Käsekuchen

The earliest known written recipe for Käsekuchen under this name dates back to 1598: it features in Anna Wecker's cookbook, published in Nuremberg, with fromage blanc, cream, eggs, butter and cinnamon as ingredients. A century later, the Vollständige Nürnbergische Kochbuch (‘complete book of Nuremberg cookery’) already offered several variations of it, and in the 19th century the cake spread as far as the Saar, the Rhineland, the Eifel and the Sudetes. In Alsace, where dairy production is plentiful and fromage blanc an everyday staple, the tart quickly came into its own under the name Käsekuchen — literally ‘cheese cake’.

Cheesecake is not unique to Germany: the Viandier de Taillevent already described a version of it, the ‘tartre Bourbonnaise’, as early as the 14th century in France, and the tourteau fromager du Poitou belongs to the same family. Yet it was in its German form and under its German name that the recipe took lasting root in Alsace, at the crossroads of the French and Germanic influences that characterise the region. Its distinctive lightness — due to the stiffly beaten egg whites folded into the filling — sets it apart from the denser American cheesecake.

Found in every Alsatian bakery and patisserie, Käsekuchen remains the Sunday dessert par excellence. Every household, every pastry chef has their own version: with or without raisins, with or without lemon zest, firmer or more soufflé-like depending on the proportion of starch and the baking time.