Sweets and desserts
New York cheesecake
A dense, tall cheesecake of cream cheese, eggs and sugar on a biscuit crust, baked slowly and served cold.
New York cheesecake is a dense, smooth, rich cake made from cream cheese with eggs, sugar and often sour cream or extra yolks, baked on a crust of crushed biscuits or pastry. It is tall, pale and slightly tangy, and is eaten plain or with fruit. It became famous through the delis and diners of New York in the twentieth century.
What goes in
- Cream cheese943%, Softened, full-fat.
- Sugar314%, Sweetens.
- Eggs314%, Set the cake.
- Sour cream or heavy cream210%, Tang and smoothness.
- Biscuit crust314%, Crushed crackers and butter.
- Vanilla and lemon15%, Flavour.
Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.
Made step by step
Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.
Step 1: Bake Press buttered biscuit crumbs into a springform tin and bake briefly. Step 2: Knead Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth, without adding much air. Step 3: Knead Beat in eggs one at a time, then the sour cream and flavourings. Step 4: Bake Pour over the crust and bake slowly until set at the edges and just wobbly in the middle. Step 5: Rest Cool slowly in the oven with the door ajar. Step 6: Serve Chill overnight and slice with a hot knife. Finished New York cheesecake, by share.
Cream cheese
Cheesecakes made from fresh curd cheese are old in Europe, and Jewish immigrants brought curd cheesecakes to New York. The American version changed with cream cheese, which was first produced commercially in New York State in the 1870s. Cream cheese is richer and smoother than curd cheese, and by the 1930s the dense New York style had become a symbol of the city's diners.
Baking
The cake is baked slowly at a moderate or low heat, sometimes in a water bath, so it sets without cracking. It is then cooled gradually and chilled, often overnight. Some bakers start with a blast of high heat to brown the top. The result should be firm enough to slice cleanly, with a creamy, fine texture rather than an airy one.
Where it is used
The cheeses in it
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Sources and further reading
Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Cream cheese: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0, source