You eat it, you enjoy it, you have even dared to combine it with different flavors, but do you know the history of cheesecake? A dessert that is so rich and traditional hardly occurs to you to think about its history and origins when you eat it, however, it would be interesting to know where it comes from and why it ended up being your favorite dessert, don't you think?
The history of cheesecake, cheesecake, or cheesecake does not have its origin in the United States as you may have imagined. To get to the dessert as you know it today, it had to go through a series of processes, changes, and ingredients that we are sure depended on the taste of the chef in question.
Let's travel back in time. Everything seems to indicate that the origin of cheesecake goes back 4000 years before the present time on a Greek island called Samos.
Perhaps you could have thought that due to its exquisiteness, this dessert would be attributed to French cuisine, but no, Greek food was the one that brought this delicious dish to the world. It was Ateneo who captured the cheese pie recipe for the first time on paper (with ingredients and a step-by-step guide to savoring it).
This cheesecake was made for Olympic athletes for being a great source of energy. The cheesecake was made one way until the Greeks were conquered by the Romans, the latter transformed the Athenaeus recipe by adding egg and baking it with hot bricks. They called it libuma and it was served only on very special occasions.
It was only through the power and expansion of the Roman Empire that this dessert reached the rest of Europe and later became a well-known recipe in the world. The passage of cheesecake through each country and culture made the recipe change according to the tastes of each region.
It is said that during the 18th century the pie began to take on the shape and flavor of what you know today.
Cream cheese is the key ingredient in cheesecake
The best discoveries are the ones you don't expect, right? This is what happened to a cheese maker in New York, who, trying to create a French cheese, prepared a much softer and creamier cheese, which he was later able to sell wrapped in aluminum foil, giving life to Philadelphia cream cheese.
For the year 1928, the small company of this cheese manufacturer was acquired by Queso Kraft who distributes the brand to date.
Why is cheesecake so famous?
Can you imagine entering a cafeteria in the heart of New York at the beginning of the 20th century and being able to order a slice of cheesecake plus a hot coffee? It seems like it, doesn't it? Apparently, this was a ritual among the inhabitants of that city at that time. But who was to blame for this happening? Arnold Reuben, a young German was the cause of the cheesecake rage. It is said that after he arrived in America and tried the cheesecake, he did not rest until he created his own version of this dessert, creating the famous New York cheesecake.
Cheesecake around the world
Surely you are thinking that your grandmother's cheesecake recipe is the best you can try in the world and although we are sure you are right, there are other recipes that you cannot miss.
- In addition to New York, the state of Chicago, United States, has a peculiar recipe since they add sour cream.
- In Italy mascarpone cheese, ricotta and honey are used.
- In Greece feta or Mizithra cheese is added.
- In German cuisine, cottage cheese is added and the base is made with freshly prepared dough and not with cookies, which is the way this dessert is usually made.
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