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In Greece and Italy: Chrysippus

Athenæus, desiring to enlighten posterity on the subject of cheesecakes, has given us a few recipes which are interesting if not attractive. Chrysippus, "that clever writer on confectionery," he informs us, makes a cheesecake called phthosis thus : - : "Take some cheese and pound it, then put it into a brazen sieve and strain it; then put in honey and a hemina 1 of flour made from spring wheat, and beat the whole together into one mass." Chrysippus does not leave us forlornly contemplating one cheesecake, however; he presents us with knowledge to make also the tyrocoscinum, which is done thus : - 1 About half a pint. "Pound some cheese carefully, and put it into a vessel; then place above it a brazen sieve and strain the cheese through it. And when you are going to serve it up, then put in above it a sufficient quantity of honey."

Yet other cheesecakes, he tells us, are made thus : - "Put some honey into some milk, pound them, and put them into a vessel, and let them coagulate; then, if you have some little sieves at hand, put what is in the vessel into them, and let the whey run off; and when it appears to you to have coagulated thoroughly, then take up the vessel in which it is, and transfer it to a silver dish, and the coat, or crust, will be uppermost." "And also," says he, "in Crete they make a kind of cheesecake which they call gastris. And it is made thus : Take some Thasian and Pontic nuts and some almonds, and also a poppy. Roast this last with great care, and then take the seed and pound it in a clean mortar ; then, adding the fruits which I have mentioned above, beat them up with boiled honey, putting in plenty of pepper, and make the whole into a soft mass (but it will be a black color because of the poppy); flatten it and make it into a square shape; then, having pounded some white sesame, soften that too with boiled honey, and draw it out into two cakes, placing one beneath and the other above, so as to have the black surface in the middle, and make it into a neat shape."

One cannot help wondering whether this medicated honey-cake was not the same given to departing spirits to quiet Cerberus, and whether, when partaken of by living epicures it was most potent in producing nightmare or the gorgeous dreams of the opium-eater. Whatever its effect, it certainly must have been extraordinary.

The following is the opinion upon cheesecakes and upon honey held by Archestratus, the inventor of made dishes, as he called himself.