New York Cheesecake

New York cheesecake is a cake made by combining cream cheese, eggs, sugar, dairy products and other ingredients and baking them until smooth. The thick, pale cream-colored filling has the richness of milk fat and the mild tang of cheese. Because the egg whites are not whipped to a large volume and the cheese is mixed until no lumps remain, the texture turns out dense. Different bases are used: cookie, crushed crackers and sponge.

A New York–style cheesecake bought in Pittsburgh, showing its tall filling and browned edge. Photo: Dllu, 2015-10-20, location unknown. Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. Reduced-size version from the source, with no further processing.

Combining without adding excess air

Cheese brought to room temperature is mixed with sugar at low speed, incorporating any lumps left on the bottom and sides of the bowl. The eggs are then added one at a time and mixed until uniform. Sour cream and lemon add tang, while fresh cream adds dairy richness. Depending on the method, a small amount of flour or cornstarch may also be added to the cheese filling. Flour is used not only in the base but also in the cheese filling.

Baking with a wobble left in the center, then cooling slowly

In King Arthur’s recipe (ingredient proportions and method) for a 10-inch pan, a base made of flour, butter, sugar and egg is pricked, prebaked at about 204°C for 15 minutes and cooled to room temperature. The filling is then added and baked at about 163°C for 45–50 minutes, stopping when the edges are set and the center still wobbles. The guideline temperature of about 79°C is measured not at the center but about 2.5 cm in from the edge.

The cheesecake is then left in the oven with the door slightly open for another hour, so that the heat remaining in the outer part finishes cooking the center. This helps prevent cracks caused by sudden cooling or overcooking the eggs. A filling soft enough to wobble straight from the oven becomes dense and smooth once chilled.

Water baths, and switching between high and low temperatures

There are several ways to bake it. Junior’s surrounds the pan with hot water to conduct heat evenly into the dense filling. For the Lindy’s style, there is also a method of first coloring it at a high temperature and then baking it slowly at a low temperature. The temperatures and ways of applying heat used to bake it smooth vary from establishment to establishment.

Three types of base and fruit sauces

There are several types of base. A cookie base made by working flour and butter together and a base of crushed crackers bound with melted butter differ in both process and bite. Junior’s sponge creates a light, soft layer underneath. Some versions are topped with a thickened cherry or strawberry sauce, adding the tartness and moisture of fruit to the rich cheese filling. Japanese soufflé cheesecake is made light with whipped egg whites, and Basque cheesecake has a deeply browned surface. New York cheesecake differs from these in the texture of its filling and how it bakes.

The history of cream cheese production and its spread in New York

Baked cheese desserts had long been made in Europe, but in New York, rich cakes using plenty of cream cheese came to be favored. The company behind the Philadelphia brand says it was made by William Lawrence of New York State in 1872, while a regional history study records factory production as beginning in 1875. Although accounts of the year production began differ, both record that the distributor Alvah Reynolds gave it its brand name in 1880. Cream cheese commercialized in this way later came to be used as the main ingredient of cheesecake.

Food historian Gil Marks explains that in 1930s New York, cream cheese cakes, which were richer and smoother, became fashionable in place of the earlier curd-based cakes.

The cheesecakes of Reuben’s, Lindy’s and Junior’s

Arnold Reuben, a German Jewish restaurateur, recalled in later years that he had improved on a cheese pie served at a gathering he was invited to in 1929. Alongside this, cheesecake also became popular at Lindy’s, a deli in the theater district. A restaurant with a name playing on Lindy’s, along with its cheesecake, appears in the 1950 musical “Guys and Dolls.”

In the same year, 1950, Harry Rosen opened Junior’s in Brooklyn and created a recipe with baker Eigel Peterson. Placing the cream cheese filling on a light sponge is still a hallmark of the restaurant. The bases and baking methods vary by establishment, but all are rich cheesecakes cherished under the New York name.

Glossary