Cheesecakes
There is a curious mistake going about -that the incomparable cheesecakes of Benreddin Hassan, which only he and his mother could make, were strewn with pepper. Sir Walter Scott, among others, makes this mistake in the "Heart of Midlothian." It is an error of precisely the same kind as one committed in regard to himself in the great encyclopædia of Larousse, where it is stated that as a boy he could not repeat his lessons unless his fingers were twirling one of the buttons of his waistcoat. The cheesecakes were strewn with grains of pomegranate and sugar; and Benreddin was beaten for a pretended fault-that he ought to have put pepper upon them, and did not.
Cheesecakes are now made with almost any kind of custard; but the following is the old orthodox method :- Take half a pound of dry curd, six ounces of sugar, six yolks of eggs, two ounces of butter, some nutmeg, salt, and the zest of two lemons. Pound all into a soft paste; distribute it into tartlet pans which have been lined with puff-paste; put citron-peel, currants, or sultanas on the top of each; and bake them in a moderate oven.