\u201cFirst look at the colour.\u00a0 The outer rim, slightly raised should be a golden tan.\u00a0 Then as we move to the center it fades to a soft uniform cream or ecru tone\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n
It felt like we were in an operating theatre\u2026 and the learned Professor was instructing a young student in the basics.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at the top surface.\u00a0 Perfectly even.\u00a0 Undisturbed by a single imperfection.\u00a0 Study it.\u00a0 Its secrets lie below\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
I met Abel when I was just a kid.\u00a0 He was a friend of my parents\u2019 and he and his wife Merle were occasional weekend guests.\u00a0 Even to a kid it was easy to see that Abel didn\u2019t talk.<\/em> He expounded<\/em>.\u00a0 But it wasn\u2019t in a bumptious or braggy way.\u00a0 The key was his voice.\u00a0 Rich, low and slightly scratchy\u2026 a tell tale of years of cigarettes and good whisky.\u00a0 You wanted to listen to that voice.\u00a0 Somewhat patrician; but at the same time endearing and enveloping.<\/p>\n I think I was all of 12 when he elaborated at length on the attributes of Single Malt Scotch Whisky.\u00a0 I listened mesmerized.\u00a0 Booze meant nothing to me (then<\/em>); but he made it sound as if\u00a0every other beverage was completely unnecessary.<\/p>\n \u201cNow a slow pivot.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at the exposed cut.\u00a0 It\u2019s important.\u00a0 This will be the first confirmation of the texture.\u00a0 Be alert.\u00a0 A pure smoothness here is a fault.\u00a0 We want to see tiny nooks and crannies in what appears a smooth surface to a less discerning eye.\u00a0 It\u2019s the nooks and crannies that are the repositories of flavour & it is an indication of the rich texture we seek.\u201d<\/p>\n I must have been 18 or 19 at this time, and this was not the first time I was going to eat a piece of cheesecake.\u00a0 But it was the first time when I had its qualities fully explained<\/em>.\u00a0 You know\u2026 I liked cheesecake before<\/em> Abel broke it down for me.\u00a0 He just took me to a different level of appreciation.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need a good fork. Silver, of course.\u00a0 Long tines.\u00a0 Thank God your Mother has good silverware.\u201d<\/p>\n He inspected the fork with the same respect that a Samurai shows a sword.\u00a0 He felt the fork\u2019s heft, its balance and then brought his plate closer and had me do the same.\u00a0 It was mid-afternoon and we were the only ones sitting in our breakfast room.\u00a0 Mommie Soph had put a slice before each of us, and then retired to attend to other matters.<\/p>\n \u201cUsing the side of your fork cut directly down a half inch off the apex of the slice\u2026 don\u2019t hurry here\u2026 look for a firmness & a small amount of resistance.\u00a0 That is our second indication of its texture.\u00a0 If the fork cuts thru too quickly it will mean a softer consistency and the texture will be lacking.\u201d<\/p>\n I ask my first impertinent question, \u201cShould we be having this with a glass of milk or something?\u201d<\/p>\n He paused from his procedure and looked at me thru his tinted glasses that he always wore, day or night\u2026 \u201cI was going to address that later; but since you ask.\u00a0 Tea.\u00a0 A cup of tea would be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued.\u00a0 \u201cYou see these tiny crumbs that my cut has produced?\u00a0 This is the third indication that we have good texture.\u00a0 And now comes the best part\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n He carefully placed a forkful of cheesecake into his mouth and slowly chewed, pausing to focus his senses… he was on the verge of saying something; but raised a finger… a sign that I would have to wait a moment longer while he considered the results of the tasting.\u00a0 He nodded his head.\u00a0 What I took to be an endorsement of the quality.<\/p>\n He smiled.<\/p>\n “Yes.\u00a0 I would say that was good.\u00a0 Very, very good.