In Case You Were Curious… About Cheesecake!
May 26, 2017
The Bottom Line: Sweet facts about cheesecake!
The Full Story:
- Regular “National Cheesecake Day” falls on July 30th
- Cheesecakes supposedly originated in ancient Greece and were even served to athletes at the first Olympic Games. Evidence of early cheesecakes can be traced to the Greek island of Samos as far back as 2,000 B.C., though the oldest existing written recipe is credited to Roman politician Marcus Cato.
- "American" cheesecake wasn't invented 'til the late 1800s. New York dairyman William Lawrence accidentally invented cream cheese in 1872 while trying to recreate a soft French cheese called Neufchatel. New York-style cheesecake, with its signature simple cream cheese and egg yolks make-up, was later created in the 1900s by German immigrant Arnold Reuben, because these guys say so.
- Think there’s only one style – of cheesecake, as in. "New York?" Think again. There's Pennsylvanian, Philadelphian, Farmer's, country, Chicagoan, Asian, Australian, German, Italian, Dutch, Greek, Brazilian, Colombian, and probably dozens more.
- You used to be able to buy cheesecake-flavored postage stamps. Sure they were from the Austrian Postal service, but Haagen-Dazs still once made flavor-infused stamps which included Cookies & Cream, Macadamia Nut Brittle, and Strawberry Cheesecake.
- According to the folks at Serious Eats, the price of ordering the whole Cheesecake Factory cheesecake line-up is almost $400 – and that’s from back in 2011. Cheesecake prices range from $6.75 to $7.75.
- The most expensive cheesecake in the world isn’t even served at a restaurant. Offered by Saks Fifth Avenue, the department store sells a “Festive Two-Stack Cheesecake” by Elegant Cheesecakes. It weighs 10-pounds and comes in the form of a pair of stacked gift boxes. The filigreed chocolate shell contains a triple-mocha cheesecake on a shortbread crust and a chocolate decadence cake with buttercream frosting. This luxury cheesecake can be had for $300 plus the price of overnight delivery.
- Cheesecake Kit Kats exist (made in Japan, of course), but you can actually buy them on Amazon Prime for about $20.
- Questionable cheesecake "inventions" include garlic-flavored and foie gras-flavored cheesecakes.