In Greece and Italy 301 



tells us is mentioned by Alexis in his book " The Spin- 

 ners." It is a cook who speaks, lauding his own skill : 



" 'T is a most grand invention, and 't is mine ; 

 And if I put a dish of it before you, 

 Such will be your delight that you '11 devour 

 Your very fingers ere you lose a bit of it. 



You will serve up an egg well shred, and twice 

 Boil'd till it 's hard ; a sausage, too, of honey ; 

 Some pickle from the frying-pan, some slices 

 Of new-made Cynthian cheese ; and then 

 A bunch of grapes, steep'd in a cup of wine : 

 But this part of the dish is always laughed at. 

 And yet it is the mainstay of the meal." 



Cheesecakes made with honey or served with it were 

 very great favorites ; without them no banquet seems to 

 have been complete, and they are referred to by many 

 of the ancient writers. 



There were many kinds of cheesecakes, some of which 

 were made without cheese at all ; but the true cheesecakes 

 were made from cheese, usually mixed with some grain and 

 often with honey as well. 



Athenaeus, desiring to enlighten posterity on the subject 

 of cheesecakes, has given us a few recipes which are inter- 

 esting 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 ^ 

 of flour made from spring wheat, and beat the whole to- 

 gether 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. 



