Cheesecake

Yummy...

Who came up with this amazing creation?
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Well, cheesecake is a blend of eggs and cream, with the cream in the form of cheese. This is the broadest possible definition, but, where did it come from?

The incomparable wikipedia informs me that the first person to write down how to make a cheesecake is the Greek physician Aegimus. He also wrote the first treatise on the pulse. Yeah, your eyes are fine. THE PULSE. The guy is ANCIENT. Before Galen. Before Hippocrates. We're talking oral history of dinosaurs old. Fifth century. B.C. Take that, Twinkies! You fall on taste, and pedigree!

Later on, Cato the Elder wrote and treatise with a cheesecake recipe. Awesome idea, flawed presentation. The name for it was "placenta". You can't make this stuff up, okay?

There are seven common types of modern cheesecake. What I think of as cheesecake, though, is New York style. Mmmmmm. On a more interesting and less tasty note, there are different types of "cheesecake" around the world, which all add their own spin to the dish.

The date of July 30 is, in the U.S., celebrated, at least unofficially, as National Cheesecake Day.

 /edit 25 Aug 8:36 p.m.

What is it doing in this song?

The jury is still out on this, but it could just be that it is tasty and related to a birthday party which is there because... why? I don't know.

How can I get some?

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Well, there are Cheesecake Factory restaurants in Bethesda and Columbia. However, that's a little far, and a little more money than I was planning on. Recipes it is!
 /edit 25 Aug 8:36 p.m.

I found it! A website that has 191 delecious ways to overindulge in cheesy, sugary goodness.
Here is a nice, basic one:
Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Crust:

1 and 1/2 cups walnuts
1 and 3/4 cups granulated sugar
4 tablespoons melted unsalted butter.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 inch spring form pan with non-stick spray. Take the walnuts and 1/4 cup of the sugar and pulse in a food processor until finely ground. Add the butter and mix well. Press the crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan and bake in the 350 degree oven for about 10-12 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Filling:
4 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese, softened
2 cups sour cream
4 eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
Mix together the sour cream, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon of the vanilla and place in refrigerator until called for.
Decrease the oven temperature to 300 degrees. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the cream cheese, 1 and 1/4 cups of sugar and the vanilla just until combined. Add the eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Blend in the remaining 2 teaspoons of vanilla and the almond extract. Beat in the cream slowly until smooth and pour the cheesecake batter onto the crust.
Bake at 300 degrees for 65 to 70 minutes or until almost set. Topt the cheesecake with the sour cream topping you prepared earlier and spread it across the top. Return to the oven and bake five minutes longer.
Remove from the oven and loosen the cake from the pan with a sharp knife but don't remove the rim. Allow cake to cool to room temperaure.
Refrigerate at least 6 hours before removing the rim of the pan and serving.
Serves 16.

This is great! You can do all sorts of things to a basic vanilla cheesecake... raspberries, strawberries... Any kind of berry, really! Or chocolate syrup, I suppose.

What is the best cheesecake made?

There is a book (here it is on Amazon) on this subject. I'm going to see if I can find anything else, or if the book is in the library.

When did cheesecake become popular?

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Not much of a question anymore, is it? Cheesecake has been around longer than sliced bread. It has been
popular since Aegimus the ancient wrote about them.
/edit 25 Aug 8:36 p.m.