An Ancient Favourite: Cheesecake

By Lauren Gilbert

Cheesecake could be considered the quintessential American dessert. However, that would be denying the incredibly long history of this dessert, a true culinary evolution. Cheesecake may have been the earliest wedding cake. Ancient cheese molds dated about 2000 b.c. were excavated in Greece, and cheese making existed centuries before then. Considered a source of energy, it appears that cheesecake was served to athletes in the Olympic games in 776 b.c. They combined cheese, honey, wheat and flour and baked it into a cake. The first recipe was written by Athenaeus in approximately 230 a.d. and instructed the baker to pound the cheese until smooth, mix with honey and spring wheat flour, heat into a mass, cool and serve. Clearly it was a very simple dish.

Libum-Sweet Cheesecake Ingredients and Recipe

Of course, the Romans took cheesecake along with everything else when they conquered Greece. They added their own ingredients to the recipe, including eggs, baked it under hot bricks and served it warm. The mixing technique included crushing the cheese. Marcus Porcius Cato, who died 149 b.c., wrote De Agricultura (or De re Rustica) discussing farm management, and included what is considered the oldest known Roman cheesecake recipe: “(LXXV) This is the recipe for cheese cake (libum): Bray well two pounds of cheese in a mortar, and, when this is done, pour in a pound of corn meal (or, if you want to be more dainty, a half pound of flour) and mix it thoroughly with the cheese. Add one egg and beat it well. Pat into a cake, place it on leaves and bake slowly on a hot hearth stone under a dish.” (1) Clearly, the Romans enjoyed savoury as well as sweet cheesecake, as honey does not appear in this recipe. Sometimes, the mixed ingredients were poured into a pastry shell and baked that way.

Cheesecake accompanied the Romans to Europe, Great Britain and Scandinavia by 1000 b.c., as they conquered and traded. Different locations meant different cultures, different tastes, and different ingredients caused adjustments to the recipes. The earliest English cookbook, Forme of Cury (1390), compiled by the master cooks of King Richard II and written on vellum, included a recipe that involved a pastry shell baked with a filling of cheese, egg yolks, saffron, ginger and salt. In 1545, A Propre new booke of Cokery was printed (the first printed cookbook) with, of course, recipes for cheesecakes. A subsequent edition was issued in 1557. One recipe is called (in modern English) to make a tart of cheese. This recipe calls for hard cheese with rind removed and sliced, milk or water, egg yolks, sugar and sweet butter. The cheese was placed in a shallow dish, the milk or water poured over, and set aside to soak for 3 hours. The cheese was drained and pounded in a mortar, then mixed with the egg yolks. The mixture was strained, then mixed with the sugar and butter. This filling was poured into a blind-baked pastry, then baked until the cheese filling had set.(2) This recipe seems to be the recipe supposedly used in Henry VIII’s kitchen. The sugar and spices used would have made cheesecake a luxury dish, as these were very expensive ingredients.



English recipes included cheeseless options, as well as options using drained curds. The curds would have been softer, which would have made preparation easier for the cook. An Elizabethan recipe was made up of drained curds, butter, currants, rosewater and nutmeg, and baked in a pastry case. In a 17th century recipe, the instructions start with combining milk and rennet to make curds, then blending the drained fresh curds with thick cream, sweet butter, eggs, currants, cloves, nutmeg and mace (spices beaten), sugar, and rosewater. After mixing well, this was poured into a puff paste and baked.(3) Another 17th Century recipe for curd-cakes is a variation, and involved making a batter of curds, eggs (minus some of the whites), sugar, nutmeg and flour mixed, then fried in a little butter. (4) The cheeseless option sounded very much like a custard pie, as it contained a filling of cream, eggs, sugar, nutmeg, pepper and currants, baked in a pastry “coffin”. (5) Samuel Pepys was known to be passionate about cheesecake, writing in his diary about places that served it multiple times.

By the 18th century, cheesecake was firmly established as a national favourite. Recipes abounded in cookbooks, including Eliza Smith’s THE COMPLEAT HOUSEWIFE, and Hannah Glasse’s THE ART OF COOKERY MADE PLAIN AND EASY. Martha Lloyd, a friend of Jane Austen’s who lived with Jane and her family before marrying Jane’s brother Francis, had multiple recipes for cheesecakes. The effects of cheesecake on the figure were also well known. A caricature by Isaac Cruikshank titled “The Rage, or Shepherds I have lost my waist” was published December 1, 1794, bewailed the need to forgo jellies, cheesecakes and other sweets to satisfy a fashionable dressmakers requirements. It clearly had evolved to a dessert recognizable today, and, within England, regional twists were common. Cheesecake was also carried to the colonies, including America, as demonstrated by a tavern called the Cheesecake House established in Philadelphia in the 1730s and the first American edition of Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy published in 1805 in Alexandria Virginia with multiple cheesecake recipes.


