This last weekend I decided to try to attempt an ancient recipe for cheesecake. But before I talk about that, let me back up and explain what set me on this path.
This all started with my forays into fermentation (which I'll have to post about as well) starting first with kefir, then moving on to mead which I have found to be very fun. Learning about fermentation and the history of it, brought into contrast the distinct lack of tradition my family had while I was growing up. I think really the only small tradition we had and only for a few years was that every year for Christmas we would get Legos.
I got talking to my dad about all this, and I told him the reason I kept up with making mead was because it was something traditional, something I thought could being us all closer as a family and something that would give us some of that tradition we were missing. I knew it wasn't perfect because mead is an alcoholic product. And thus not something much of my family would be willing to partake in the production or consumption of. My dad mentioned to be in the course of our conversation that my grandfather used to make cheesecakes of all kinds, and that that would make for a good family tradition if I wanted to start that up.
My being me, and having been digging into history to learn about mead and kefir before, I went straight to researching the history of cheesecake, digging and reading and finding old recipes. We are almost to the recipe, so hang in there. But first, a brief history lesson.
Most readers think of New York style cheesecake as what cheesecake is, but it started out very different, almost as something I would call a cheese pie. For the beginning of our history on cheesecake, we will need to journey back in time; A long trek all the way back to almost the beginning of written history:
500 BC
A Greek physician named Aegimus wrote a book on the art of cheesecakes. This is the first recorded instance of cheesecake, however it make have existed for hundreds of years or more before this written record. These original cheesecakes where made with cheese, honey, and flower. My research indicates that cheesecakes may have been the first wedding cakes, or at least the wedding cakes of ancient Greece. Along with weddings they were also used in sacrifices to the Gods, and other religious activities. Back then there were three versions of cheesecake, they were called libum, savillum, and placenta. (Yeah I know, but they probably used the word first so...)
The cheesecake was later passed on to the Romans when they conquered Greece, and from there they spread throughout the Roman empire, including the now British Isles. It was there in 15th century England that the cheesecake got its modern name, though it was still very much a different thing from what we know of today as cheesecake. Around 1800 AD Europeans changed things up, removing the natural yeast leavening and using eggs instead, this resulted in something more akin to a desert than what past cheesecakes had.
Less than a century after that, in Chester, New York, the birth of cream cheese. While various dairy farmers stumbled on cream cheese around the same time, William Lawrence is credited with its actual discovery. Then only about 50 or so years later, Arnold Reuben is credited with the invention of the modern New York Style Cheesecake.
Now that we have had our history lesson, lets get into the recipe. I decided for my first attempt to start at the beginning of the timeline, with the ancient Greeks "plakous" a sub-variant of placenta.
I first set to work making home made ricotta, a simple procedure, heating whole milk to 200F (I went with about half a gallon), then removing from heat and adding several lemons worth of juice (I did 5 lemons, but you don't even have to use lemons, any acid should cause the proper reaction, you could use any citrus fruit, or even vinegar, whatever you use will leave a slight taste of itself in the end cheese), waiting for a few minutes, then pouring into a cheese cloth and left to hang for a couple hours.
Once that was done, it was time to make the main dish. I started by mixing 4 cups of flour, 1/4 tsp salt, and 2 1/2 cups water to create a ball of dough. I then set that aside and in the same (rinsed out) bowl mixed the fresh ricotta (1 and 1/3 cups) and some honey from my parents bees (1/2 cup) until smooth. This mixture by itself was worthy of being the topping of just about any desert I can think of. I set that aside, and started working with the dough, I divided it up into 5 balls, one slightly larger than the others, then I rolled them out as thin as I could manage with an empty cup (I didn't have a rolling pin available, but I would highly recommend using one). After that, I coated them lightly with olive oil, and then layered them alternating with the cheese honey filling. The top layer I cut into strips and made a weave for the top, never again, that was weird and difficult, it did look fancy though.
I then brushed a little more olive oil on the top of the now constructed cake pie thingy. In all honestly, I may have accidentally spilled half a cup of olive oil on top of the thing and just tried to spread it around as best as I could. I figured it wouldn't hurt things much so I went ahead and put the construction into a preheated 315F oven for a full hour.
For those who like lists, here are all the ingredients and amounts in a list for you
This turned out ok, it was yummy for sure, didn't even last the weekend, but it wasn't my favorite, I think next I'll try the Roman version of Libum