• Cheesecake is a dessert formed of a topping made with soft, fresh cheese upon a base made from biscuit, pastry or sponge. The topping is frequently sweetened with sugar and flavored or topped with a puree or compote of fruit.

• Savory cheesecakes also exist, served sometimes as hors d’oeuvre or with accompanying salads. Despite their name, cheesecakes are technically tarts; the word ‘cake’ was formerly applied to a much broader category of foods than it is today.

• Cato the Elder’s De Agri Cultura includes recipes for two cakes for religious uses: libum and placenta. Of the two placenta is most like modern cheesecakes having a crust that is separately prepared and baked.

• Cheesecakes can be broadly categorised into two basic types – baked and unbaked – and each comes in a variety of styles determined by region.
• Japanese-style cheesecake relies upon the emulsification of cornstarch and eggs to make a smooth flan-like texture and almost plasticine appearance.

Today’s Food History

 

• 1923 James Arness was born. Best known as Marshal Matt Dillon on the TV series ‘Gunsmoke,’ he also played the creature in the 1951 movie ‘The Thing from Another World.’ The creature was a vegetable based alien life form, a “super intellectual carrot.”
• 1955 Morimoto Masaharu was born in Hiroshima, Japan. Masaharu is a well known Japanese Chef, and was the last Japanese Iron Chef on the TV show, Iron Chef (late 1990s).  He now has his own restaurant, Morimoto in Philadelphia.
• 1971 Don Maclean recorded ‘American Pie’.
• 1979‘Reunited’ by Peaches & Herb is #1 on the charts
• 1999 R.I.P.  Waldo Lonsbury Semon. Semon was an American Inventor who is credited with the invention of Vinyl. Vinyl is the 2nd most used plastic in the world.  Semon held over 100 patents.