Baking A Medieval Cheesecake - The History of the Sambocade

Hi everyone, welcome to Tasting History. I'm your host Max Miller, and today we're going to be making one of my favorite desserts, a cheesecake, but not just any cheesecake because just like me 14th century kings also had great taste, so we're going to be making a 14th century cheesecake called a Sambocade, this time on Tasting History. Now the recipe we're using today comes from the kitchens of King Richard II around 1390, and recipe writers at this time were pretty vague about things so the recipe just says make a crust. Not too helpful. What kind of crust did they want? Did they want a hot water crust? Probably not. Did they want like a fair flour crust which is like a today's pie crust? Maybe, but I'm going to be taking maybe a little bit of liberty here and use a tart crust. It's delicious, it's super easy to make, and most importantly all of the ingredients in the tart crust would have been available in Richard's kitchens. So let's get started. First you'll need two sticks about 226 grams of cold butter, 160 grams of icing sugar, six large egg yolks, and now keep those six egg whites because those are going to make an appearance later, 450 grams of plain flour, and just a pinch of salt. Now you don't need to write anything down, all the ingredients are in the description down below as well as the full recipe, both the original recipe and the translation I'm using today. Now you can actually use this tart crust for a modern day recipe because it's so delicious, but at this point I would put in maybe a little bit of vanilla, or lemon zest, or something to kind of give it some flavor. Now I'm not going to use anything extra because the cheesecake that we're making today has so much flavor, but it's just not necessary. Now once you have your ingredients go ahead and cut the butter into pieces, about a half inch, and sift in the icing sugar. Now you've got to sift it in because you'll get clumps otherwise, and we don't want clumps. Now go ahead and beat the sugar and the butter together, but start the mixer on low. Now I've never done this of course, but I have heard of people starting it on high and powdered sugar going absolutely everywhere, and then their cat running through it, and leaving little powdered sugar popcorns all the way up to the bed. I've never done that. Now once the sugar does start to become incorporated you can kick it up to high, and beat until smooth. Then add the egg yolks, and beat on medium until somewhat incorporated. Now it's probably going to look a little curdled, but that's actually okay. It'll go away later on. Also if you are going to be adding any flavor like vanilla, now is the time. Probably a teaspoon, that'd be good. Once the egg is incorporated add in the pinch of salt, and your flour, and beat on the lowest setting for about 20 seconds. You want it to just start to come together as like a crumbly mixture. You don't want it to form a ball. Then you take a piece of parchment and lay it out onto your workspace. Dump the dough onto it, divide the dough into two piles, set one aside, and spread the remaining pile into kind of an even layered circle. Then place another sheet of parchment over that, and get rolling. Now like I said this tart dough is so easy to work with, that's why I love it. You can just roll it out, it's so forgiving, it never sticks, you don't have to get it into a perfect circle, and later on if it does kind of crumble away or anything while you're putting it into the dish, you can just patch it up on the sides. It's the best. I just love it. Now once you roll it to the thickness that you want, between an eighth and a quarter of an inch, pop it in the fridge, and leave it there for about 20 minutes. Now while the dough chills, preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, and go ahead and smash that like button. Now that's actually the most important part of the recipe, because to paraphrase Pink Floyd, how can you have any cheesecake if you don't smash that like button? Now once the button's been smashed, go ahead and gather up the rest of your ingredients. For the filling you will need four tablespoons of heavy cream, 150 grams of sugar, two tablespoons of dried bread crumbs, and six egg whites. I told you they'd be back. Then either three tablespoons of dried elderflower, or six tablespoons of fresh elderflower. This is actually the ingredient that gives the dish its name. Sambocade comes from the Latin sambucas, which means elderflower. And lastly the most important ingredient in a cheesecake, the cheese. You'll need 450 grams of either farmer's cheese, or ricotta cheese, or if you want to really impress people go ahead and make your own fresh cheese. It's actually really easy. Here's a link to the video where I walk you through it, and I'll put it down in the description as well. Now once everything is gathered, assuming it's been 20 minutes, you can go ahead and pull the dough out of the fridge. Now if it hasn't been 20 minutes wait around, or you can check to see if the parchment sticks. If it sticks keep it in there. If it doesn't stick then it's good to go. Now I'm using an 8-inch springform pan for this, a cheesecake tin. Now you can use a 9-inch which is more common, but the cheesecake won't be quite as thick. You can also just use a regular pie pan. Anything works, the recipe isn't specific, and frankly the springform pan wouldn't have even existed back then, but it makes it look so nice. So go ahead and line your tin with the tart dough. Then you can put a little design on the top if you want, and then line it with aluminum foil. Add in some pie weights, and blind bake the crust at 425 Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. Now you probably think nothing of the fact that this cheesecake has a crust, but