A ‘Cheesy’ Holiday

My father never missed a chance to eat cheesecake. He was a furniture salesman whose territory covered the New York metropolitan area, and whenever he called on stores near a bakery, he purchased a cheesecake. While my mother and brother avoided cheese in any form, he knew he could count on me to join him at the kitchen table after dinner to sample his latest discovery.

“I like the consistency of this one,” I said one night, feasting on a slice of creamy cake from a Brooklyn bakery. We felt the best cheesecakes came from places densely populated by Jews and Italians. “But the crust is wimpy,” my father said. “A good crust should be crunchy and thick.”

“The cake could be tarter,” I said. “It’s a bit bland.”

“Yet it’s perfectly moist.”

We had no use for dry cheesecakes. Full-blooded Ashkenazi Jews, we were equal-opportunity cheesecake lovers. We adored the zesty citrus flavor infused in the ricotta cheesecakes that my father purchased in Italian neighborhoods.

“But Rueben’s really makes the best cheesecake,” my father always concluded after we consumed several slices. Since his office was close to the famed Reuben’s delicatessen, he frequently brought home their decadent cakes. Four decades later, I’m still working off the calories.

We didn’t wait for the late-spring celebration of Shavuot to partake in our favorite luxury. Reform Jews, we called Shavuot “the cheesecake holiday,” but knew little else about it.

Shavuot is an important late-spring observance that commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. It is often celebrated with all-night study and by the eating dairy foods, particularly cheese.

In Psalms 68:16-17, Mount Sinai is called by several names. One of them, mountain of peaks, Bar Gavnunim in Hebrew, shares the same root as gevinah, the word for cheese. Some historians speculate that after receiving the Ten Commandments, the ancient Israelites had been gone from their campsite for so many hours that their milk had soured and was becoming cheese. It’s possible that they fasted while receiving the Ten Commandments and returning hungry, reached for milk, a biblical version of fast food.

Accordingly, Shavuot arose as a dairy holiday. For centuries people have indulged in creamy confections for dessert, and cheesecake became the pastry of choice among Jews from Central and Eastern Europe. In the Old Country, recipes called for curd cheeses, such as pot or cottage cheese, which created disappointing results by today’s super-rich standards.

Cream cheese was the ingredient that turned a dry cake into a touch of heaven. When farmers in upstate New York invented cream cheese to duplicate French Neufchatel cheese, they never expected enterprising Jewish delicatessen owners in Manhattan to buy the product in bulk for baking.

Arnold Reuben Jr., a descendant of immigrants from Germany, claimed that his family developed the first cream-cheese cake recipe. At a time when other bakeries relied on cottage cheese, Reuben’s, then on Broadway and later on Madison Avenue and 58th Street, began baking cheesecakes with Breakstone’s cream cheese. In 1929, Reuben’s cheesecake won a Gold Metal at the World’s Fair.

Unaware of his destiny, a young go-getter named Leo Linderman left school at age 14 to apprentice in a Berlin delicatessen. In 1921, eight years after arriving in America, he opened Lindy’s, a delicatessen that he promoted by creating super-sized sandwiches with flamboyant names.

In the 1930s, this marketing genius developed a cheesecake recipe inspired by Kraft’s Philadelphia Supreme Cheesecake, and began selling a confection that competed with Reuben’s. For decades rumors circulated that Leo Linderman had stolen the Reuben family recipe after luring their German chef into his employ.

Whether the story is true or not, there were differences between the two cakes. Those old enough to remember will tell you that Reuben’s cheesecake was simple and delicious, while Lindy’s cake, as showy as its inventor, was topped with strawberries in a syrupy gel. In addition, Lindy’s crust was doughy, and not to my father’s liking.

Unfortunately, my father passed away by the time I married. But fate shined on me the day I met my husband and fell in love with his mother’s cheesecake. It is delicate and refined with a smooth texture, deep vanilla flavor and crunchy graham cracker crust.

For a change of pace, there’s nothing like a slice of airy ricotta cheesecake with its divine lemon essence. I fashioned this recipe after a cheesecake I enjoyed in Trieste, Italy, visiting my husband’s aunt. Sadly, she passed away before I asked for her recipe. For contrast, I added a gingersnap crust.

It’s impossible to discuss recipes without paying homage to the delicatessens that made New York as famous for cheesecake as for the Statue of Liberty. Since Reuben’s and the original Lindy’s restaurant have closed their doors, people who adored their luscious cakes are still haunted by delicious memories. Let’s face it — it’s been a loss for the Jews.

In the ensuing decades, I’ve tried to conjure up the qualities of the quintessential New York cheesecake: a graham cracker crust, creamy texture, distinct lemon flavor, and firm but light density. It must be taller than the tines of a fork and slightly sweet but with a little kick. The recipe below delivers on all counts. Yet authentic as it is, nothing compares to those evenings when my father indulged me with wondrous cheesecakes from the bakeries of New York.

Classic New York Cheesecake

Crust:

Heavily coat 10-inch springform pan with cooking spray

11/2 cups commercial graham cracker crumbs

5 Tbsp. butter

1 tsp. honey

1/4 cup sugar

Mix ingredients together with hands until well blended and crumbs appear moist. Pour into pan. With hands, spread evenly across the bottom and pat down firmly.

Filling:

5 8-ounce bars cream cheese, at room temperature

2 Tbsp. flour

1 Tbsp. confectioners’ sugar

11/2 cups sugar

grated rind of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp. orange liqueur

3/4 tsp. vanilla

2 egg yolks at room temperature

5 eggs at room temperature

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

• Place first five ingredients in large mixing bowl and beat on high until they are completely blended.

• Add vanilla and 2 yolks, and beat again.

• Add eggs one at a time, beating well.

• Pour into prepared pan. Batter will fill pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Top will be golden. Lower oven temperature to 200 degrees and bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until top browns, cake feels bouncy to the touch, and a toothpick tests clean. Cool to room temperature. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate.

• Bring to room temperature before serving.

• Yield: 16-20 slices