Depending on how you define a cheesecake, it is possibly one of the oldest desserts: the Greeks made a cheesecake-like dessert with honey, cheese and flour more than 2,500 years ago. The Romans were introduced to the sweet treat by the Greeks who, in turn, made it their own.

One of the oldest documented recipes for the dessert dates back to 160 BCE and can be found in De Agri Cultura [On Agriculture] by Cato the Elder, a Roman senator and historian. In his famous treatise on Roman agriculture, the author discusses a recipe for baking placenta, a cake made with dough layered with cheese, honey and bay leaves.

A closer recipe to the cheesecake as we know it — with a separately baked base and creamy filling — can be found in Forme of Cury, a cookbook published in 1309 in England. Around the 18th century, the yeast used in cheesecake was swapped out for eggs. Cream cheese, invented in the US in 1872, was also added to the recipe giving us the creamy, cake-like iteration we are familiar........

© Dawn (Magazines)