The World That Was - Byzantine Baked Cheesecake "melopita"

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was!

This week, I'll be taking a look at a Byzantine baked cheesecake - that's quick, simple, and very tasty! It seems to be based on an earlier Greek recipe for a baked cheesecake, but was adapted to suit the tastes of Medieval Byzantine elite cuisine!

In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above!

Ingredients

500g ricotta cheese (or myzithra, anthotyro cheese)

150g honey

3 eggs

flour

cinnamon

butter (to grease baking tin)

Method

1 - Whisk Ingredients

To begin with, we need to place our cheese in a bowl. I used ricotta here, because it has a good texture and is widely available, but other soft Greek cheeses would work well - such as myzithra or anthotyro.

Into this, pour 150g of honey, and whisk it well. Crack an egg one at a time into the bowl, whisking it until it's well combined before adding two more. Chicken eggs would have been used in this period, along with wildfowl and pigeon eggs - so you can use these here too if you happen to have any.

Finally, to thicken the mixture up a little, add a tablespoon or two into the mixture, whisking together as you go. I used plain wheat flour, which has a lower bran content than what would have been widely available in Late Antiquity, but it results in a smoother, finer cake when you're finished.

2 - Bake Cheesecake

Preheat your oven to 180C/356F while you pour your mixture into a tin.

Make sure you grease your baking tin before you pour in your batter. Your batter should be silky smooth as you're pouring it in. Smooth out the top, and place it into the middle of your preheated oven. Let this bake for about 40-50 minutes, depending on your oven. It should be done when the top of it has turned a lovely golden colour, and the centre of the cake doesn't jiggle when you wiggle it. The top of it will slowly fall down while it's cooling, but don't worry - that's what's meant to happen!

3 - Decorate Cheesecake

Let the cake cool for about 5 minutes in the pan before you try and take it out and top it. When it's cooled slightly, pour some more honey over the top, along with some ground cinnamon. Cinnamon would have been used by the elites of Byzantine society, as they would have had more access to expensive spices than Western Europe (given the Byzantine Empire's proximity to the spice trade routes of the Near and Middle East).

In any case, serve up warm and dig in!

The finished cheesecake is deliciously light and fluffy, and has a wonderful texture. It's not too sweet, and the combination of honey and cinnamon goes really well together with the cheese. Although I used ricotta, the texture would be largely similar to the other cheeses that may have been used. The original recipe seemingly dates back to the Greek Iron Age, where Athenaeus records that a similar baked cheesecake was made on the island of Sifnos, in the Cycladic Isles. Though that cake didn't include cinnamon, and made use of olive oil and bay leaves in it's creation.