SC - Cheesecakes

[david friedman]

>From the Miscellany:

To Make Cheesecakes
 Digby p. 214/174

Take 12 quarts of milk warm from the cow, turn it with a good spoonfull of
runnet. Break it well, and put it in a large strainer, in which rowl it up
and down, that all the whey may run out into a little tub; when all that
will is run out, wring out more. Then break the curds well; then wring it
again, and more whey will come. Thus break and wring till no more come.
Then work the curds exceedingly with your hand in a tray, till they become
a short uniform paste. Then put to it the yolks of 8 new laid eggs, and two
whites, and a pound of butter. Work all this long together. In the long
working (at the several times) consisteth the making them good. Then season
them to your taste with sugar finely beaten; and put in some cloves and
mace in subtle powder. Then lay them thick in coffins of fine paste and
bake them.

Judging by the cottage cheese recipe in Joy of Cooking, 12 quarts of milk
would yield about 4.5 lbs of cottage cheese. It sounds as though either
creamed cottage cheese or fresh cheese corresponds to what Digby is making.
The following quantities are for half of Digby's quantity, with an
adjustment for egg sizes.

2 lbs of creamed cottage cheese 	1/2 lb of butter	1/4 t mace
2 large eggs	1/2 c sugar	2 pie crusts (this made 2 9" cheese cakes)
1 egg yolk 	1/4 t cloves

Cook at 350° for 70 minutes. Let cool 1 hour before serving.
- ---
White Torta
Platina p. 135 (book 8)

Prepare a pound and a half of best fresh cheese, chopped especially fine.
Add twelve or fifteen egg whites, half a pound of sugar, half an ounce of
white ginger, half a pound of pork liquamen and as much fresh butter. Blend
in as much milk as you need. When you have blended this, put it into a
pastry crust rolled thin and put it all in a pan and set it to bake on the
hearth with a gentle flame. Then, to give it color, put coals on the lid.
When it is cooked and taken from the pan, sprinkle ground sugar over it,
with rosewater.

1 lb fresh cheese: ricotta	1/4 lb lard	10" pastry shell
8 egg whites	1/4 lb butter	~2 t sugar
2/3 c sugar	1/2 c milk	1 t rosewater
1/3 oz fresh ginger

Beat egg whites to soft peaks. Soften butter and lard together at room
temperature. Fold together cheese and egg whites, then add sugar, minced
ginger, lard and butter. Mix until fairly uniform. Add milk, fill shell.
Bake at 325° for 40 minutes. When oil separates, it is done. Put under
broiler to brown top lightly. Sprinkle sugar and rosewater, spread on with
spoon bottom. Cool until set.

This is a little less butter and lard than Platina suggests, but we found
it too fatty using his quantities.  Our interpretation of "add egg whites"
is pretty free-it would be worth trying to follow the recipe more literally.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


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