\u00a0 As I expected, the texture is near perfect.\u00a0 Rich, moist with a modest dryness that causes it to cling lightly to the roof of the mouth… but without the sensation that a finger is needed to scrape off a remaining\u00a0morsel the way you would with peanut butter.\u00a0\u00a0Perfect density.\u00a0 Not so dense as to feel like a piece of fudge, but properly rich with hidden molecules of air that resonate the flavour.”<\/p>\n Having evaluated the texture, he cut himself another piece, somewhat bigger than the first… “now it’s time to examine the taste…<\/em>“<\/p>\n This was chewed even more slowly… I couldn’t tell if his eyes were closed behind his tinted lenses; but I\u00a0suspected that they were.\u00a0 I instinctively knew that when it comes to taste; vision acts as an anchor… it stops the movement of our senses.<\/p>\n “Oh my… cheesy, vanilla, a hint of lemon peel.\u00a0 Classically done.\u00a0 Simple. Delicious.\u00a0 I would say that your Mother has picked this up at Juniors, maybe Lindy’s\u00a0or The Eclair in Grand Central.”<\/p>\n He has another forkful.\u00a0 “Eclair… definitely it’s Eclair’s cheesecake.”<\/p>\n Pretty impressive.\u00a0 I am thinking that he had to see the box from The Eclair sitting on the kitchen counter. 18 year olds are always suspicious… it’s our nature.<\/p>\n I ask impertinent question number 2.\u00a0 “I bet this would be great with strawberries.\u00a0 Mr. Greenburg, do you like strawberry cheesecake?”<\/p>\n He put his fork down.\u00a0 You would have thought that I had asked him if cheesecake would be good topped with chicken gizzards.\u00a0 He took off his glasses, breathed a layer of fog on each lense, took out his handkerchief and polished his lenses.\u00a0 Satisfied that they were clean.\u00a0\u00a0He took another small portion of cheesecake.<\/p>\n “That would be gilding a lilly<\/em>.”\u00a0 He savoured a mouthful.\u00a0 “Jimmy, that\u00a0would be\u00a0a distraction<\/em> from the essence of the cheescake… it obscures both the flavour and <\/em>the texture.\u00a0It would be like putting a hat on the Mona Lisa.<\/em>“<\/p>\n Well… I’m not sure what that had to do with eating cheesecake.\u00a0 But even I<\/em> could see that if Da Vinci had wanted Mona Lisa to be wearing a hat, he would have painted her wearing one.<\/p>\n Try as I might, there was no way that I was going to eat my <\/em>slice of cheesecake with the patient care that Abel employed.\u00a0 After giving thought to the very intitial taste and examination…\u00a0I scarfed <\/em>down the rest, hopeful that if I ate it quickly I would have time and room for an additional slice before “class let out”.\u00a0 When you’re 18 or 19 you can do these things.<\/p>\n I was set to ask him another impertinent question.\u00a0 He must of sensed it coming… or he was a mind reader.\u00a0<\/p>\n “You’re still thinking about other\u00a0styles of cheesecake?\u00a0 Well… let’s make this easy.\u00a0 This <\/em>is the ‘Real McCoy’.\u00a0 Everything else is a ‘pretender’.\u00a0 This is New York Cheesecake… and its single most important ingredient is Philadelphia brand cream cheese.\u00a0 Italian Cheesecake is also quite good… it uses riocotta cheese which gives it a ‘drier’ finish and texture.\u00a0 And I’ve had some excellent Italian Cheesecake.\u00a0 But it’s just not the same.\u00a0 New York Cheesecake, plain and unadorned reigns supreme.”<\/p>\n He cleans the crumbs from his plate collecting them in the tines of the fork and presses them together before dispatching them in a quick bite.<\/p>\n “My, that was good.\u00a0 Jimmy, it’s all about the texture…”<\/p>\n It was a lucky day.\u00a0 I was able to enjoy a second slice before we left the table.\u00a0 And also a third for a pre-bedtime snack.\u00a0 And I learned the hidden secret of Cheesecake… it’s in the texture…<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cFirst look at the colour.\u00a0 The outer rim, slightly raised should be a golden tan.\u00a0 Then as we move to the center it fades to a soft uniform cream or ecru tone\u2026\u201d It felt like we were in an operating … Continue reading