Subject: Want to know history of cheesecake

From: [email-masked] ()
Date: Tue, 25 May 1993 02:51:03 GMT

I would like to find out about the history/origins, etc. of 
cheesecake.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

G. Wareham         [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Terry Nutter)
Date: 26 May 93 19:35:41 GMT

Hello, everyone.  Terry Nutter here.  

G. Wareham asks for information on the history and origins of cheesecake.
The following is only one data point, so hardly what you'd call history.  
However.  In Platina, _De honesta voluptate_ (On Honest Indulgence), Venice, 
1475, Book 8 (the books are short ;^), there's a recipe for White Torta that 
makes sense as sort of an early cheesecake.

Cheers,

Terry Nutter     Blacksburg, VA     [email-masked]     (703)552-1598

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From: [email-masked] (Scott Fisher)
Date: Thu, 27 May 1993 06:07:15 GMT

>I would like to find out about the history/origins, etc. of 

Well, since the Chinese don't make cheese, it fell to the Romans to
invent something like what we now call cheesecake.  (Though I'd bet
that a thorough perusal of Indian cooking would bring up something
like gulab jamn; hmm, did Alexander's troops bring this back to
the Mediterranean?)

The Romans used to mix a cheese like ricotta with honey, eggs, 
raisins, almonds, and the like and bake it.  Apicius would be a good
place to start looking, but I seem to recall a record (if not a recipe)
in Waverly Root's The Cuisine of Italy (one of those Time-Life cookbooks,
and a worthwhile addition to the kitchen).

--Scott