One may see the popularity of cheesecakes in India nowadays in cafes and even little cake businesses, making it hard to imagine. However, it is still evident that there is an attraction for pastries, such as icing-covered cupcakes, which are meticulously displayed in glass cases along with other delicacies like sandwiches, potato puffs, and many more, but it is still difficult to locate a decent cheesecake.

The notion of adding cheese to cake may cause some to raise their eyebrows, as they may find it strange that the cheese is incorporated into the cake! Because Indians generally believe that cheese is always salty, that processed cheese is a sandwich accompaniment, and so on? Or, if one’s imagination is at its dimmest, one could also think that a cheesecake is prepared with stinky Gorgonzola cheese, or the elastic white mozzarella cheese on the pizzas. We seldom think of other types of cheese as cheese, though, such as cream cheese, cottage cheese, or our own paneer.

According to British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, who has done a great deal of work on the origin and history of dishes and has researched “The Forme of Cury,” Britain’s oldest cookbook, which is a compilation of medieval English recipes from the 14th century written by the chief master cooks of King Richard II, the dish known as “Sambocade” was the first cheesecake ever created. Made from drained goat cheese, sweetened with sugar, and flavored with elderflower, sambocade was baked in a pie crust.

There are mostly two varieties of cheesecakes, according to Heston Blumenthal: baked and unbaked. Cream cheese, sugar, flavorings, cream, and occasionally eggs are the main ingredients of a baked cheesecake, which is cooked until it’s still wobbly in the middle and sometimes finished with frosting. The unbaked cheesecake, the second version, is a little more fragile but has a fresher flavor. Generally, gelatin is the primary factor, and it makes it lighter and fluffier to hold.

If a baked cheesecake is overbaked, the texture and smoothness are lost, and it turns into a dry, lumpy mass. However, nowadays, there are chefs who are able to create a passable baked cheesecake, but the custard has to be cooked at the correct temperature and for the proper amount of time. Although many home chefs also create delicious refrigerated cheesecakes without gelatin, pastry stores sometimes produce cheesecakes that are rather unsatisfying since they use too much gelatin in order to keep the cheesecake from melting and lasting longer.

The various varieties of cheesecake and their attributes:
A baked cheesecake, somewhat thick and dense since it’s made with cream cheese, eggs, and heavy or sour cream: New York cheesecake.

Chicago Cheesecake: it can be prepared with cream cheese in either a baked or unbaked form, however the unbaked form is more popular. It has a somewhat firm outside but a softer interior.

Italian Cheesecake: Prepared with ricotta, mascarpone, and other genuine cheeses, not cream cheese. It may be a little dry.

Japanese Cheesecake: Known as soufflé cheesecake in Japan. The Japanese prefer their desserts to be light and fluffy, and their pancakes are also extremely light and airy.

Furthermore, India boasts its own Cheese Cakes.
India too has its own version of cheesecake, which is one fascinating aspect of the dessert. Odisha, an Indian state on the eastern coast, is often overlooked or, one might say, underpopularized in comparison to other Indian states. Since time immemorial, cheese has been used in India by ‘mithaiwallas’ or shopkeepers who produce a variety of sweets and snacks. In the 12th century, a confectioner named Sudarshana Sahoo in the Odisha town of Nayagarh created the experimental meal known as “chena poda. ” Sudarshana Sahoo put powdered cardamom and some ‘gur’ or jaggery on the leftover chena or cottage cheese, which is quite similar to ricotta, and set it on the dying embers of the fire of his working place before heading home for the day. To his amazement, the following morning he discovered a perfectly baked, fragrant, and delicious chena, which led to the creation of a new delicacy known as “chena ponda. ” Chena ponda is now a significant part of the sacred offering given to the Jagarnath Puri Temple throughout Odisha. Despite the numerous claims that the ancient Greeks invented cheesecake, India’s own version of it is the Odisha’s chena ponda.

The production of curd through the process of fermentation by adding curd culture was later developed into an art by the nomads who domesticated cows for milk, giving India a long history with ‘chena’ (curd). With time, talents improved, and whey-separated curds such as ‘chena’ and ‘paneer’ (cottage cheese) were introduced. These were created by purposefully adding food acids like fermented curd whey or lemon juice to hot milk and then further straining the curds from the whey. The curds that were strained out of the whey in this process were utilized in the preparation of various meals since they were a good source of protein, and over time, this chena, which was made in this way, became used for cooking a variety of foods.

Because of the diversity of meals produced from it, the Eastern Indian region—especially Odisha and West Bengal—can rightly be referred to as the chena capital of India. In these areas, chena is a crucial component of many sweets in addition to being a vegetarian choice for meals. Some instances include:

The chhena gaja is still well-liked in the state of Odisha. It’s a fried nugget created from chena and dipped in syrup.

An Odisha delicacy known as Khira Sagara, which actually means “ocean of milk,” consists of tiny balls of chena the size of marbles that are cooked in thick, sweet, and flavored milk. The same sweet is known as Rasmalai in Bengal.

Rasabali: A well-known chena doughnut in Odisha that is fried and covered with milk and sugar syrup.