caramel custard is a custard dessert with a layer of clear caramel sauce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ricotta</span> Italian cheese

Ricotta is an Italian whey cheese made from sheep, cow, goat, or Italian water buffalo milk whey left over from the production of other cheeses. Like other whey cheeses, it is made by coagulating the proteins that remain after the casein has been used to make cheese, notably albumin and globulin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gooey butter cake</span> Cake originally from St. Louis, Missouri

Gooey butter cake is a type of cake traditionally made in St. Louis, Missouri. It is a flat and dense cake made with wheat cake flour, butter, sugar, and eggs, typically near an inch tall, and dusted with powdered sugar. While sweet and rich, it is somewhat firm, and is able to be cut into pieces similarly to a brownie. Gooey butter cake is generally served as a type of coffee cake and not as a formal dessert cake. There are two distinct variants of the cake: the original St. Louis, MO Bakers' gooey butter and a cream cheese and commercial yellow cake mix variant. The original St. Louis, MO Bakers' gooey butter is believed to have originated in the 1930s. It was made with a yeast-raised sweet dough on the bottom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fruit curd</span> Dessert spread and topping

Fruit curd is a dessert spread and topping. It is usually made with citrus fruit, though may be made with other fruits. Curds are often used as spreads and as flavourings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Custard tart</span> Baked dessert consisting of an egg custard-filled pastry crust

Custard tarts or flan pâtissier/parisien are a baked pastry consisting of an outer pastry crust filled with egg custard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sponge cake</span> Type of cake

Sponge cake is a light cake made with eggs, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain. The sponge cake is thought to be one of the first non-yeasted cakes, and the earliest attested sponge cake recipe in English is found in a book by the English poet Gervase Markham, The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman (1615). Still, the cake was much more like a cracker: thin and crispy. Sponge cakes became the cake recognised today when bakers started using beaten eggs as a rising agent in the mid-18th century. The Victorian creation of baking powder by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843 allowed the addition of butter to the traditional sponge recipe, resulting in the creation of the Victoria sponge. Cakes are available in many flavours and have many recipes as well. Sponge cakes have become snack cakes via the Twinkie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lists of prepared foods</span>

This is a list of prepared-foods list articles on Wikipedia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quark (dairy product)</span> Acid-set cheese

Quark or quarg is a type of fresh dairy product made from milk. The milk is soured, usually by adding lactic acid bacteria cultures, and strained once the desired curdling is achieved. It can be classified as fresh acid-set cheese. Traditional quark can be made without rennet, but in modern dairies small quantities of rennet are typically added. It is soft, white and unaged, and usually has no salt added.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ube cake</span> Traditional Filipino chiffon or sponge cake made with ube

Ube cake is a traditional Filipino chiffon cake or sponge cake made with ube halaya. It is distinctively vividly purple in color, like most dishes made with ube in the Philippines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ube cheesecake</span> Filipino cheesecake colored purple with yams

Ube cheesecake, also known as purple yam cheesecake, is a Filipino cheesecake made with a base of crushed graham crackers and an upper layer of cream cheese and ube halaya. It can be prepared baked or simply refrigerated. Like other ube desserts in the Philippines, it is characteristically purple in color.

Pie in American cuisine has roots in English cuisine and has evolved over centuries to adapt to American cultural tastes and ingredients. The creation of flaky pie crust shortened with lard is credited to American innovation.

