[third grade voice]
Webster’s defines pie as a dessert consisting of a filling in a pastry shell […].
[/third grade voice]
A cake is “a sweet baked food made from a dough or batter”. A cheesecake is not made from a dough or batter, it is a filling in a pastry shell. Ergo, it is not a cake. It is a pie. Why isn’t cheesecake called cheesepie?
As I recall, the word “cake” goes back at least as far as the 15th century. It initially described any round, flat confection.
Do you really think anyone went to the dictionary before naming it, on the off-chance someone a century later might split hairs about it?
As a general rule:
I like cake, I don’t like pie
And I like cheese(?)
So it must be a cake.
Works for me.
(exceptions, sheaperds pie, pizza pie and fruit cake, YMMV)
When come back, bring cheesecake.
Naaaw…just doesn’t sound the same.
cake ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kk)
n. 1. A sweet baked food made of flour, liquid, eggs, and other ingredients, such as raising agents and flavorings.
Because it is a CAKE!
The other ingredients being cheese etc.
It is not (usually) in a shell but sits on a base of cookie crumbs, no sides.
And it is called a cheese cake, because it is called a cheese cake, that’s what it is.
I believe that Alton Brown described cheesecake as a custard on his show.
Yes, but first he made the point that it was pie!
Real cheesecake doesn’t have a crust.
Headed to Great Debates in 3…2…1…
There isn’t any flour or raising agents in a cheesecake.
Why isn’t Boston cream pie a cake?
It’s because pie are round. Cake are square.
My guess would be because pies were originally savoury and the pastry was only a means to deliver the filling, so a cheesepie would be construed as some melted cheesy savoury delight.
Ricotta cheese pie is a pie even though it’s made very similarly to a cream cheese cheesecake.
“Pastry shell” for a cheesecake? An abomination. Cheesecake should either have no crust or, yum, a sweet buttery graham cracker crust. Possibly even an Oreo crust. But a pastry shell crust, ick.
Some “cakes” don’t have flour or raising agents either. Such as flourless chocolate cake. It’s still a cake though.
Look here: http://www.absoluterecipes.com/desserts-rec/new-york-cheesecake.html
It is a cake!
Referring to the dish that the OP is talking about as “cheesecake” goes back to at least the seventeenth century. A recipe for such a food, however, goes all the way back to the fourteenth century.
I seem to remember finding a recipe for something called a “chessecake” but the heck if I can find it now.
The use of the word “cake” to mean a sweet, bready food goes all the way back to Chaucer and probably before. “Pie” (pye, actually) was in use at the same time, though generally seems to refer to a meat pie rather than a sweet one.
As for why it’s called cheesecake, I’d imagine it would have something to do with a pie being savoury, rather than sweet, as don’t ask said. That and the fact that language has never played by dictionary rules.
It sure as hell isn’t a PIE.
A pastry shell (part of OP’s definition of pie) implies that there’s a top, like in most pies (‘shell’ is defined by M-W as a thin, usually spherical layer or surface enclosing a space or surrounding an object).
How many pies have the fruit right out there, with no top crust? None, as the OED calls this treat a custard (though the word has come to mean something else), but limits a custard to having a meat or fruit filling. Cheese is neither (duh).
So far, technically, it’s not a pie, or a custard. The OP doesn’t define cake, just pie (good going?). Here’s what the OED calls cake -
It’s certainly no pastry, as it’s not made of "flour moistened with water or milk and kneaded, dough; esp. (now only) with addition of butter, lard, suet, or the like."
If that’s not good enough, be nice and general and call it cheese confection. VERY APPEALING!@
Paraphrasing:
Alien Elvis: It’s a pie
AB: What kind of pie
AE: Custard Pie
How’s it made?
There are good reasons to think of cheesecakes as custard pies. You don’t mix them like a cake batter (i.e. cream butter and sugar, alternate adding the wet and dry ingredients). Also, you don’t bake it like a cake. Most cheesecake recipes call for baking it in a water bath, just like creme brulee or creme caramel or any other baked custard.