Category: Cheese Use
Is Cheesecake Made From Real Cheese?
You are at your favorite restaurant and you order something off the dessert menu. None other than universal go-to and favorite, cheesecake. Then you begin thinking to yourself, why do they call it cheesecake when the main ingredient in the cheesecake is cream cheese? Why not call it Cream Cheesecake? Well, truth be told, while some use cream cheese to make cheesecake, many other parts of the world use actual cheese to create this one-of-a-kind dessert masterpiece. There are actual a number of cheeses that different parts of the world use to make their own version of [real] cheese cake.
Cream Cheese
Cream cheese was first created in the 19th century across the United States. Having many styles and variance, cream cheese was first made my local dairy farmers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Later, in the 19th century, William A. Lawrence, a Chester, New York dairyman bought a Neufchâtel factory. Neufchâtel is a softer cheese that is native from France for centuries. Lawrence, however, decided to take an additional step by adding more cream during the Neufchâtel-making process causing the cheese to become richer and heavier. He termed this “cream cheese”, and how fitting the name was. The majority of cheese cakes across North America are made with the base of some type of cream cheese giving “typical” cheese cake that rich, creamy texture.
Sour Cream
Seriously?? While sour cream is not a cheese, it is a dairy byproduct of fermenting cream. Because of its smoothness and creaminess, it is often added to the cream cheese base that is used in cheese cake to make it creamier and thicker. Yet, other renditions of the dessert may feature a strictly-cream cheese base with a sweet, sour cream topping, usually in plain form or with lemon shards adding an extra bite or or layer of flavor.
Quark
Across various parts regions of Europe, quark is the go-to ingredient when making cheese cake. Because it is native to parts of Europe, cheese cake made from quark is often termed “German-style” or “Bavarian” cheesecake. Like Sour Cream, quark is made from the fermentation of milk. It has a creamy and yet a bit crumbly in texture and often has curds. Unlike cottage cheese, also having curds, quark is not made with rennet (as cottage cheese is) and salt, at times.
Ricotta
Here we have the real deal. I, personally, have had cheesecake made with Ricotta and I can tell you that it is the best cheesecake I have ever had. Besides its most common use in Lasagna and Manicotti, Ricotta is used to make cheesecake. While it is made in the United States as well, it is referred to as “Ricotta Pie” here in the states. Other versions of Italian cheesecake might use Mascarpone, a very soft Italian cheese often used in Tiramisu.
Cheese is Everywhere in Wisconsin… Even on the roads?!
We all know that Wisconsin is known for its cheese-making prowess and it has become well-deserved honor through the course of history. Cheese and cheese-making have become such a mainstay across Wisconsin that vehicle license plates carry the slogan “America’s Dairyland” while lawmakers have officially coined the bacterium found in Monterey Jack cheese as the official microbe of the state of Wisconsin. A little over the top? Perhaps, but to each their own. However, one thing that takes Wisconsin’s love for its cheese from interesting to just… mind-blowing… is the use of cheese as melting agent for its city streets during winter.
In 2013, Milwaukee commenced a program that would use cheese brine to prevent citywide roads from freezing over during winter. The melting solvent was a mixture of cheese brine and traditional rock salt. The purpose behind this program was to execute a more cost efficient means of treating roads during the year’s harshest weather.
Photo Credit: Tom Lynn/New York Times
According to Jeffrey A. Tews, operations manager for the city’s public works department, “You want to use Provolone or Mozzarella, which has the best salt content. You have to do practically nothing to it.” Tews and his crew, in the program’s infancy, spread the solvent across the streets of Bay View, a neighborhood on Milwaukee’s north side.
A group of experts noted that efforts to reuse the brine from cheese was only a matter of time before that came to fruition, especially considering a state so enamored in cheese like Wisconsin.
A local city official in Milwaukee noted that the state is trying to extract every possible use out of cheese it possibly can. He went on further to note that if the program continues to make leaps and bounds, it will most likely be implemented by cities all across the country. While the prospect of this program does sound like a genius idea, it does come with the potential for negative impacts, as does any newly piloted program in its infancy. Some of the issues that may surface range from:
- Would the brine put out a cheese odor that would become bothersome for residents?
- Would the scent attract rodents or other animals?
- Would the pros of using cheese brine in the mixture of this solvent be enough to justify the transport and storage requirements for the brine, over the long haul?
If at first this sounds like a laughable program, think about the facts in play. Wisconsin produced well over 2 billion pounds of cheese in 2012. With such lofty amounts of cheese production comes an overwhelming supply of brine, which would otherwise be sent to the waste plant. Cheese brine, by city requirements, is allowable as a treatment on roads if limited to an 8 gallon to one ton rock salt ratio. The benefit of using brine in solvents for treating roads works for both parties, the dairy plants and the city’s public works departments. The dairy plants save on hauling costs for those municipalities in need of brine for road treatments who are willing to travel to the plant and haul it away for them (saving an average of $20,000/year) while the municipalities save on the cost of rock salt with the addition of brine to their treatment solvent (saving an average of $40,000/year). In the long run, it would seem that while there are both pros and cons on the table, I would suspect that the benefits of using brine to treat winter roads would tremendously outweigh the shortcoming of its use. I could see this become a nationwide program over the next decade.
