Herter's Belgian Cheesecake Recipe

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Add blueberry pie filling and you have a delicious and light Belgian cheesecake. Photo: iStockphoto.com/Lauri Patterson

Helen Hanks, of Dighton, Kansas, requests a Belgian Cheesecake recipe from an old Herter’s wild game cookbook. “It was a wonderful concoction of fresh lemon juice, whipped cream and cream cheese, among other ingredients,” she writes.

A number of our readers knew exactly the recipe Helen refers to, and Mike Kruer, Scottville, Michigan, wrote, “While reading my copy of your fine magazine, I noted a request from Helen Hanks of Dighton, Kansas. She referred to one my favorite entertainment and cooking sources, namely, George Leonard Herter’s Bull Cook, Recipes and Practices. (The full title is Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices, by George Leonard Herter and Berthe E. Herter.) If you’re not familiar with it, you should find one and read it. George was quite the philosopher and a darn good cook to boot. His little book is filled with witticisms, recipes and sage advice. I have excerpted the entire article for your perusal and edification. It reads as follows:”

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GRIT Recipe Box: January/February 2012 

Belgian Cheesecake

Not many people like cheesecake, as the only cheesecake they have ever seen is the so-called Lindy style or New York style of cheesecake. This type of cheesecake is a heavy, soggy cake, hard to digest, that has nothing to recommend it and is nothing like a true cheesecake at all. Real cheesecake comes from the Holland-Belgium border area. It is a rare treat and once you have eaten it, you simply must have it every so often. It is light, not at all heavy and soggy, and served as a dessert has a good digestive effect on your stomach.

It is not hard to make.

Take one cup of cold water, 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 1/2 packages of unflavored gelatin. Put in a double boiler. (A double boiler is simply a pan that fits down into a pan of water. Prevents the heat getting directly on the top pan.) Stir until the gelatin dissolves. Then take 1/2 cup of cold water and put 4 egg yolks in the water and mix well with your mixer or egg beater. Then add this to the hot mixture in the double boiler and stir in until it blends together well and thickens. Takes about 8 minutes. Now remove the double boiler from the fire.