Something Like A Valentine by George Cruikshank

In 1849, George Cruikshank published a caricature, “Something Like a Valentine,” in which he avoided sentiment and listed the material advantages to marriage, including money, jewelry, a grand piano and cheesecake. Unaccountably, as the 19th century progressed, the popularity of traditional cheesecake began to wane and by the middle of the 19th century, recipes were not as prevalent. Of course, by the late 19th century, cream cheese had been invented in America, starting the evolution to the modern cheesecake known today. Back in England, traditional recipes could, and still can, be found in specific locales, such as Deptford cheesecake, a traditional cake made with curd cheese, although fresh ricotta is shown as an acceptable alternative. (You can find a modern recipe in “The Devil at Work in Deptford” – link below.) Another local favourite is Yorkshire Curd Tart, which is also made with curd cheese, and spiced with allspice. (A modern recipe is available in “Yorkshire Curd Tart”- link below.) Both of these articles contain instructions for making curds to use in the recipes if a local source for fresh curds or curd cheese is not available.

Sources include:

World History International. Project Gutenberg e-book. ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT THE TREATISES OF CATO AND VARRO DONE INTO ENGLISH, WITH NOTES OF MODERN INSTANCES BY A VIRGINIA FARMER, 1918. Released April 25, 2004. (Footnote 1) Here.

A PROPER NEW BOOKE OF COKERYE Classic Tudor Cookery. Kindle Edition. by Dafyd Lloyd Evans. Nemeton: June 27, 2012. This is a facsimile edition of the volume published in 1557, based on the 1545 edition. (Footnote 2)

A Boke of Good Cookery presents 17th Century English Recipes. “To Make Cheese-Cakes-the best way.” From The Accomplish’d Lady’s Delight in Preserving, Physick, Beautifying, and Cookery, 1675. (Footnote 3) Here. “To make Curd-Cakes.” From A True Gentlewomans Delight, 1653. (Footnote 4) Here. “To make Cheese-cakes.” From A True Gentlewoman’s Delight, 1653. (Footnote 5) Here.

Google Books. Goldstein, Darra, ed. OXFORD COMPANION TO SUGAR AND SWEETS. Oxford University Press, PP. 124-125. Here.

Food Timeline. “Cheesecake.” Here.

Google Books. England Under the House of Hanover; Its History and Condition During the Reign of the Three Georges. Illustrated from the Caricatures and Satires of the Day. Vol. II. Wright, Thomas, esq. London: Richard Bentley, 1849. p. 316 Google Books. England Under the House of Hanover; Its History and Condition During the Reign of the Three Georges. Illustrated from the Caricatures and Satires of the Day. Vol. II. Wright, Thomas, esq. London: Richard Bentley, 1849. p. 316 Here. (The caricature described can be viewed clearly Here. Scroll down!)

Hickman, Peggy. A JANE AUSTEN HOUSEHOLD BOOK with Martha Lloyd’s recipes. Newton Abbot: David & Charles 1977.

Life and Food. “The Devil at Work in Deptford” by David Porter. October 13, 2011. Here.

British Food-A History. “Yorkshire Curd Tart.” February 9, 2014. Here.

All images from Wikimedia Commons:

Libum-Sweet Cheesecake Ingredients and History. Here. (Uploaded December 28, 2013 by Marcus Cyron)

Curds and Whey by Thomas Rowlandson 1820. Here. Held by British Library, released to public domain.

Something Like A Valentine by George Cruikshank 1848, from A Comic Almanack of 1849. Here.

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Lauren Gilbert's first published book, HEYERWOOD A Novel, was published in 2011. A RATIONAL ATTACHMENT is due out in early 2017. Please visit her website Here. She lives in Florida with her husband, with fresh herbs and roses in the garden.

Of peas, princesses and pancakes

by Anna Belfrage

I’m assuming we’ve all heard the story about the princess and the pea. For those who haven’t, this Danish tale by the masterful H.C. Andersen is the story of a princess who had lost her way in life and so arrived bedraggled and wet at a castle, begging a bed for the night. Being without any useful identifying objects such as a crown, an ermine cape or a frog prince, she was naturally met with suspicion by her hosts to be, but the lady of the castle – and the mother of the potential bridegroom, a dashing prince – knew just how to verify if the wet little thing with curly hair down to her waist was a real princess. All she needed was a pea.

