New York cheesecake: The original

New York culture, without cheesecake, is not possible!

1872, Chester, New York. A gentleman named William Laurence tries to copy the French and prepare - with an American stamp this time - the soft cheese Neufchatel. His effort is not particularly successful since the result is the same cheese with a mild taste and creamy texture. He is completely unaware that he has created it cream cheese, the no1 material for the preparation of cheesecake.

40 years later, in 1912, another American, o James Kraft trying to launch something new, he tackles cream cheese and after he succeeds in finding a way to pasteurize it, he puts it on the market, putting other prospective manufacturers to the test.

However, others had to pass 17 years since then for cheesecake to be born, a conception which according to history belongs to Arnold Reuben, owner of the legendary restaurant Turf at 49th and Broadway, who was desperately searching for a trademark dessert for his business. And he succeeded. His cheesecake was becoming popular, he saw his clientele multiply and New York now acquire its own local dessert, which years later spread with great success in many variations and outside the American borders.

However, the idea of a dessert, with cheese as the main ingredient, was circulating centuries before the cheesecake in its modern form was established as the ultimate dessert of New Yorkers and it also has roots in Ancient Greece. Its first informal recipe was recorded by Athenian in 230 BC as a porridge of melted cheese, honey and wheat flour, which after being baked was served either as a wedding dessert or to the athletes of the Olympic Games for energy. It was even known as "Plakountas". From Ancient Greece, the recipe - enriched with eggs, sugar and butter - reached Rome, while in 1545 it was published in one of the first cookbooks.

There are two details that make the difference between the New York cheese cake and its dozens of variations. First, its characteristic lemony taste and the fact that before it is served, it is baked in the oven using the bain-marie process, i.e. in a container with water. The original recipe calls for the cream to be light but intense in flavor, which is why it requires a larger amount of cream cheese. New Yorkers usually serve it plain – all its magic is the crust that forms during baking – or with berries and powdered sugar. Its preparation is relatively simple, but it needs special attention from the moment it enters the oven, because it burns easily.

Below is the original recipe:

Materials for the base: 

• 24 digestive biscuits grated in a food processor
• 5 tbsp melted butter
•  1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt

Ingredients for the cream:

• 1.135 g of cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
•  1/2 tsp. salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup full-fat cream whipped with 1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice.

Implementation

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. In a large bowl, mix the grated biscuits, sugar, salt, melted butter and place them in a pan with a detachable wall, which we have previously buttered.

Spread the mixture evenly and bake for 13 to 15 minutes. Take it out of the oven and while waiting for it to cool down, prepare the cream.

Beat the cream cheese, sugar, zest and salt in the mixer, then add the eggs one by one and finally the milk cream. In the pan with the base, put aluminum foil so that only the bottom and sides are covered, as if creating a nest.

Then place the pan in a larger pan and pour the filling mixture onto the biscuit.

Finally, carefully put water in the large pan - to reach about halfway up the small one and bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes at 160.

After it is cooked, take it out of the oven, leave it for 8 hours at room temperature until it cools down completely and then put it in the fridge.