cheesecake not a cake in the ordinary sense, is really a kind of tart. Most cheesecakes have a pastry shell topped with sweetened cheese, often curd cheese, stabilized to avoid curdling during baking by combining it with egg, or flour or some other cereal, or both.
The concept of cheesecake is both ancient and widespread. There is a vague description of what appears to be a Roman cheesecake in Cato’s De Re Rustica of the 2nd century bc. An entry in the account books of the Countess of Leicester in 1265 is for ‘cheese for tarts’, but the earliest actual recipe for a cheesecake is found in the Forme of Cury (14th century). Hannah Wolley’s Queenlike Closet (1664) gives a cheesecake recipe that sounds quite modern. It includes currants and is flavoured with sack, rosewater, and spices. Various continental European recipes use local curd cheeses. quark is widely used in sweet tarts in C. Europe. It is clear from 18th-century English receipts that not all cheesecakes contained curds or cheese. Many are thick custards of cream and eggs, flavoured with lemon or citron peel.
In France the term talmouse, of medieval origin, originally denoted something close to what would now be called a cheesecake. It now describes a small savoury triangular cheese tart served as an hors d’œuvre.
Some unusual Italian recipes include a combination of ricotta with polenta (budino di ricotta); or even ricotta with almonds, rum, and beetroot leaves—comparable to the medieval use of spinach in sweet flans. A special Easter cheesecake, pastiera napoletana, is made in Naples. It is rich but not unusual, except that the ricotta filling is stiffened with pearl tapioca. It includes candied peel, lemon rind, and cinnamon.
In Russia paskha, an enriched mixture of curd cheese, spices, nuts, dried fruit, and sugar, is traditionally eaten at Easter.
There are several Indian recipes of the same general character, for example, karrah panir, made with a shell of coarsely chopped almonds; and a sort of coconut cheesecake.
Nowadays the USA has more cheesecake recipes than anywhere else. The best known is perhaps Lindy’s cheesecake, named after the famous but now defunct New York restaurant. A biscuit dough base supports a filling of cream cheese, eggs, sugar, and flour, flavoured with orange and lemon rind. A range of flavourings may be added to this mixture, and the cheesecake may be garnished with fresh fruit or with a sweetened fruit ‘topping’. After the Second World War, Americans also favoured an uncooked cheesecake with a biscuit crumb base and a filling made of cream cheese enriched with eggs, flavoured perhaps with lemon, and set with gelatine. Lighter and creamier than the baked version, it appealed to a taste then current for rich, squidgy desserts.
© the Estate of Alan Davidson 1999, 2006, 2014 © in the Editor’s contribution to the second and third editions, Oxford University Press 2006, 2014.
