National Cheesecake Day on July 30th offers a slice of one of America’s favorite desserts. Order up a cheesecake with your favorite topping. Get it delivered or make it at home.
- The first “cheese cake” may have been created on the Greek island of Samos. Physical anthropologists excavated cheese molds there which were dated circa 2,000 B.C.
- It has been found that the earliest attested mention of a cheesecake is by Greek physician Aegimus, who wrote a book on the art of making cheesecakes. It is believed that cheesecakes were served to athletes competing during the first Olympic games in 776 B.C. to give them energy.
- The writer Athenaeus is credited for writing the first Greek cheesecake recipe in 230 A.D. By this time, the Greeks had been serving cheesecake for over 2,000 years but this is the oldest known surviving Greek recipe!
- James Kraft developed a form of pasteurized cream cheese in 1912. In 1928, Kraft acquired the Philadelphia trademark and marketed pasteurized Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Today, cheesecake makers use this brand more than any other.
- Philadelphia-style cheesecake is lighter in texture, yet richer in flavor than New York style cheesecake.
- Modern commercial American cream cheese was developed in 1872, when William Lawrence, from Chester, New York, while looking for a way to recreate the soft, French cheese Neufchâtel, accidentally came up with a way of making an “unripened cheese” that is heavier and creamier; other dairymen came up with similar creations
- Even though he is best known for his signature sandwiches, Arnold Reuben (1883-1970) is generally credited for creating the New York Style cheesecake. Reuben was born in Germany and he came to America when he was young. The story goes that Reuben was invited to a dinner party where the hostess served a cheese pie. Allegedly, he was so intrigued by this dish that he experimented with the recipe until he came up with the beloved NY Style cheesecake.
- On the “The Golden Girls,” the cast consumed more than 100 cheesecakes over the course of the TV show’s seven-year run.
- Greek brides and grooms were also known to use cheesecake as a wedding cake. It also became a custom for a Greek bride to bake and serve cheesecakes to her new husband’s friends as a gesture of hospitality. This concept eventually paved the way for wedding cakes to become a tradition that continues today.
- The English name cheesecake has been used only since the 15th century.
- The cheesecake became the dessert we know today in the 18th century.
- You used to be able to buy cheesecake-flavored postage stamps from the Austrian Postal service. Haagen-Dazs made flavor-infused stamps, which included Cookies & Cream, Macadamia Nut Brittle and Strawberry Cheesecake. Best part? Zero calories.
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