Flavor of the Week: New York Cheesecake
on Monday, July 30, 2018
Today we added a new frozen yogurt flavor. Behold! New York Cheesecake! We already know what you are asking, “Is there a difference between a New York cheesecake and a regular cheesecake?” The short answer is yes. But we know what you’re thinking. You really want to impress everybody around the water cooler tomorrow with your vast knowledge of cheesecakes. We can help you, read on. World history as told from the perspective of cheesecake.
THE FIRST CHEESECAKE & RECIPE
Be prepared to impress your fellow water cooler mates with these historical cheesecake tidbits —
The first cheesecake was called a plakous, Greek for “flat mass”. As you can guess by the Greek name it was, in fact, made in Greece during the 5th Century BCE and involved pounding fresh cheese with flour and honey and cooked on an earthen-ware griddle. It was considered a traditional wedding cake. Think of this as the caveman of cheesecakes—don’t worry, it evolves soon, right around when the Romans conquered the Greeks.
In 230 AD, seven centuries after the Greeks first pounded cheese, someone finally decided to write down the recipe although they added crushed cheese and eggs and gave it a new name “libuma”. It was considered a spoil of war and as the Romans expanded their empire they brought the cheesecake recipe to the Europeans.
WELCOME TO MEDIEVAL TIMES
Not everything was dark and depressing during medieval times. Great Britain and Eastern Europe began experimenting with ways to put their own unique spin on cheesecake. In the mid-1500s when Henry VIII wasn’t beheading new wives he had his chef cut up cheese into very small pieces and soaked those pieces in milk for three hours. Then, he strained the mixture and added eggs, butter, and sugar. The rumors about Henry VIII aren’t entirely fair, he only beheaded two of his six wives. Here’s a poem to help you keep track of all six.
King Henry VIII,
To six wives he was wedded.
One died, one survived,
Two divorced, two beheaded.
NEW YORK, ARE WE THERE YET?
It would be another 400 years before we get to the signature ingredient of New York Style cheesecake — cream cheese. It was actually invented by accident. In 1872 a New York dairy farmer was trying to make a French cheese called Neufchatel. He messed it up but invented the process for creating Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Oddly enough Philadelphia has nothing to do with the creation of cream cheese, they just thought it sounded better because Philadelphia, at the time, was known for top quality food.
NEW YORK CHEESCAKE and REUBEN SANDWHICHES HAVE the SAME FATHER
We made it! You crossed time and space over 25 centuries of war and famine to learn who invented the New York style Cheesecake and the inspirations for the frozen yogurt flavor of the week at Frenzi Frozen Yogurt:
His name is Arnold Reuben, a German-Jewish immigrant and deli owner who invented the sandwich with the same name in 1914. The man could rest on those laurels for the rest of his life, but culinary creativity has no ceiling, Arnold Rueben would go on to transform cheesecake for generations to come. After sampling a cheese pie, he asked for the recipe which consisted of curds, cream, eggs, and sugar and substituted Philadelphia Cream Cheese for curds. As they say “Voila!”
NEW YORK CHEESECAKE — THE FROYO
Usually, cheesecake is made from cream cheese, eggs, and egg yolks to add a richness and a smooth consistency. A New York–style cheesecake relies upon heavy cream or sour cream. The typical New York cheesecake is rich and has a dense, smooth, and creamy consistency. A rich creamy flavor captured so perfectly by Frenzi’s New York Cheesecake flavored frozen yogurt, your hardest decision will be which of our 60 froyo toppings will you add to this delicious dessert?
For those who like to stir things up a bit, popular toppings that pair well with cheesecake include chocolate, white chocolate, amaretto, banana, and cookie. If you want to get really fancy, you can recreate the most popular cheesecake topping fashioned after turtle candies; add Oreos and caramel sauce and sprinkle with chopped peanuts. All three are available options from our topping menu. Click on the following link to see our froyo flavors and toppings.
Visit our menu to see our seasonal offerings and plan your next visit. Don’t forget to stop by every Wednesday for Waffle Cone Wednesdays – buy one desert and receive one waffle cone or waffle cup free!
