The Complete Book of Cheese Part 20

The French go even farther by eating thick fresh cream with Chevretons du Beaujolais and Fromage Blanc in the style that adds _a la creme_ to their already glorified names.

The English came along with Snow Cream Cheese that is more of a dessert, similar to Italian Cream Cheese.

We'd like to have a cheese ice cream to contrast with too sweet ones.

Attempts at this have been made, both here and in England; Scottish Caledonian cream came closest. We have frozen cheese with fruit, to be sure, but no true cheese ice cream as yet, though some cream cheeses seem especially suitable.

The farmer's daughter hath soft brown hair (b.u.t.ter and eggs and a pound of cheese) And I met with a ballad I can't say where, That wholly consisted of lines like these, (b.u.t.ter and eggs and a pound of cheese.)

In this parody by Calverly, "The Farmer's Daughter," the ingredients suggest cheese cake, dating back to 1381 In England. From that year Kettner in his _Book of the Table_ quotes this recipe:

Take cream of almonds or of cow milk and beat them well together; and make small coffins (that is, cases of pastry), and do it (put it) therein; and do (put) thereto sugar and good powders. Or take good fat cheese and eggs and make them of divers colours, green, red or yellow, and bake them or serve them forth.

This primitive "receipt" grew up into Richmond maids of honor that caused Kettner to wax poetic with:

At Richmond we are permitted to touch with our lips a countless number of these maids--light and airy as the "airy, fairy Lilian." What more can the finest poetry achieve in quickening the things of earth into tokens and foretastes of heaven, with glimpses of higher life and ethereal worlds.

CHEESECAKES

_Coronation Cheese Cake_

The _Oxford Dictionary_ defines cheese cake as a "tartlet filled with sweet curds, etc." This shows that the cheese is the main thing, and the and-so-forth just a matter of taste. We are delighted to record that the Lord Mayor of London picked traditional cheese tarts, the maids of honor mentioned earlier in this section, as the Coronation dessert with which to regale the second Queen Elizabeth at the city luncheon in Guildhall This is most fitting, since these tarts were named after the maids of honor at the court of the first Queen Elizabeth. The original recipe is said to have sold for a thousand pounds. These Richmond maids of honor had the usual cheese cake ingredients: b.u.t.ter and eggs and pounds of cheese, but what made the subtle flavor: nutmeg, brandy, lemon, orange-flower water, or all four?

More than 2,000 years before this land of Coronation cheese cake, the Greeks had a word for it--several in fact: Apician Cheese Cake, Aristoxenean, and Philoxenean among them. Then the Romans took it over and we read from an epistle of the period:

Thirty times in this one year, Charinus, while you have been arranging to make your will, have I sent you cheese cakes dripping with Hyblaean Thyme. (Celestial honey, such as that of Mount Hymettus we still get from Greece.)

Plato mentioned cheese cake, and a town near Thebes was named for it before Christ was born, at a time when cheese cakes were widely known as "dainty food for mortal man."

Today cheese cakes come in a half dozen popular styles, of which the ones flavored with fresh pineapple are the most popular in New York.

But buyers delight in every sort, including the one hundred percent American type called cheese pies.

Indeed, there seems to be no dividing line between cheese cakes and cheese pies. While most of them are sweet, some are made piquant with pimientos and olives. We offer a favorite of ours made from popcorn-style pot cheese put through a sieve:

Pineapple Cheese Cake

2-1/2 pounds sieved pot cheese 1-inch piece vanilla bean 1/4 pound sweet b.u.t.ter, melted 1/2 small box graham crackers, crushed fine 4 eggs 2 cups sugar 1 small can crushed pineapple, drained 2 cups milk 1/3 cup flour

In a big bowl mix everything except the graham crackers and pineapple in the order given above. b.u.t.ter a square Pyrex pan and put in the graham-cracker dust to make a crust. Cover this evenly with the pineapple and pour in the cheese-custard mixture. Bake I hour in a "quiet" oven, as the English used to say for a moderate one, and when done set aside for 12 hours before eating.

Because of the time and labor involved maybe you had better buy your cheese cakes, even though some of the truly fine ones cost a dime a bite, especially the pedigreed Jewish-American ones in Manhattan.

Reuben's and Lindy's are two leaders at about five dollars a cake.

Some are fruited with cherries or strawberries.

Cheese Custard

4 eggs, slightly beaten 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk A dash of pepper or paprika 3 tablespoons melted b.u.t.ter A few drops of onion juice, if desired 4 tablespoons grated Swiss (imported)

Mix all together, set in molds in pan of hot water, and bake until brown.

Open-faced Cheese Pie

3 eggs 1 cup sugar 2 pounds soft smearcase

Whip everything together and fill two pie crusts. Bake without any upper crust.

The Apple-pie Affinity

Hot apple pie was always accompanied with cheese in New England, even as every slice of apple pie in Wisconsin has cheese for a sidekick, according to law. Pioneer hot pies were baked in brick ovens and flavored with nutmeg, cinnamon and rose geranium. The cheese was Cheddar, but today all sorts of pie and cheese combinations are common, such as banana pie and Gorgonzola, mince with Danish Blue, pumpkin with cream cheese, peach pie with Hable, and even a green dusting of Sapsago over raisin pie.

Apple pie _au gratin_, thickly grated over with Parmesan, Caciocavallo or Sapsago, is something special when served with black coffee. Cider, too, or applejack, is a natural accompaniment to any dessert of apple with its cheese.

Apple Pie Adorned

Apple pie is adorned with cream and cheese by pressing cream cheese through a ricer and folding in plenty of double cream beaten thick and salted a little. Put the mixture in a pastry tube and decorate top of pie in fanciful fashion.

Apple Pie a la Cheese

Lay a slice of melting cheese on top of apple (or any fruit or berry) pie, and melt under broiler 2 to 3 minutes.

Cheese-crusty Apple Pie

In making an apple pie, roll out the top crust and sprinkle with sharp Cheddar, grated, dot with b.u.t.ter and bake golden-brown.

Flan au Fromage

To make this Franche-Comte tart of crisp paste, simply mix coa.r.s.ely grated Gruyere with beaten egg, fill the tart cases and bake.

For any cheese pastry or fruit and custard pie crusts, work in tasty shredded sharp Cheddar in the ratio of 1 to 4 parts of flour.

Christmas Cake Sandwiches

A traditional Christmas carol begs for:

A little bit of spice cake A little bit of cheese, A gla.s.s of cold water, A penny, if you please.

For a festive handout cut the spice cake or fruit cake in slices and sandwich them with slices of tasty cheese between.