[Sca-cooks] OT/OOP: and in honor of the mid-Pennsic "silly season"...

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Wed Aug 8 10:20:18 PDT 2007


On Aug 8, 2007, at 12:45 PM, Susan Fox wrote:

> Sadly and tragically, the commercial sources of cheesecake in  
> proximity
> to the MGM studio were completely inadequate to the task. Of the  
> classic
> west side eateries, Cantor's, whilst being the only joint open all
> night, has never exactly excelled in the Food department;  and Juniors
> Deli is not and has never been exactly Lindy's either.

Is there a Junior's in Hollywood, and is it affiliated in some way  
with the Junior's in downtown Brooklyn? At this point nothing would  
surprise me. Don't get me wrong, Junior's isn't bad, and it's a  
pretty good facsimile of what the style commonly known as NY  
cheesecake is supposed to taste like, but it lacks the majestic  
density of the gen-yoo-wine Lindy's article, not to mention the  
murbteig-ey sort of pastry crust. In fact, I was distressed to  
discover, within the past year, that Junior's has changed their crust  
formula yet again, this time to a thin sponge-cake layer, like one  
layer of a seven-layer cake.

> Had Sam Goldwyn had his temper tantrum about Cheesecake instead of
> Chicken Soup ever day in perpetuity in the late lamented MGM  
> Commissary,
> this tragedy might have been averted.  The MGM cuisiniers surely  
> did not
> have the Lindy's recipe or anything resembling it.

I seem to recall that Lindy's recipe was published in some magazines  
and newspapers early on in the game; the family legend is that both  
my grandmother and mother were using it as The Cheesecake Recipe as  
of the 1930's. I pulled one off the Web a while back, and called my  
mother (who is 89 and frighteningly sharper than any tack of my  
acquaintance) to confirm the likely veracity of the webbed recipe.  
She proceeded to quote from memory the entire recipe as she recalled  
it; apart from some minor textual differences the quantities, method,  
and cooking times were identical, so apparently this is the real  
thing, or at least the one that was published. It might not be  
Lindy's Real recipe with the secret ingredients (if any), but having  
tried the real thing in Lindy's when they still existed, I can say  
it's pretty much indistinguishable.

> But I bet Adamantius does.  Give, schweethaht.
>
> Selene, playing Tablero with Big Julie's Dice.  Don't you trust me?

Naturally I have every confidence in you. There is some concern among  
the guys and dolls on Broadway that Johnny Brannigan, the strong-arm  
cop, may not share this confidence, but it is generally agreed upon  
by one and all that cheesecake is a matter of honor, and that one  
never does well to welsh on a cheesecake concern.

> Lindy's Cheesecake Recipe
>
>
> Ingredients:
> CRUST:
> 1 c. sifted flour
> 1/4 c. sugar
> 1 tsp. grated lemon peel
> 1/2 tsp. vanilla
> 1 egg yolk
> 1/4 c. butter, softened
>
> FILLING:
> 5 pkgs. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
> 1 3/4 c. sugar
> 3 tbsp. flour
> 2 tsp. grated lemon peel
> 1 1/2 tsp. grated orange peel
> 1/4 tsp. vanilla
> 5 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
> 1/4 c. heavy cream
>
>
> Directions:
> Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease inside of 9 inch spring form  
> pan. Remove side.
>
> CRUST:
> Combine flour, sugar, lemon peel and vanilla. Make well in center;  
> with fork blend in yolk and butter. Mix until smooth. On bottom of  
> pan form 1/2 of dough into ball. Place wax paper on top and roll  
> pastry to edge of pan. Remove paper. Bake 6 to 8 minutes, cool.  
> Divide rest of dough into 3 parts, cut 6 strips of wax paper 3  
> inches wide. On dampened surface between wax paper roll each part 2  
> 1/2 inches wide, 9 inches long. Assemble spring form pan with crust  
> on bottom. Line inside of pan with pastry strips overlapping ends.  
> Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
>
> FILLING:
> In large bowl, blend cheese, sugar, flour, peels and vanilla at  
> high speed. Beat in eggs and yolks, 1 at a time, beat until smooth,  
> occasionally scraping bowl with spatula. Beat in cream. Pour into  
> pan. Bake 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 250 degrees. Bake 1 hour  
> longer. Remove to rack to cool 2 hours.
>



More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list