This is what happens when conversation drifts from whether a taco is a sandwich.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:18 AM on February 24 [3 favorites]

Why do we have to label it? You do you, cheesecake.
posted by dowcrag at 9:23 AM on February 24 [4 favorites]

we were at a Japanese restaurant the other night. They sent my kid a slice of cheesecake for his birthday that had been coated in sugar on all exposed sides, then bruleed with a torch. It was magnificent. We've since tried this at home. Also great. I do not know why cheesecake would not be served this way by default, it's so good.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:40 AM on February 24 [7 favorites]

It's a gateau au fromage silly.
posted by Czjewel at 9:40 AM on February 24

Why does English have two different words for sweet big bakes anyway? With divisions like that it's usually Norman/Anglosaxon derived but neither of them sound French. (It's all ciasto in Polish, which means cake and pie and dough in general, and I remain eternally confused.)
posted by I claim sanctuary at 10:00 AM on February 24 [2 favorites]

Stay calm and bake on. Don’t be a cheesecake flake.
posted by waving at 10:01 AM on February 24

Baked cheesecake is clearly a custard. No-bake cheesecake is harder to pin down.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:12 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Cakes are leavened. Pies aren't. Cheesecake is mostly a cheese pie/tart properly, but the name exists to bedevil those that demand consistency.
posted by bonehead at 10:44 AM on February 24

It’s cake shaped and this where the similarities end.
posted by waving at 10:52 AM on February 24

Cheesecake is its own substance. Is yellowcake a delicious baked confection of flour and leavening? No! Such is cheesecake.
posted by fikri at 11:06 AM on February 24

Any kind of taxonomy, if it is used broadly and over enough time, will inevitably generate a platypus. Cheesecakes are the platypi of dessert.
posted by graymouser at 11:11 AM on February 24

Rory...I love making plain vanilla baked cheesecake and always add a layer of sour cream on top. I discovered these in Jewish bakeries when I lived in NYC in the 1980s.
posted by Czjewel at 12:22 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Cheesecake is a type of dessert pizza.
posted by mbrubeck at 12:49 PM on February 24

How many holes are in a cheesecake . . . topologically?
posted by aspersioncast at 4:18 PM on February 24

More importantly, is a plate of beans a cheesecake?
posted by aspersioncast at 4:18 PM on February 24

« Older "I always say that 'love is a song.'"   |   7 Years of Doug Ford Newer »