History of Cheesecake

  

Cheesecake is believed to have originated in ancient Greece. Historians believe that cheesecake was served to the athletes during the first Olympic Games held in 776 B.C. However, cheese making can be traced back as far as 2,000 B.C., anthropologists have found cheese molds dating back to that period. 

The writer Athenaeus is credited for writing the first Greek cheesecake recipe in 230 A.D. By this time, the Greeks had been serving cheesecake for over 2,000 years but this is the oldest known surviving Greek recipe!

The Romans spread cheesecake from Greece to across Europe. Centuries later cheesecake appeared in America, the recipes brought over by immigrants.

In the 90's cheesecakes were very popular in New York. New York cheesecake is the pure, undulated cheesecake with no fancy ingredients added either to the cheesecake or placed on top of it. It is made with pure cream cheese, cream, eggs, and sugar.

In 1929,Arnold Reuben, owner of the legendary Turf Restaurant at 49th and Broadway in New York City, claimed that his family developed the first cream-cheese cake recipe. Other bakeries relied on cottage cheese. According to legend, he was served a cheese pie in a private home, and he fell in love with the dessert. Using his hostess’ recipe and a pie she made with ingredients he provided, he then began to develop his own recipe for the perfect cheesecake. Reuben soon began to serve his new recipe in his Turf Restaurant, and the cheesecake quickly became very popular with the people who frequented Reuben’s Broadway restaurant.

Sources:

Mary bellis,“The History of Cheesecake and Cream Cheese.”

http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/Cheesecake.htm. Web.7 Jun.2014

“History of New York Cheesecake.”http://www.hungrymonster.com/food-facts/food_facts.php?p=Cheesecake&fid=9668. Web. 7 Jun.2014