References

  1. ↑ Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses. "A History of Cheesecakes". www.fergusonplarre.com.au. Archived from the original on 2013-11-24. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
  2. 1 2 Davidson, Alan (2006-09-21). The Oxford Companion to Food. OUP Oxford. p. 162. ISBN   978-0-19-280681-9.
  3. 1 2 3 Rosner, Helen (2017-03-02). "Sorry, Cheesecake Is Not Cake". Eater. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  4. ↑ "New York Style Cheesecake – No water bath required!". Chez Grenier. 2021-03-06. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  5. ↑ Womack, Cassie (2022-12-27). "Tart Vs. Torte: What's The Difference?". Tasting Table. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  6. ↑ Roufs, Timothy G.; Roufs, Kathleen Smyth (2014-07-29). Sweet Treats around the World: An Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN   979-8-216-15204-0. Some consider baked cheesecake a cake, some a tart, some even a custard pie. Alan Davidson weighs in on the side of cheesecake being a tart, "a flat, baked item consisting of a base of pastry, or occasionally some other flour preparation, with a sweet or savoury topping not covered with a pastry lid".
  7. ↑ Beranbaum, Rose Levy (1988). The cake bible (1st ed.). New York: William Morrow Cookbooks. p. 80. ISBN   978-0-688-04402-2.
  8. ↑ Ngo, Hope (2023-01-17). "The Reason Cheesecake Isn't Technically Cake". Tasting Table. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  9. ↑ Bender, David A. (2014-01-23). A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-251842-2. cheesecake: A flan or tart filled with curd or cream cheese.
  10. ↑ Ann Kask, Salmon Cookery: From the Salmon Capital of the World, pp.20-21, Firstchoicebooks, 2002 ISBN   0919537588.
  11. ↑ Carol Fenster, 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes, p.144, John Wiley & Sons, 2008 ISBN   0470067802.
  12. ↑ Susan & Enzo Ardovini, Cooking at the Cafe with Sue, p.93, Devanis Publishing, 2008 ISBN   0615233635.
  13. ↑ Fuller, Kristi M., ed. (2003). Prizewinning Recipes : 200 of the Best Dishes from Better Homes and Gardens Prize Tested Recipe Contest. Meredith Books. pp. 34–35. ISBN   9780696218552.
  14. ↑ Dana Bovbjerg, Jeremy Iggers, The Joy of Cheesecake, Barron's Educational Series, 1989
  15. ↑ Callimachus, ap. Athen, xiv. p. 643, e
  16. ↑ Cato the Elder, De Agri Cultura, paragraphs 75 and 76. Available in English on-line at: University of Chicago: Penelope (Note: The "leaves" mentioned in Cato's recipe are bay leaves.)
  17. ↑ "Cato's 'De Agricultura': Recipes". www.novaroma.org. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
  18. ↑ "Cato's 'De Agricultura': Recipes".
  19. ↑ "A Bit of Food History: Cheesecake" (PDF). www.culinaryschools.com. Retrieved 2008-10-12.
  20. 1 2 Wilson, C. (2002). "Cheesecakes, Junkets, and Syllabubs". Gastronomica. 2 (4): 19. doi:10.1525/gfc.2002.2.4.19.
  21. ↑ Pegge, Samuel (2014-12-11). The Forme of Cury, a Roll of Ancient English Cookery. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-1-108-07620-3.
  22. ↑ Heston Blumenthal (2013). Historic Heston. Bloomsbury. p. 35. ISBN   978-1-4088-0441-4.
  23. ↑ John., Ayto (2002). An A-Z of food and drink . Ayto, John. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   0192803522. OCLC   48932542.
  24. ↑ "The Rich History of a Favorite Dessert". Cheesecake.com. Retrieved 2019-01-09.
  25. ↑ Stradley, Linda; Brenda (2015-05-26). "Cheesecake History". What's Cooking America. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
  26. ↑ "A South African Favourite: Amarula Cheesecake". The International Hotel School. August 2014. Archived from the original on 2015-02-12. Retrieved 2015-01-01.
  27. ↑ Williamson, Olivia (3 September 2015). "3 ingredient cotton cheesecake: why all the hype?" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  28. ↑ Yoshizuka, Setsuko (2021-05-19). "Try This Japanese-Style Rare "No-Bake" Cheesecake With Yogurt". The Spruce Eats. Archived from the original on 2018-08-08. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  29. ↑ "Ube Cheesecake". The Peach Kitchen. 5 February 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  30. ↑ "Creamy and Luscious Ube Cheesecake". Woman Scribbles. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  31. ↑ "Ube Cheesecake with Coconut Cookie Crust and Coconut Whipped Cream (Video)". The Unlikely Baker. 19 October 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
  32. ↑ Bressanin, Anna (9 June 2023). "The Italian tart that tricked the Pope". BBC. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  33. ↑ "Krakow-style cheesecake (sernik Krakowski)". SBS Food.
  34. ↑ "Sernik – Desserts of the World – Maverick Baking". September 4, 2022.
  35. 1 2 3 Turnbull, Tony (2023-11-17). "Basque cheesecake: the pudding that broke the internet". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 2023-11-17.
  36. 1 2 Cloake, Felicity (2021-12-01). "How to make the perfect Basque cheesecake – recipe". The Guardian . Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  37. ↑ Rayner, Jay (2023-06-18). "La Gamba, London: 'A pleasing take on the Spanish repertoire' – restaurant review". The Guardian . ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2023-06-20.
  38. ↑ "Chäschüechli". The Helvetic Kitchen. 20 August 2021.
  39. ↑ Schumacher, Boris; Schumacher, Oliver (2019). Wie Familie halt so isst: Das ehrliche Friends & Family Kochbuch. Omnino. pp. 308–9. ISBN   9783958941076.
  40. ↑ Mitchell, Russ (21 November 2010). "Say Cheesecake!". CBS News. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  41. ↑ Krause, Andrew (2006). "Different Types of Cheesecake". FoodEditorials Snacks Guide.
  42. ↑ Nosowitz, Dan (2016-02-18). "Towards A Unified Theory of the New York Cheesecake". Atlas Obscura. Archived from the original on 2016-02-21.
  43. ↑ "New York Cheesecake - Joyofbaking.com *Video Recipe*". www.joyofbaking.com.
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