Category Food History

Cheesecakes have been prepared for several centuries across Europe. With several regional adaptations, it is one of the most widely consumed dessert globally.

History

One of the first evidence of cheesecake can be traced back to ancient Greece. Food anthropologists believe cheesecakes were served for the participants at the ancient Olympic games in 776 B.C. These Greek cheesecakes were reportedly made with four ingredients, namely flour, wheat, honey and cheese.

The Roman annexation of Greece resulted in the introduction of cheesecakes in Rome. One of the earliest mentions of cheesecake can be seen in Roman statesman and writer Marcus Porcius Cato’s book “De re Rustica”, around 200 B.C. In the next few centuries, as the Romans expanded their empire, the dessert was taken to several places across Europe. During this period, those in the Great Britain and a few other Eastern European countries began making their own versions of cheesecakes. Henry VIII, the King of England from 1509 to 1547 was very fond of cheesecake that he asked his chef to experiment new types. Over the years, ingredients such as eggs, butter and sugar began to be used. Colonization was a major factor in taking cheesecakes to the U.S. and other former colonies.

Regional adaptations

Though cheesecake has its roots in Europe, it has been embraced in several forms across the world. They have been adapted according to local taste preferences. The New York cheesecake is made with thick and velvety cream cheese with a base made of cookie crumbs. The French use Neufchatel cheese and also add gelatin to the mixture. In Japan, cheesecakes o not have a separate cookie base, instead cornstarch and whipped egg whites are added to the cheese mixture, which makes the cake extremely fluffy. Germans make their cheesecake (known as Quarkkuchen) with cottage cheese or quark (a type of cheese). Several other European cheesecakes make use of other cheese varieties such as ricotta, mizithra, feta or Swiss.

Pie or cake?

Some believe cheesecakes are pies or even tarts because most of them come with multiple layers – a crust filling and sometimes even a topping. While some food experts suggest cheesecakes are cakes as they are “sweet baked foods made using a thick batter”. The debate of whether the cheesecake is a cake or a pie is unsolved.

What do you think? Is cheesecake a cake, pie or a tart?

Cheesecakes for all

From vegan and dairy-free cheesecakes made with plant-based cream to keto and gluten-free cheesecakes, there are many varieties prepared to cater to the dietary preferences of people.

Apart from the usual berry or fruit flavours, there are many interesting and unique options such as garlic, foie gras, hibiscus, sweet potato, matcha and maple bacon cheesecakes.

Tasty stamps!

American ice-cream brand Haagen-Dazs, in collaboration with the Austrian Postal Service, made stamps infused with flavours of strawberry cheesecake, macadamia nut brittle, and cookies and cream into the adhesive on the back. So when someone licks the stamp to stick it on a parcel or envelope, they get a taste of their favourite flavour!

 

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The Agra petha, made of ash gourd (white pumpkin), is probably the Indian sweet with the fewest ingredients. Even-popular, the petha is believed to have originated when Shah Jahan ordered his cook to make a sweet as white as the Taj Mahal. The chef, experimenting at short notice, probably found it easiest to dunk white ash gourd in sugar syrup. The result was the soft but firm and sweet jujube-like petha. While the original recipe contained just sugar, water and pumpkin, modern recipes include additives for colour and flavour. Cherry, orange-pineapple, khus khus, paan and even chocolate are some of the flavours in which pethas are available today.

We have a rich, varied and, if prepared the traditional way, even healthy repertoire of sweets.

 

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Relatively more recent in origin is the Mysore pak. In the 1930s, chef Kakasura Madappa concocted a mixture of sugar, gram flour and ghee, seasoned with cardamom powder. He intended to serve it as a liquid desert to the King of Mysore, Krishnaraja Wodeyar. But by the time the king finished his meal, the syrupy dish had cooled down and solidified. The king loved the dish and the world was gifted Mysore pak.