Said pea was placed under 20 mattresses. The princess was then carefully tucked in (the prince hovered hopefully in the background more than willing to offer a goodnight kiss. His lady mother told him to forget it: her precious son would not press his lips to anything but the real thing.) Come morning, the overnight guest was black and blue all over, complaining mightily about the lumpy mattresses. The lady of the castle smiled. Their surprise guest was thereby revealed as a true princess, for only a girl of such rare sensibilities would have felt one itty-bitty pea through all those feather mattresses. Ergo, there was a wedding and a happily ever after.

As a child, I had major problems with this fairy tale. (I had problems with quite a few, starting with the rather obnoxious custom of kissing a frog to find your prince) In this case, I simply could not understand how a pea would survive being squashed under 20 mattresses. Peas in my world were soft and green. In H.C. Andersen’s world, they were mostly yellow and hard. In fact, for most of our species relationship with this versatile little legume the pea has been dried and yellow. The pea, you see was a staple, one of those must-have foodstuffs that would ensure the household survived the winter.

It is difficult for us to imagine a world without potatoes – one of our staples. Or chocolate. Yes, I realise chocolate is not considered a staple, but for those addicted to the stuff it most certainly is. However you want to categorise chocolate, it wasn’t around until relatively recently. Nor were potatoes. Or orange carrots. Or tomatoes. Or popcorn. But the pea, ladies and gentlemen, most certainly was.

Humans have been eating peas for eons. Like many other legumes, the pea comes with the benefit of preserving itself – if you leave it to dry on its vine it will do just that, and instead of harvesting when the pods are juicy and green you wait until the summer is gone and pick the desiccated pods and the hard, yellow peas instead.

These days, most of us only eat the pea in its green variety – and chances are we’ll pull out a bag from the freezer whenever we feel inclined to produce a nice Crème Ninon or just have some peas with our wiener schnitzel (as an aside, a wiener schnitzel without peas is simply no wiener schnitzel) Some of us – notably those who live in the northern parts of England – enjoy consuming our peas as mushy peas, often served with fish and chips. Yes, I know mushy peas are made with dried marrowfat peas (which are greenish), and no, I’ll not share my little story about when I visited a plant that produced mushy peas – will put you off them forever...

Few of us take the time to buy the peas fresh and sit down to shell them. I suffered a major bout of nostalgia when watching a recent episode in the rather excellent crime series Shetland where DI Perez (Douglas Henshall) was shelling his peas. Made me love him even more…

The pea originates from the eastern Mediterranean area. In Georgia, they’ve been munching peas for over 7 000 years, and I’d hazard that originally pod and peas were eaten while green. Our distant ancestors lived a nomadic hand-to-mouth existence, so storing stuff was not high on the agenda. Over the years, the pea was domesticated and more and more it was grown for its dry fruit. Roman legionaries foraged for wild peas to complement their rations, and already the old Romans had a predilection for mushy peas. They just never got round to adding the fish and chips.

In the Middle Ages, green peas were a luxury item. Rich people served them to impress, a not-so-subtle reminder that they were rich enough not to worry about their food stores during the following winter. In general, a very small percentage was harvested while green, but in years of famine – and it is important to keep in mind that with depleted stores food was scarce until the next harvest, not just beyond the last frost – the poor and hungry were given leave to pick the peas while green so as not to die of starvation.

Breaking bread

Other than the pea, people of the Middle Ages consumed huge quantities of cabbage and barley. Peas, cabbages, leeks and barley were all used to make various types of pottages – served with bread. It is estimated at least 50% of the daily calorie intake came from bread – baked with wheat in the more affluent/civilised areas of Europe, with barley and rye in the eastern & northern backwaters.

A pottage was essentially a soup. It varied in thickness depending on the means of the household. In poorer homes, the pottage could well consist of cabbage, herbs and a handful of crushed barley or oats to thicken it. In richer homes, a pottage could include meat and various vegetables. Sweet varieties included almonds and dried fruits, were thickened with eggs and eaten with a lot of lip-smacking.

The dry pea was excellent for making pottage – pease pottage. It had the benefit of being rich in nutrients and was relatively cheap. Add some thyme and garlic, and it tasted quite nice as well. Those higher up the financial scale would combine their pease pottage with ham, those somewhat poorer would instead make their pease pottage very thick – when it became a pease pudding (similar to humus in texture) and was quite filling. It could be eaten hot and cold, it could be eaten quite, quite old as indicated in this nursery rhyme:
Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold,
Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old;
Some like it hot, some like it cold,
Some like it in the pot, nine days old

I must say I am somewhat doubtful at eating something that has been “in the pot” for nine days. I’m guessing medieval tummies were more robust than ours.

