Cheesecake

A Second Sort of Lemon Cheesecakes

Take two large lemons, grate off the peel of both, and squeeze out the juice of one, and add to it half a pound of double-refined sugar, twelve yolks of eggs, eight whites well beaten, then melt half a pound butter in four or five spoonfuls of cream, then stir it all together and set it over the fire, stirring it till it begins to be pretty thick; then take it off, and when it is cold, fill your patty-pans little more than half full. Put a paste very thin at the bottom of your patty-pans. Half an hour, with a quick oven, will bake them.

From The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy, by Mrs. Glasse, 1805

A modern interpretation: Lemon Cheesecake

1/2 lb. Butter
1 lb. Sugar 2 ¼ cups
2 lg. Lemons, plus the grated peel
A dozen eggs
4 or 5 spoonfuls of cream

Combine ingredients and bake in a pastry shell. (The all-purpose pie crust of the 18th century was puff paste, which Pepperidge Farm makes – look for it in the freezer section.) Bake in a 350º oven until a knife stuck in the center comes out clean.