Cheesecake is made with a soft cheese and usually with only a bottom crust. It contains no yeast, so the flavor is more like a dessert, similar to a custard. The earliest cheesecakes were made from curd or by using rennet to make milk sour.

In 1872, modern commercial cream cheese was developed by William Lawrence in New York. This cream cheese was heavier and creamier than most homemade versions. Later, other dairymen created their own versions. 

Cheesecakes were baked in the 1800s and some still are, but recipes today that use commercial cream cheese are usually uncooked.

INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS

CHEESECAKES
Cheesecakes can be sent to table in two forms; the one some rich kind of custard or cream placed in little round pieces of pastry, or we can have a cheesecake baked in a pie-dish, the edges only of which are lined with puff paste. We can also have cheesecakes very rich and cheesecakes very plain. The origin of the name cheesecake is that originally they were made from curds used in making cheese. 

CHEESECAKE FROM CURD
Take half a pound of curds and press the curds in a napkin to extract the moisture. Take also six ounces of lump sugar, and rub the sugar on the outside of a couple of oranges or lemons. Dissolve this sugar in two ounces of butter made hot in a tin in the oven. Mix this with the curds, add two ounces of powdered ratafias, about half a nutmeg, add also six yolks of eggs. 

Mix this well together and fill the tartlet cases, made from puff paste, and bake them in the oven. It is often customary to place in the center of each cheesecake a thin strip of candied peel. As soon as the cheesecakes are done, take them out of the oven, and if the mixture be of a bad color, finish it off with a salamander. Do not let them remain in the oven too long so that the pastry becomes brittle and dried up. 

This mixture can also be baked in a shallow pie-dish and the edge of the dish lined with puff paste.

*curds – a soft, white substance formed when milk sours, used as the basis for cheese. The increased acidity causes the milk proteins to tangle into solid masses, or curds.

CHEESECAKE FROM TURNED MILK
Take four quarts of milk and turn it* with some fresh rennet.* When dry, crumble it and sift it through a coarse sieve into a bowl. Beat it well up with one-fourth pound of butter until it is quite smooth (it may require a little more butter, depending on the quality of the milk). 

Mix in another bowl the yolks of four eggs, one-fourth pound of fine sifted biscuit powder, the rind of four lemons, the juice of two, and one-fourth pound of powdered sugar (some add a little grated nutmeg or cinnamon). 

Beat these all well up together until forming a stiff cream, then put it by degrees into the bowl with curd, and mix them well together. Line some tartlet­ pans, previously buttered, with some paste, place some of the above mixture in, and bake quick. In some places milk is used instead of eggs. Should you not have rennet, procure some good milk, and turn it with the juice of a lemon or a teaspoon of soda* to a quart of milk. Drain the curd, and proceed as before.

*turn – to be sour or to make sour (milk, cream).
*soda – baking soda.
*rennet – the rennin-containing substance from the stomach of the calf, used to curdle milk, as in making cheese, junket, etc. Prepared Rennet is a mass-produced rennet that  became available in the 1860s.

(Click here if you’d like to read the blog post on using rennet to make curds and whey)

LEMON CHEESECAKE
Mix and gently melt four ounces of sugar and four ounces of butter. Add the yolks of two eggs and the white of one, the grated rind of three lemons, the juice of one and one-half lemons, one small sponge biscuit, some almonds blanched and pounded, and three spoons of brandy. Mix well and bake in rich pastry.

ORANGE CHEESECAKE
Take one-fourth pound butter, one-fourth pound sugar, three eggs, a wine glass of milk or cream, two ounces of sponge cake, the rind of one orange grated, half a nutmeg, and one tablespoon of brandy, or two of rose water.

Pour the milk or cream over the sponge cake to moisten it. Then stir together your butter and sugar, whisk your eggs, mash the cake very fine, and mix all together with the liquor and spice. Line your pie plates with paste, fill with the mixture, and bake in a moderate oven.*

*moderate oven – about 350-400 degrees Fahrenheit.

ALMOND CHEESE CAKE
Soak one-half pound Jordan almonds in cold water all night. Next morning, blanch* them in cold water, lay them on a clean cloth to dry, and then beat them fine in a marble mortar with a little orange-flower or rose water. Then beat and strain six yolks and two whites of eggs, add a half-pound white sugar, and a little powdered mace. Rub all well together in the mortar. Melt ten ounces fresh butter, and add a grated lemon peel. Mix all the ingredients and fill the pans, after putting a paste at the bottom. Small tin shapes are best for cheese cakes.

*blanch – to plunge vegetables, fruit, or other foods in boiling water, then placing quickly into cold or ice water. It is also a way to whiten poultry or to remove the skin.

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