There were other benefits to cultivating peas. They did not require pampering. Peas could be planted early in spring as they do not require high temperatures to germinate. They didn’t need much sun. They were easy to harvest and, as stated above, easy to store. That being said, there were a lot of superstitions about the planting of peas, such as the fact that they should only be planted during a waning moon and preferably on a Wednesday or Saturday as otherwise the birds might make off with the planted peas. Apparently, birds back then took the days of the week very seriously indeed.

If you eat the same stuff every day, reasonably you’ll get tired of it. For generations, Europeans ate cabbage and peas, cabbage and peas, more peas, more cabbage. Which is probably why we no longer eat quite as much cabbage – or peas. And IF we eat it, chances are we’ll eat the cabbage shredded in a coleslaw (our medieval forebears would be quite horrified: eat it raw?) and the peas when they are at their greenest. We, in difference to our ancestors, do not need to worry about where tomorrow’s dinner will come from. We, unlike our ancestors, rather have the problem of having too much to eat around us. We, just like our ancestors, tend to have a predilection for all things sweet and fat – such foodstuffs were important in the distant past, when that extra layer of fat could well be the difference between survival or death – and green peas are substantially sweeter than the dried variety.

Still: to this day, that ancient dish the pease pottage still survives – although nowadays we tend to call it split-pea soup. What is truly interesting about pea soup is that it exists in most of the traditional European cuisines. The recipes are surprisingly similar – thyme, peas and broth – and accordingly the end result is always a creamy yellow thick soup that requires little in the way of extras to leave you agreeably full.

In my country, Sweden, until very recently Thursday was the traditional pea-soup day. In fact, to some extent it still is – the determined Swede will always be able to find at least one restaurant in the vicinity that has pea-soup on its Thursday menu. The dried peas are left to soak overnight, and then they’re cooked in a rich ham-broth with plenty of thyme and served with mustard and pork sausage. Yummy. Even better, after the pea soup come Swedish pancakes with raspberry jam and whipped cream – essentially one of those meals that require a nap to digest, which is probably why it no longer is the standard Thursday lunch. Productivity suffers while all the semi-comatose workers do some discreet shut-eye.

courtesy Calle Fridén

It is somewhat coincidental that today is in fact a Thursday. It is even more coincidental that the peas have been soaking overnight, that I have fresh thyme on my cutting board and a nice piece of salted pork that has been simmering slowly for quite some time by now. Some hours from now, I’ll be dipping my spoon into a dish that essentially is identical to that my forebears enjoyed, back in the time of the great Canute. In difference to these my ancestors – whom I imagine as being simple, uneducated folk, with little to their name – I shall round off my meal with pancakes.

After such a meal, the bed beckons. And I can assure you that should anyone see fit to place a dried pea or two beneath my mattress I will complain – loudly – about how lumpy and hard my bed is. I may not be a princess, but dried peas make uncomfortable bed companions. Trust me, I’ve tried.

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Presently, Anna is hard at work with The King’s Greatest Enemy, a series set in the 1320s featuring Adam de Guirande, his wife Kit, and their adventures and misfortunes in connection with Roger Mortimer’s rise to power. The first instalment, In the Shadow of the Storm, was published on November 1, 2015.

Anna Belfrage is also the author of the acclaimed  The Graham Saga. Set in 17th century Scotland, Virginia and Maryland, eight books tell the story of Matthew Graham and his wife, Alex Lind - two people who should never have met, not when she was born three centuries after him.

For more information about Anna and her books, please visit her website. If not on her website, Anna can mostly be found on her blog.

Medieval Dishes fit for a Monarch

by Carol McGrath

Keeping nutmeg in your  pocket during New Year's Eve will protect you throughout the next year- so says one old medieval belief. I discovered this nugget whilst browsing www.moonsmuses.com , a blog devoted to medieval recipes, herbs and plant lore. Nutmeg would protect you if you happened to fall from a roof, cliff, ladders or other high places.  It was, of course, a highly expensive spice during the middle ages. Reading about spices has sent me on a search for medieval Christmastide recipes fit for a monarch which I thought might also interest historical fiction readers as we approach the New Year.

