Cheesecake 101

What is cheesecake? The American Heritage® Dictionary defines cheesecake as “a cake made of sweetened cottage cheese or cream cheese, eggs, milk, sugar, and flavorings.” Basically, cheesecake is a sweet, cheese-based pie. Cheesecake is one of the most common “pies” in the world involving a dairy product other than milk, and possibly one of the oldest. The history of cheesecake is quite an illustrious one dating back to the 14th century. According to The Cheese Book by Vivienne Marquis and Patricia Haskall (1966), "...Cheese actually dates back to the earliest domestication of animals, at about 9000BC and it had been made wherever animals produced more milk than people use in fluid form....”

While the first actual recipe for cheesecake is found in the Forme of Cury (14th Century), according to Alan Davidson in the Oxford Companion to Food, the earliest recorded mention of cheesecake was in Marcus Porcius Cato's De re Rustica (also known as De Agri Cultura) around 200 BCE.  In his farming manual, Cato described making his cheese “libum (cake)” with results very similar to today’s cheesecake. Furthermore, written history states that during the first Grecian Olympic Games held in 776 B.C. on the Isle of Delos small cheesecakes were served to athletes.  

With the Romans conquering Greece, it wasn’t long after that cheesecake preparations, and modifications, spread throughout Europe. The Italians began using ricotta or mascarpone cheese to make theirs a little drier. The Germans used quark cheese and did not bake their version.  The French began using Neufchâtel cheese in their style of cheesecake. The flavorful Neufchâtel cheese gave the cheesecake a light and airey texture, which became the basis of the American cheesecake known today.

In 1872, an American by the name of William A. Lawrence overheard a fellow cheesemaker discussing a way to improve upon Neufchâtel cheese. Lawrence went home, duplicated the recipe, added his own touches, and inresult produced cream cheese. Lawrence’s cream cheese developed into Philadelphia Cream Cheese, which after Kraft Foods bought the company in 1928, became the most widely sold cream cheese, and the most commonly used ingredient in American cheesecake.  

Today, probably the most popular type of cheesecake in the United States is the “New York Style” cheesecake. New York cheesecake is the pure, undulated cheesecake with no fancy ingredients added to it. It is made with pure cream cheese, cream, eggs, and sugar. Arnold Reuben, owner of several delicatessens in New York City, claimed that his family developed the first cream-cheese cake recipe in the 1920’s. Lindy’s and Junior’s, two other New York City delis, soon rivaled Reuben, and New York Style cheesecake became the standard for today’s American cheesecake.

Whether it’s Chicago, Pennsylvania Dutch, French, Greek, or New York Style it’s clear that cheesecake is a food rich in history, culture, and tradition. It is not the invention of a single person but a result of culinary evolution. The origins of cheesecake are grounded in ancient practice, distinguished by local resources, and modified by technological advancement. In short, cheesecake is a perfectly good example of the dedicated human quest for good tasting food.