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Orange Cheesecakes
810. Blanch half a pound of almonds, beat them very fine with orange-water, and mix with half a pound of fine sugar beaten and sifted, a pound of butter that has been melted carefully without oiling, and which must be nearly cold before it is used; then beat the yolks of ten and whites of four eggs; pound two candied oranges, and a fresh one with the bitterness boiled out, in a mortar till as tender as marmalade, without any lumps; and beat the whole together and put into patty-pans, lined with puff-paste.
Another. Boil the peel of two Seville oranges in water till they are tender and the bitterness is gone, pound them in a mortar. Then add a quarter of a pound of sponge biscuits grated, a quarter of a pound of butter; pound again and mix well with eight eggs, half the whites, and one pint of cream scalded. Sweeten to your taste.
Two versions of a Georgian-style baked orange tartlet, printed together. Despite the name there is no cheese in either: an eighteenth-century "cheesecake" is any rich egg-and-butter filling baked in pastry.
- The hinge: bitternessSeville and candied orange peel must be boiled until genuinely tender and mild before pounding (changing the water once or twice helps). Under-blanched peel will make the whole filling acrid, and no amount of sugar will hide it.
- Orange-waterThis is orange flower water, sold with baking extracts, not orange juice. It is used here only as the liquid for grinding the almonds smooth, and a tablespoon or two is plenty; add it cautiously and taste.
- AlmondsBlanched sweet almonds. Pounding half a pound with a little liquid in a food processor gets you closer to the intended paste than dry ground almonds, which stay grainy.
- Butter "without oiling"Melt gently so it does not separate, then let it cool to barely warm before it meets the eggs. Hot butter will scramble the yolks and the filling will curdle in the oven.
- Patty-pans and pastryTartlet or muffin tins lined with puff pastry. Blind-bake the shells briefly so the base sets, then fill no more than three-quarters full; the egg filling rises a little and then sinks.
- OvenNo temperature is given. Start at 400F to set the puff pastry, then drop to 325F and bake until the filling is just set with a slight wobble at the centre, roughly 20 to 25 minutes for small tins.
- Sponge biscuitsIn the second version these are dry sponge fingers of the savoiardi or ladyfinger type, grated to fine crumbs. They act as the thickener in place of the almonds.
- Eggs and cream in the second versionScald the pint of cream, then temper it into the eggs slowly rather than tipping it in. "Eight eggs, half the whites" means eight yolks with four whites.
- YieldThe first mixture is very large by modern standards: a pound of butter, half a pound each of almonds and sugar, and ten yolks will fill a great many small tartlets. Halving or quartering it is sensible.
"Cheesecake" in British cookery long outlived the cheese it once contained: by the eighteenth century the word covered many sweet fillings baked in a pastry case, and curd, lemon, almond and orange cheesecakes of the period sit side by side in the same chapters of receipt books. The orange versions depend on the bitter Seville orange, imported in winter, whose thick peel candied and pounded well, and the laborious business of boiling out the bitterness is a step repeated in marmalade receipts of the same era. Recipes broadly similar to the first of these two appear in printed receipt books from the middle of the eighteenth century onward; the second, "Another", swaps pounded almonds for grated sponge biscuit and cream.