Cheesecake: The Dessert Of The Gods And Olympians

This article is about: cheesecake recipes

Today, cheesecake is known as being an excellent dessert, for many occasions. It has many favorable aspects: it is easy to make, filling, and can be served many ways.

There are many cheesecakes to choose from today. It ranges from very simple to very complicated cheesecakes. This list includes the new york cheesecake, chocolate cheesecake, fruit cheesecake, and so on.

There are also more creative, exciting cheesecakes like the tiramisu cheesecake, cinnamon swirl, turtle, and one of my favorites, white chocolate mocha cheesecakes.

What many people don’t know is that this dessert was just as popular at the time it was originally created, even been offered to appease the gods.

With the knowledge and discoveries we’ve made today, the history of the cheesecake can be traced back 2000 years.

Although we don’t have the name the Greeks used for this dessert, we do know it was served to Olympians in the original Olympic games of 776BC held on the Isle of Delos.

Athletes, needing to replenish their energy, would consume these small sized cheesecakes.

When the Romans conquered ancient Greece, aspects of the culture, such as food, were also conquered. The Roman took the dessert, changed the name to placenta (also called Libum), and elevated the dessert to the level of “food for the gods.”

Our earliest recipe we have of the placenta dessert was written by a man named Marcus Porcius Cato. He was a popular politician.

His recipes written so that anyone could follow was:

Libum to be made as follows: 2 pounds cheese well crushed in a mortar; when it is well crushed, add in 1 pound bread-wheat flour or, if you want it to be lighter, just 1/2 a pound, to be mixed with the cheese.

Add one egg and mix all together well. Make a loaf of this, with the leaves under it, and cook slowly in a hot fire under a brick.

Romans often offered food to household and temple gods.

There were thousands of gods. Some of the bigger ones were Jupiter, Janus, Pomona, Consus, Ops, and Saturn. Each god had their individual roles.

The Romans felt their success relied solely on the gods. Even the god of gods Jupiter, the ruler of the gods, was honored for the aid his rains might give to the farms and vineyards.

The cheesecake that we eat today, was no ordinary food for the Romans, it was very important to the them, who felt that with the use of this dessert they could appease their gods into helping them be more successful.