Medieval Feasts, a cook book

In most medieval households cooking was done on an open hearth in the middle of the main living area. For most of the medieval period, for most households, the kitchen was connected with the dining hall. It was towards the end of this period that the kitchen generally became separated, though change is a slow process. Often, separate kitchens did exist in castle baileys as they could be a fire risk. By the late middle ages, however, a separate building or wing that contained a kitchen area was created from the main building by a covered walkway. Here, one would find frying pans, pots, kettles, waffle irons, spits skewers of all sizes, pots and cauldrons, ladles and graters, just to name but a few of the utensils they had then and which we use to this day.

Importantly, there would also be mortars, pestles and sieve cloths because fine textured food was deemed good for you. The body could more easily absorb nourishment. Skilled cooks could shape the results. Farcing, for instance, was to skin and dress an animal, grind up the meat, mix with spices and other ingredients and return it to its own skin or mould it into the shape of a completely different animal.

Pies were ever popular and called coffins

During the Christmas period the kitchen staff of royal courts were extremely busy. The staff consisted of pantlers, bakers, waferers, sauciers, larderers, butchers, page boys, milkmaids, butlers and scullions who were kept incredibly busy preparing at least two meals a day for several hundred people. Importantly the chief cook would need at least a thousand cartloads of dry wood and a barnful of coal to hand for  the preparation of the two day long banquet. ( Du fait Cuisuine 1420, written by Maister Chiquart for the then Duke of Savoy). Here are a few recipes that would have been cooked in the royal kitchens over the festive season. These are adapted for the modern cook.

An ordered medieval kitchen

Medieval Roast Chicken ( from foodnetwork.com)

Ingredients
1 roasting chicken
2 cups of water
a half cup of paprika
2 cups of lemon juice
a half cup of lemon pepper
a quarter cup of Italian spice
2 teaspoons of salt

Preheat the oven to 325 f. Combine all the ingredients to prepare the marinade. Dip the whole chicken into it. Let it sit for 4 to 5 minutes. Place the chicken on a sheet pan and cook for 50 minutes uncovered, or until the chicken juices run clear.

Or why not try this easy medieval inspired recipe (from coquinaria.nl) for Medieval Apple fritters, traditional fare on New Year's Eve in the Low Countries.

Apples and quinces were regarded as a similar fruit during the period. They were originally small and sour. By the end of the medieval period there were several apple varieties. The Costard was a large kitchen variety and the Pearmain Green, which was green and red coloured, were both known by the thirteenth century. Other medieval apples were Nonpareil, White Joaneting and the Royal Russet. Fritters appeared frequently on the medieval banquet table. There were sweet and savoury fritters.

Time for Feasting

Fritters

Take wheat flour. Take ale yeast, saffron and salt. Beat all together as thick as you would make other batter on meat days. Then take good apples and cut them in the manner of fritters. Dip in batter up and down and bake them in good oil. Lay them on a dish, sprinkle with sugar and serve them.

To make these nowadays you would have to use yeast. English ale was originally the same as medieval beer. It was top fermenting and instead of hop gruit was used, a mixture of sweet gale and other herbs such as rosemary and sage. Ale could be sweet or sour depending on the composition of gruit and the brewing. Medieval beers were never bubbly because the carbon dioxide escaped during the fermenting.

On the Medieval New Year's Day everybody celebrated The Feast of Fools. For that celebration class distinctions were abolished. Most Europeans elected a Lord of Misrule or a king of fools. In England he went as King of the Bean or in Scotland, the Abbot of Misrule. They had the power to call everybody to disorder with cross-dressing, bawdy songs and drinking to excess. The end came when the Protestant Reformation condemned all politically incorrect excesses claiming their roots in paganism. The Feast of Fools has since been celebrated on the twelfth night after Christmas.

Other recipes you might be interested in investigating which were popular over the twelve days of Christmas included:

Venison in a Sack
Goose in Sawse Madame
Wild Boar Stew
Leavened Bread
Extraordinary Spiced Wine
Ancient Fruit Dumplings

Just taste the ale before bringing it to table

Finally I leave you with a medieval caudle recipe.

Medieval Caudle

Beat up egg yolks with wine, sugar and saffron. Heat the mixture over a medium flame. Stir continually until the caudle is hot and thick and fluffy. Beat well together; set it on the fire on clean coals. Stir well the bottom and sides until just scalding hot; you will be able to tell when it becomes fluffy. Then take it and stir fast & if you need add more wine; or if it rises too quickly, put it in cold water to the middle of the outside of the pot, stir it away fast, and serve.

Thanks for this recipe to godecookery.com.

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Carol McGrath is the author of The Handfasted Wife published 2013 by Accent Press
The Swan-Daughter published 2014 by Accent Press. Both available as paperbacks and for all e readers.