Day 363
In organizing some kitchen files the other day I came upon a folder of mine full of cheesecake recipes … 79 to be exact!
Who needs 79 cheesecake recipes?
Apparently I do. Or, technically, did … as I tossed the vast majority into the recycle bin and kept 27 of them. So, if I wanted to work my way through this folder of recipes this next year I’d be making a cheesecake every other week. And by the end of the year I’d be weighing an additional 27 pounds. So, as luscious as that would be, I don’t think I’ll be doing that.
And aside from the potential girth gained … I’m really not much of a dessert person. I’m just not keen on sugar (in that form). I’m not much for cookies or cakes or pies … unless, of course, it’s chocolate. Then I’m pretty much game for anything (at anytime). If I have to eat dessert it, for the most part, has to be chocolate, ice cream, crème brûlée or yes … cheesecake.
Cheesecake has been around longer than most desserts. Greek athletes at the first Olympics ate a dessert akin to cheesecake back in 776 B.C.. The Roman historian Cato (not to be confused with the Green Hornet’s sidekick, Kato) once described a cheesecake-like concoction 600 years after that. Hopefully it wasn’t the same one the Olympians were eating, as Cato died shortly thereafter.
No, I’m kidding. I made that up about him dying. Well, he did die but not due to cheesecake (that I know of).
Anyway, throughout the Middle Ages in England and continental Europe (not to, again, be confused with middle aged Englishmen or Europeans) cheesecake existed in a variety of flavors and types.
But it wasn’t until the cheesecake arrived in America (hopefully just a recipe and not an actual cheesecake in someone’s suitcase) did it come into its own.
Most cheesecakes rely on cream cheese as their ingredient of choice for the smooth, rich, creamy “cheesecake texture”, however, mascapone and ricotta are also used.
I am pretty sure if you look on the inside of a box of cream cheese you’ll find a recipe for cheesecake. Which brings me back to wondering why do I need 27 recipes for this dessert?
I don’t know. But somehow I find it comforting to know that if, some evening, I decide, by some wild twist of fate or the planets align and I have a moment of clarity and direction and that I decide at that instant to become a world renowned cheesecake baker … I will have the recipes to do so.
And I’d like to say … “Yeah, like that is ever going to happen.” … but ya know … never say never. Wouldn’t I be upset if that actually happened and I only had the one recipe on the inside of the box of cream cheese to fall back upon?
In any case … today I got rid of the diets and menus I’d saved from the early ’80’s. Nice. And tonight I think I’ll tackle pies and cookies (I have at least 300 recipes for those). And if I get really ambitious I’ll also sort through the cake file. So many desserts … so little time!
And, lucky for me (which again makes me wonder about those 27 recipes) I’m good friends with Sara Lee and I think, while sorting, I’ll just have to have a piece of (non-homemade) … cheesecake!