Cake: Cheesecake

Tarts, pies, and pastries filled with various types of cheese have been common throughout Europe and the Middle East since ancient times. The English and other European colonists introduced their versions of cheesecake into North America, and cheesecake recipes were included in colonial cookery manuscripts, such as those used by the William Penn family in Pennsylvania, dated about 1694, and that of Harriot Pinckney Horry in South Carolina, dated 1770. The family recipe book used by Martha Washington beginning in 1794 contained three cheesecake recipes, two of which call for making fresh curds using new milk and rennet. The third thickens cream with eggs and butter.