It is testimony to the ingenuity and talent of the Wodeyar chef Kakasura Madappa, that the Mysore pak is still so popular! It is available almost anywhere you go, but you have to make a trip to the Guru Sweet Mart shop in Mysore, which is run by Mdappa’s descendants, to get the original recipe of Mysore pak and take a bite into its amazing history!

 

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Another sweet we’ve been eating since the Vedic times is the laddoo (or laddu/ luddoo). Interestingly, laddoos started out as medicine. In 4 B.C., Sushruta, a revered Indian physician and surgeon, combined sesame seeds, jiggery and peanuts as an antiseptic for patients who had undergone surgery. Ayurvedic texts contain dozens of recipes for medicinal laddoos, including methi and sonth (ginger) laddoos. And then we have coconut laddoos, chickpea flour laddoos, boondi laddoos, millet laddoos, puffed rice laddoos and wheat laddoos, among numerous others. The sweetener was primarily jiggery until sugar became affordable.

The Balaji Temple in Tirupati started offering Laddus as an offering to the God as early as August 2nd, 1715! That makes this famous offering over 300 years old!

Another landmark event in the history of laddu is the fact that the famous Tirupati laddu has acquired the Geographical Indication (GI) tag. The purpose of issuing the GI tag is to preserve collective community rights.

This was a controversial move as some people felt that the Tirupati laddu was a money spinner for the temple and was not made by the local community. However, the courts decided to grant the GI tag in early 2014 and the naysayers lost.

The argument that a GI tag on the Tirupati laddu is an example of commercialisation of divine affairs and would inspire other temples to follow the Tirupati example, and thus lead to “irrevocable damage to the values of society”, was rejected!

 

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However, malpua is believed to be the oldest-known indigenous Indian sweet. In fact, it is one of the first offerings to the residing deity at the Jagannath Temple in Odisha. Referenced in the Rigveda as ‘apupa’, in ancient times, malpuas were flat cakes made of barley flour, deep fried in ghee and dipped in honey before eating. As time passed, rice and wheat replaced barley. The Mughals added eggs to the recipe. Modern recipes include mashed ripe bananas and pineapples in the batter and may use cream and dry fruits as toppings. The basic method of preparation, however, has remained largely unchanged.

Today, the malpua is popular and is a must have during festivals like Holi, Diwali and the Ramadan.

 

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The gulab jamun – at least as popular as the rasgulla, if not more – is the default sweetmeat for almost every occasion. Among the several theories about its origin, one attributes it to a cooking accident in emperor Shah Jahan’s kitchen. Another trace it to Persia, where dried and fresh milk are mixed into flour and shaped into balls. The balls are deep fried and dunked in rosewater syrup, lending the dish its name. The basic Indian version uses cardamom- and saffron-flavoured syrup and finely chopped dry fruits as garnishing. Sometimes, the balls are dusted with sugar before they’re fried, turning them into black “kala jamuns”. The Kumbakonam dry jamun is similar, with a crisp crust. The ledikeni, first prepared for Lady Canning in Bengal, uses light-fried cottage cheese rather than milk. Another variant, pantua, uses smaller cottage cheese balls stuffed with sugar crystals.

 

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Popular myth has it that upon his return from a nine-day vacation, Lord Jagannath had to bribe Goddess Lakshmi to gain entry into the Jagannath Puri temple – his own home. He used the sweet khira mohana as bribe. According to folklore, the temple kept khira mohana’s recipe a secret. But one of the priests, disturbed at the amount of milk being thrown away by the villagers of Phala, taught them to curdle milk and prepare the sweet. Soon, that tiny village on the outskirts of Bhubhaneshwar became a mandatory stop for everyone passing through Odisha. A local confectioner named Bikalananda Kar perfected the technique of steaming the cottage cheese balls and allowing them to swell in sugar syrup. This version travelled to West Bengal, where Nobin Chandra Das adapted it. The recipe soon became popular everywhere, spawning famous variations such as rasmalai, cham cham and Kamala bhog.

 

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