Why is cheesecake called a cake when it’s clearly a pie?
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Cheesecake has been called that since at least the 15th century, and back then it was more like a cake, with yeast instead of eggs in the mixture. It didn’t get its modern form until the 19th century, and while the recipe may have changed, the old name stuck.
Why do we bake cookies and cook bacon?
While cake specifically refers to baked doughs, the term has been extended to include any sort of rounded *thing* (e.g. urinal cake. Unsavory example, but first that came to mind). And a cheesecake is a round, flat thing, often served with dessert, so the description as a cake is sound.
Pie’s typically have a pastry crust whereas cheesecakes have a cookie or graham cracker crust.
Why is it clearly a pie? It doesn’t have baked crusts like pies…
So much in this thread about type of crust, baked or not. **Cheesecakes don’t always have a crust.**
You ever seen a crustless apple pie?
Alton Brown covered part of this on Good Eats. Cheesecake is a custard pie, as its structure comes from egg and dairy proteins, and typically there is a crumb crust on bottom. As such, one can’t expect a cheesecake to behave like a cake during the baking process. He didn’t, however, cover the linguistics.
Boston cream pie, anyone?
Ever had Japanese cheese cake? It’s much more cake like. Fluffy and bready.
You’re assuming that all cheesecakes are made in a pie shell when many are made in spring pans.
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