Cheesecakes

[Anna W.]

All the cheesecakes I have ever done I have had very specific instructions. I need to take my recipe and vary the pan size- not only for the diameter of the pan but for the depth of the pan (2" or 3"). I would like to take my best recipe (cream cheese and sour cream) and adapt it to any size. Is there a for a formula for this? I like to use a water bath, turn off the oven and leave it to finish like that.

[kuan]

If you're talking about cooking time, then perhaps the quickest thing to do is to use internal temperature. Decide what will be the shallowest, eg. 2", and what will be the deepest. Determine what internal temperature constitutes done to you. Then prepare both. Draw a time vs. depth chart. So for example, you have 2 hours to bake a 2" deep to 160, and 4 hours to bake a 4" deep to 160, it will take, according to your graph, 3hrs to bake a 3" deep to 160.

This should work in principle, and of course, provided all else remains equal.

Kuan

[W.DeBord]

Kuans answer sounds rather good to me. Sorry I don't have another answer to offer. I bake by looks and feel.......

[Anna W.]

Thanks guys! I cook by look and feel, too, but was looking for something a little concrete. Sometimes trial and error is costly. I'll try Kuan's suggestion and see what I come up with.

[W.DeBord]

You know I would love to know what the correct internal temp. is for a cheese cake. Anyone have the answer?

Anna,
Have you ever looked thru any pro-books on that topic? If not, I'll check all of mine.

[alexia]

It would be helpful to have some sort of reference for internal temperature of different sorts of foods. Is there such a thing either on line or in a book?

[kuan]

Good question... really good question. Maybe ask CC, he knows everything

Kuan

[momoreg]

I'm sure the health dept. can help you there.