April 23rd recognizes the food holiday National Cherry Cheesecake Day. Cookbooks and bakers offer a large variety of recipes for cherry cheesecake. Some cherry cheesecake recipes call for the cherries to be mixed into the batter; others place the cherries on top.
- 2000 BC – The first “cheesecake” was created on the Greek island of Samos. Physical anthropologists excavated cheese molds there.
- 776 BC – History has the first recorded mention of cheesecake as being served to the athletes during the first Olympic Games held in 776 BC
- 600 BC – Records indicate that cherries were a prized food in a region of China, fit for royalty and cherished by locals.
- 70 BC – It is believed that the sweet cherry originated in the area between the Black and Caspian Seas in Asia Minor around 70 B.C. The Romans introduced them to Britain in the first century A.D.
- 230 AD – Althenaeus, a Greek writer, is thought to have first recorded a cheesecake recipe in writing, though there is evidence that Greeks had already been serving the dessert for years.
- 1000 AD – cheesecake reached Europe. Roman armies stormed into Western Europe and the U.K., bringing with them the recipe
- 15th Century – While they have long been a popular dessert fruit, cherries were used for medicinal purposes in the 15th and 16th centuries.
- 1500s – The next cookbook mention of cheesecake was in the mid-1500s.
- 1600s – The English colonists brought cherries to North America
- 1645 – The next time cheesecake turned up in a cookbook was in the mid-16th century under the Tudors — it was called a ‘tarte of Chese.’
- 1872 – Cream cheese was developed by William Lawrence, from Chester, New York, while looking for a way to recreate the soft, French cheese Neufchâtel. he accidentally came up with a way of making an “unripened cheese” that is heavier and creamier.
- 1940s – The Cheesecake Factory used the original cheesecake recipe from a 1940s local newspaper in Detroit. Evelyn Overton, the founder of The Cheesecake Factory, baked a cheesecake using the recipe given in the newspaper and got oodles of compliments for the fine taste of the cheesecake.
- 1929 – Even though he is best known for his signature sandwiches, Arnold Reuben is credited with creating the New York Style cheesecake.
- 1972 – Evelyn Overton moved to LA with her husband, Oscar, and started The Cheesecake Factory.
- 2006 – There were cheesecake-flavored postage stamps. The Austrian postal service in 2006 issued a Häagen-Dazs cheesecake flavored postage stamp to “Let your tongue travel.
- 2009 – Whipped up by Philadelphia Kraft Foods in 2009, this hefty cheesecake is the all-time heavyweight cheesecake champion at 4,703-lb cheesecake!.
- 2017 – The most expensive cheesecake sold for $4,592.42 and was made by chef Raffaele Ronca (USA) at Ristorante Rafele in New York on October 30, 2017. The cheesecake included ingredients such as buffalo ricotta, white truffle, and gold leaves.
- Cherries offer a bounty of nutrients. The antioxidants in this red fruit protect cells from damage. Since cherries pack an anti-inflammatory punch, they may help reduce the risk of heart disease, too.
- On “The Golden Girls,” the cast consumed more than 100 cheesecakes throughout the TV show’s seven-year run.
- The Cheesecake Factory, Inc. is an American restaurant company and distributor of cheesecakes based in the United States. There are more than 200 locations. The Cheesecake Factory is known for its extensive menu, which is nearly 6,000 words long and lists more than 250 items. The Cheesecake Factory sells more than 30 varieties of cheesecake.
- The word ‘cherry’ comes from the French word ‘cerise,’ which in turn comes from the Latin words cerasum and Cerasus, the classical name of the modern city of Giresun in Turkey.
- There are more than 1,000 varieties of cherries in the United States, but fewer than 10 are produced commercially.
- On average, there are about 44 cherries in one pound.
- In an average crop year, a sweet cherry tree will produce 800 cherries.
- Despite the short fruiting season, Americans consume an average of 1.5 pounds of cherries each year.
- However, modern cheesecake is not usually classified as a cake, despite the name. For others, the overall structure, with the separate crust, the soft filling, and the absence of flour, is compelling evidence that it is a custard pie. Other sources identify it as a flan or tart.
- 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. Incidentally, this concept eventually paved the way for wedding cakes to become a tradition that continues today.
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