Cheesecake, Who Knew? (History of the Art of making Cheesecake)

Ever since the dawn of time, mankind has striven to create the perfect cheesecake.

The earliest history of the art of making cheesecake is lost, but we know that cheesecake was already a popular dish in ancient Greece. 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 230 A.D. ( Take cheese and pound it till smooth an pasty; put cheese in a brazen sieve; add honey and spring wheat flour. Heat in one mass, cool and serve.) Small cheesecakes were served to athletes during the first Olympic Games held in 776 B.C. on the Isle of Delos. However, anthropologists have found cheese molds dating back as far as 2000 B.C.

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.

Cheesecakes 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. The immigration of the people from those countries is what brought cheesecake to the United States.

Cheesecake really had its beginning in the United States in the early 1900's with two types of cheesecake that were popular with the immigrants of New York City. The Jewish cheesecake, having a smooth filling made from cream cheese, and the Italian cheesecake, which used ricotta cheese for its filling.

Now-a-days there are hundreds of different cheesecake recipes. The most essential ingredient in any cheesecake recipe is cheese (the most commonly used are cream cheese, Neufchatel, cottage cheese and ricotta), but the vast selection of ingredients to mix and match are what really make one cheesecake different from another.

Over the last century our endless hunger for cake desserts and cheese have produced a countless number of variations and endless combinations of ingredients, giving birth to the decadent cheesecakes that we know today.

What would those early Jewish and Italian immigrant bakers think about cheesecake now.

Who Knew?