By Ainsley Benbow
I know we’ve all thought about it: what is cheesecake, really? Many different sources describe cheesecake as a different type of dessert: tarts, cakes, pies, and even biscuits!
This debate has baffled the minds of many academics, food technologists, and pastry chefs for generations - essentially, ever since it was created.
Cheesecake was originally made with the simple ingredients of cheese, wheat, and honey in Ancient Greece. A famous Greek physician, Aegimus, even wrote a book on the art of making cheesecakes in 5 AD.
Now, in the 21st-century society, we use soft fresh cheese (typically cottage cheese, cream cheese, quark or ricotta), eggs, sugar, a crust/base made from crushed cookies, graham crackers, pastry, or sometimes even sponge cake. It can be unbaked or baked, however, usually, it is refrigerated.
Unlike a regular cake, tart, pie, or biscuit, cheesecake's incorporation of these different ingredients into a final display allows it to be both a delicacy and confusing dessert to decipher what type of dessert category it belongs in.
Firstly, we must provide an understanding of the different categories for a cheesecake (all from Dictionary.com):
Cake: an item of soft sweet food made from a mixture of flour, fat, eggs, sugar, and other ingredients, baked and sometimes iced or decorated.
Pie: a baked dish of fruit, or meat and vegetables, typically with a top and base of pastry.
Tart: an open pastry case containing a sweet or savoury filling.
Below is a list of sources detailing what they believed was the classification of a cheesecake. Overall, tarts were the highest surveyed group with roughly 55% (excluding Reddit votes) of all votes from the personal survey over the internet. Pie was the lowest with only 18%, then in second was cake, however, 2 sites described a cheesecake as a dessert combining all of the features of pies, cakes, and tarts.
Because of my inability to scan over every opinionated website about cheesecake, we cannot concur that this percentage would stay constant if added to other sites.
Source | Cake | Pie | Tart | Scary but informative |
Wikipedia | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
Britannica | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
Simple Wikipedia | ✔️ | |||
Briochef | ✔️ | ✔️ | ||
Collin Street Bakery | ✔️ | |||
✔️✔️✔️✔️ | ||||
Periscope | ✔️ | |||
Total: -/11 | 4 | 2 | 5 | - |
Some sites only write cheesecake as being a ‘dessert’ which is understandable considering the common debates. But, for the people and sites who applaud the dessert category of it being under ‘cake’, their argument is, “Ummm, well it’s called cheesecake for a reason.”
COME ON!!! The legists in classifying cheesecake goes further than just its spelling. The underlying beliefs about its categorical value rely on its formation, components and prime values that make a true cheesecake authentically itself. This is where the qualities of a cheesecake cross over with other desserts.
Cake-like qualities:
Contains the word ‘cake’.
Can be made with a sponge base.
Contains ingredients that are commonly found in cake recipes including flour, eggs, sugar, etc.
Pie-like qualities:
The filling is similar to that of a pie with a baked custard/cheese mixture.
Typically in a circular shape.
Similar to a pie crust, the crust is often made from crushed cookies, graham crackers or pastry.
Tart-like qualities:
Has a pastry crust/shell.
Thick custard/cheese mixture.
Tarts and cheesecakes are open pastry cases that contain a filling.
My friend once told me that cheesecake is everything and nothing when it comes to cake, pies, and tarts. It has the crust of a pie, the openness of a tart, the consistency of a sponge cake and custard cheese curd, and yet no one can conclude its value in desserts.
This debate contains infinite possibilities relating to science, food technology and basic social conventions for display and the creation of food. It cannot be settled over a mere article. The web of cheesecake connects similarities and differences between cakes, tarts and pies. Some might argue that cheesecake is the common ancestor of all of these scrumptious creations.
As a Reddit writer wrote: “Asking “Is cheesecake a cake or a pie?” is about as silly as asking “Is a frog a mammal or a reptile?” Clearly, the answer is “It is neither.” When a thing doesn’t fit in either of two categories, the solution isn't to argue which category fits better - the solution is to find a new category.”
Maybe that is the solution. Maybe cheesecake is just an entirely different species of dessert! It is hard to tell or finalise but what I know for certain is that cheesecake has a sweet and sour taste, it has a national day on July 30th, Sonya Thomas ate 11 pounds (4.98952) of cheesecake in nine minutes giving her the world record for eating the most cheesecakes in a given time and that cheesecake is not a cake made out of cheese!
The truth is that it isn’t up to anyone to tell you what you should and shouldn’t believe. It is up to you to make your judegment. If you believe cheesecake is a cake then sureeeeee, 1000% go for it! Just don’t come to me saying “my evidence is that it has ‘cake’ in its name,” because I will walk away without saying anything.
Cheesecake may be a cake, a tart, a pie or even a biscuit, but in the end, a cheesecake is a cheesecake, and that is enough.
Bibliography:
ate that up ainsley (get it?)
-love mackenzie