Is Cheesecake a Pie?

If you follow me twitter account you most likely saw the discussion regarding Cheesecake being consumed in honor of #NationalPieDay. That started the argument about whether cheesecake is a pie or a cake. Later on in the afternoon Bubba asked about Boston Cream Pie and is it a pie or just another imposter? 

Dwwindsor, who is the reason for the Cheesecake discussion, researched it and submitted a report, which was both amusing and enlightening. Read it in its entirety and you may find your answer, but it might also bring up more questions. Once you are finished, leave us your interpretation on if Cheesecake is a pie or a cake, along with your opinion on boston cream pie. 

From the offices of Dwwindsor: Our Resident Scholar and Dictionary Reader

Seeing the twitter storm this provoked I decided to do some research.  I started with my 1918 edition of the Webster New International Dictionary.  I looked up the definition of pie:

 

Pie(noun, from Middle English, origin uncertain) 1. a An article of food consisting of a pastry crust with any various kinds of filling in or under it.  b Also a layer cake spread with jam or cream…

 

That indicates that cheesecake might be a pie but I was interested in the precise definition of pastry as that might turn out to be a disqualifier.  First, though, a short discursion.  Middle English, as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary:

 

“The chronological boundaries of the Middle English period are not easy to define, and scholarly opinions vary. The dates that OED3 has settled on are 1150-1500. (Before 1150 being the Old English period, and after 1500 being the early modern English period.) In terms of ‘external’ history, Middle English is framed at its beginning by the after-effects of the Norman Conquest of 1066, and at its end by the arrival in Britain of printing (in 1476) and by the important social and cultural impacts of the English Reformation (from the 1530s onwards) and of the ideas of the continental Renaissance.”  (Philip Durkin, http://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/english-in-time/middle-english-an-overview/)

 

Returning to my Webster’s here is the entry for pastry:

 

An article of food made of paste or having a crust made of paste.

 

Now that really cleared things up for me since of course pastry would be made of paste. Paste?  Being a product of my times and not 1918 paste makes me think of that thick, sticky, white stuff we used in elementary school art class.  So further self-education is in order. 

 

Returning, again, to my now invaluable Webster’s I located the entry for paste and read the following:

 

1. Cookery. a  Moistened flour kneaded into a soft mass; dough; esp. dough prepared with the addition of butter, lard, etc,. for the crust of pies or the like

 

Now to me this is the death sentence, almost, for considering a cheesecake a pie as the crust is not made from pastry as defined in Webster’s but is made from a crushed substance like graham crackers, or sometimes Oreo cookies, or something similar.  But, and this is what is so vexing about the topic, graham crackers are themselves made from a dough, baked to a hard consistency.  So in fact, a graham cracker crust is made from dough once removed.  The same reasoning applies to the other crust variations commonly encountered with cheesecake.

 

So, what are we to make of all of this?  Perhaps a trip to the internet could be enlightening.  Upon reconsideration of what is there, maybe not though I did encounter a spirited discussion from 2005 that included defining pies and cakes by their measurements.  On the one hand this seems a bit silly, but on the other the genesis of the conversation was what would qualify as a legal pie entry in a mid-Virginia pie competition. Though the consensus of the participants in the conversation was that a cheesecake would not qualify for entry to a pie competition.  Sadly, there was no record of what the competition itself ruled so we cannot use that as a precedent for making our decision.

 

Time now to end this journey where it started, my ever-faithful Webster’s.  Let us go to what is at the heart of this question.  Webster’s defines cheesecake as:

 

A cake, originally containing cheese, filled with a composition of soft curds, sugar and butter, or a preparation of whipped eggs and sugar.

 

So, there you have it, cheesecake is in fact a cake.  But a little nagging voice kept telling me, follow the last step.  Always listen to the voices in your head, unless, of course, you are insane in which case do not listen to them.  Already in the Cs it was a matter of flipping a few pages to get to the definition of cake, defined as:

 

2 A sweetened composition of flour and other ingredients, leavened or unleavened, baked in a loaf or a mass of any size or shape.

 

Oh for Pete’s sake, there is no flour in cheesecake.  Of course, in current cuisine there are flourless cakes such as flourless chocolate cake.  So, we are back to the beginning with no definitive conclusion, pie or cake.  This my definitive opinion on the matter, be it pie or be it cake to focus on the name is to ignore the content.  Fret not, eat and enjoy.

 

Alas, one final discursion.  Cake originated in Middle English and is akin to the Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian words for cake.  Thus, that which we eat with guilty pleasure we call by a name bequeathed to us by the Viking raiders who stayed behind in Great Britain, to settle down, and make their contribution to the language we speak today.