History cheesecake
An ancient form of cheesecake may have been a popular dish in ancient Greece even prior to Romans' adoption of it with the conquest of Greece.[2] The earliest attested mention of a cheesecake is by the Greek physician AegiMousses, who wrote a book on the art of making cheesecakes ( ?—plakountopoiikon suggramma).[3][4] Cato the Elder's De Agri Cultura includes recipes for two cakes for religious uses: libum and placenta.[5] Of the two, placenta is most like most modern cheesecakes, having a crust that is separately prepared and baked.[6] It is important to note that though these early forms are called cheese cakes, they differed greatly in taste and consistency from the cheesecake that we know today. Modern commercial American cream cheese was developed in 1872, when William Lawrence, from Chester, New York, while looking for a way to recreate the soft, French cheese Neufchatel, accidentally came up with a way of making an "unripened cheese" that is heavier and creamier; other dairymen came up with similar creations independently.[7] In 1912, James Kraft developed a form of pasteurized cream cheese. Kraft acquired the Philadelphia trademark in 1928, and marketed pasteurized Philadelphia Cream Cheese which is now the most commonly used cheese for cheesecake AegiMousses or Aegimius (Gr. ? or ) was one of the most ancient of the Greek physicians, who is said by Galen to have been the first person who wrote a treatise on the pulse.[1] He was a native of Velia in Lucania, and is
supposed to have lived before the time of Hippocrates, that is, in the 5th century BC. His work was entitled (Lat. De Palpitationibus, a name which alone sufficiently indicates its antiquity), which is no longer extant. Callimachus mentions an author named "Aegimius", who wrote a work on the art of making cheesecakes (? ?),[2] and Pliny the Elder mentions a person of the same name who was said to have lived two hundred years;[3] but whether these are the same or different individuals is quite uncertain. De Agri Cultura (Latin pronunciation: [?de? ?a?ri? k?l?tu?ra?], On Farming or On Agriculture[1]), written by Cato the Elder, is the oldest surviving work of Latin prose. Alexander Hugh McDonald, in his article for the Oxford Classical Dictionary, dated this essay's composition to about 160 BC and noted that "for all of its lack of form, its details of old custom and superstition, and its archaic tone, it was an up-to-date directed from his own knowledge and experience to the new capitalistic farming."[2] Cato was revered by many later authors for his practical attitudes, his stoicism and his tight and lucid prose. He is much quoted by Pliny the Elder, for example, in his Naturalis Historia. A recipe is a set of instructions that describe how to prepare or make something, especially a culinary dish. The word is Latin, the second person, singular number, imperative mood of the verb recipere, "to take", and its original usage was in the writing of medical prescriptions.