you'd be pretty flabbergasted if you were an ancient Greek athlete. Stick with me here. The first cheesecake that we know of came from ancient Greece. It was probably a savory version around 2000 BC made on the Isle of Samos. It was the traditional cake for ancient Greek weddings, and it was probably served to athletes at the first Olympic Games in 776 BC. Makes me wonder if Usain Bolt goes to the cheesecake factory to load up on carbs before he competes. I'm gonna say yes. These ancient Greek cheesecakes would have bared no resemblance to the modern New York style cheesecake. To get a little closer to our modern dessert we have to look to the recipes of Roman senator and historian Cato the Elder. In his treatise De Agricultura he had three cheesecake recipes including the first recipe known to have a crust. Now unfortunately for Cato he didn't hire a very good marketing team and so he named his crusted cheesecake placenta, and that is why you don't see it on a lot of menus today. But that was probably also the recipe that some plucky young Roman legion took up to Britannia where in the 14th century a genius of unknown name added sugar. Sweet, sweet white gold, and that is the Sambocade. So by now the crust should be done blind baking. Take it out of the oven, remove the pie weights and the aluminum foil, and check the bottom. If it still looks a little raw pop it back in without the pie weights for another two or three minutes. Otherwise you're going to have a soggy bottom, and Mary Berry does not like a soggy bottom. Once you are happy with your crust go ahead and turn the oven down to 375 degrees Fahrenheit because that's what we're going to bake our cheesecake at. Now while the crust cools it's time to get started on your filling. Combine the elderflower into the cream, and let it soak for about 10 minutes, but don't relax because while the elderflower soaks you get to strain cheese, and this takes... Take a strainer and put the cheese in just a bit at a time, and press it through with the back of a spoon. It should come out the other side with the consistency of cream cheese. Once the cheese gets through the strainer put it into the stand mixer, and whip on medium for about a minute. Then add the elderflower cream in your bread crumbs, and whip until incorporated. With the mixer still running on medium slowly add the sugar, then whip until smooth. Now it's time for a beating of the egg whites. Now this is a very important step because it is the only leavening agent that is going to be in your cake, the air in the egg whites. So if you don't get enough air in there, they don't get fluffy enough, then the cake is going to be short, and dense, and still delicious but you know a little stodgy. So beat the egg whites past the frothy stage until they form nice stiff white peaks. Then working quickly but gently fold them into the cheese mixture until no streaks of white are left. You want to keep as much air in there as possible so don't over mix it. Then pour the mixture into the crust, and pop it in the oven at 375 for 50 minutes, or until there's just a slight wobble in the center. I would start checking it at about 45 minutes because ovens vary. It actually took my oven to 55 minutes so you know it's not a science. Wait it is. Never mind. Now while the cheesecake is in the oven you should have plenty of time to ponder the question, how did this cheesecake become that cheesecake? Now the Sambocade has a crust, it has sugar so it's a dessert, but it's still not the same as a New York style cheesecake, and that is because of the cheese. Around the time that King Richard was satisfying his sweet tooth with Sambocade, his soldiers were off in France fighting to reclaim the lands lost by King John. That was the bad guy from Robin Hood. Now the lovely ladies of Neufchâtel-en-Bray in the north of France realized that although these English invaders were pillaging their towns, they were also kind of cute while they did it. Now they couldn't be overt in their affection of course, so they took cheese and molded it into Then they'd give the cheese to the soldiers as a covert way to show their love. Isn't that romantic? The cheese became popular back in England, and stayed popular until it made its way to America where in 1872 William Lawrence tried his hand at making it himself, but whether on purpose or by accident we don't know, but he added too much cream and dubbed his new concoction Then in 1929 an immigrant named Arnold Rubin, who already had a sandwich named after him, used this Philadelphia cream cheese to make a cheesecake, and that dessert was the first Lindy's New York style cheesecake, but that's not what we're making. We're making Sambocade, so let's get back to it. So go ahead and open the oven, and if the cheesecake looks baked along the top and has just a slight wobble to it, that means it's done. Now it should have puffed up quite a bit, but it's going to deflate some. To diminish the deflation you want to leave it in the oven. Turn the oven off and leave the door open just a crack while it slowly cools down. Quick tip, this actually also works for custard pies like a pumpkin pie. Just leave the door open and let it slowly cool down and you won't get that unsightly crack along the top. After about 15 minutes take it out of the oven and let it finish cooling to room temperature. Then you can either serve it plain or garnish it with some honey, or as I did some fresh berries. So that is the 14th century Sambocade. Now as I said all of the ingredients are listed down below along with the recipe, as well as links to some of the harder to find ingredients, elderflower in this case. Now I'm sure you already have, but if you haven't hit that like button, leave me a comment below, and go ahead and subscribe so you can join me next time on Tasting History.