Hi everyone welcome to Tasting History.
I'm your host Max Miller, and today we're gonna 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
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 just like today's pie crust? Maybe. But I'm gonna 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 Richards kitchens. So let's get started. First you'll need
two sticks about 226 grams of cold butter, 160 grams of icing sugar, 6 large
egg yolks, and now keep those 6 egg whites because those are gonna 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 of 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 1/2
inch and sift in the icing sugar. Now you gotta 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 they're cat running through it and
leaving little powdered sugar paw prints all the way up to the bed. I've never
done that, other people. Now once the sugar starts to become incorporated you
can kick it up too high and beat until smooth, then add the egg yolks and beat
on medium until somewhat incorporated. Now it's probably gonna 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 1/8 and 1/4 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 buttons been smashed go ahead and gather up the rest of your
ingredients. For the filling you will need 4 tablespoons of heavy cream, 150
grams of sugar, 2 tablespoons of dried bread crumbs, and 6 egg whites. I told you
they'd be back. Then either 3 tablespoons of dried elderflower, or 6 tablespoons of
fresh elder flower. This is actually the ingredient that gives the dish its name.
Sambocade comes from the Latin "sambucus" which means elderflower, and lastly the
most important ingredient in a cheese cake 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 like 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 Romans 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 crush should be done blind
baking. Take it out of the oven, remove the pie weights in 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 gonna 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 all 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 time. 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 is through the strainer put it into the stand mixer,
and whip on medium for about a minute. Then add the elderflower cream, and your
bread crumbs and whip until incorporated. With the mixers 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, nevermind. 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, hmm? 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 Neufchatel 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 the shape of a heart, the "couer and de Neufchatel". They'd give the cheese
to the soldiers as a covert way to show their love. Ain'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 Philadelphia Cream Cheese. 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 a 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 and 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
This is one of the first historic recipes I made and it was fantastic! They used all sorts of things to flavor cheesecakes then, from rosewater to nutmeg, but the Sambocade uses elderflower which gives it a wonderfully light taste.
Ohhh, this looks nice! Kinda hard to go out shopping right now, but this is definitely on my to-do list.
It looks pretty fragile though, I guess this isn't something that will keep very long?
How did it compare to, say, modern NY cheesecakes?
Brewster!