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Before she got cancer, Nancy MacDonald used to keep her cheesecake recipe under tight wraps. But when she was going through treatment, a few people in her life were so good to her, she felt compelled to give them her top secret recipe as a thank you.
You see, MacDonald had long been famous among her friends, family, and coworkers at Dorothea Dix Hospital (formerly BMHI) for her fabulous cheesecakes. “Whenever I asked if I could bring anything, I always knew what the answer would be,” she says. Part of the cheesecake mystique was that she was the only one who knew the recipe. But cancer has a way of changing a person.
“It’s kind of when I got a life,” she says. “There’s nothing like someone telling you that you have cancer to get your butt into gear.” Though MacDonald’s mom had died of breast cancer when she was only in her 40s, and her sister had been diagnosed with breast cancer a few years before, when it happened to her, “I got a real sense of urgency,” she says. “I think I used to waste a lot of time. You start to suck the life out of every day.”
About the time her hair started growing back after chemotherapy, she also decided to expand her life—by sharing her large Victorian home with a series of nursing students from South Korea. Since her first student, Sena, came as a boarder in 2003, MacDonald has housed eight students. All of them have been females except Yong Ho Woo, whom she calls her “number one son,” now a doctoral candidate working in functional genomics at UMaine.
Yong Ho and his wife, Su Kyung, another former boarding student, are visiting for the evening. Though both have been in the states for a while, the conversation between them and the hostess requires occasional stops for clarification. “I actually took a week off from work and got certified to teach ESL so I can do a better job,” MacDonald says. “All the students I’ve had read and write in English extremely well. They spell better than I do. The problem is conversational English.”
Long before she studied ESL, she came up with her own way to help her boarders improve their English and for all of them to learn about each other’s cultures: cooking together. “One of the first things I found out is, they don’t bake in Korea.” One student was so fascinated by the baking process that she “sat down in front of the oven and watched her cake bake like she was watching television.”
On the reciprocal end, MacDonald has learned to make some impressive Korean dishes, like this evening’s entrée, Korean Chicken Stew. (See www.bangormetro.com/extras for the recipe.) The one downside is, this wonderfully hearty dish requires an ingredient that’s not available at local supermarkets—red pepper paste. “I’m addicted to it now,” she says. “The ‘kids’ pick it up for me when they go to New York.” Red pepper paste can also be ordered online, lasts a long time, and adds a signature punch to many Korean dishes. “You have to be careful, though,” she says. “If a Korean recipe calls for five tablespoons, I use two. It’s powerful stuff.”
So, too, is her cheesecake. In addition to her signature “Top Secret” recipe, MacDonald has also prepared a chocolate cheesecake, made with ricotta, and a harvest cheesecake, topped with apples, pecans, and cinnamon. When it’s time to serve dessert, all it takes are two English words—“cheesecake frenzy”—and Yong Ho, Su Kyung, and her current boarding student, Cheong, instantly appear in the kitchen.
“Sweet and salty are two tastes that Koreans don’t do a lot of,” MacDonald says. “I guess I’ve corrupted them.”
Her “number one son” takes a bite of Top Secret Cheesecake and grins widely. “Yup.”
Nancy's Top Secret Cheesecake
Crust
1/2 cup melted butter
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
(Optional) 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans
Filling
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 packages (8 oz.) cream cheese
6 extra-large eggs
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 pint (2 cups) sour cream
2 Tbs. flour
Preheat oven to 350°F. Fill a round pan with water and place on lower rack in oven, under where the cheesecake will bake.
Crust: Melt one stick of butter in bowl in microwave at 50% power for 1.5 to 2 minutes. Stir with a fork to finish melting. Mix together butter, graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, and nuts. Reserve a little of the mix for the top of the cheesecake. With remaining mix, line bottom and 2/3 up the side of a 9” or 10” springform pan. Refrigerate, unbaked, until ready to fill.
Filling: Allow cream cheese and sour cream to reach room temperature. In a large bowl of an electric mixer or in a food processor, beat sugar and cream cheese until smooth. Add eggs—one at a time—beating well after each. Add vanilla and mix. Add flour and mix. Keep speed low to medium; do not beat in a lot of air. Remove bowl and fold in sour cream. Pour mix into prepared pan and sprinkle with crumb mix. Place in oven on rack above water pan. Pan will collect any butter that drips out—saving your oven and the steam helps keep the cheesecake from cracking.
Bake in 350° oven for 40 minutes. Turn off oven—but do not open door—and let sit 60 more minutes in oven. Remove and place on a wire rack. After 15 minutes, loosen sides of springform pan. Cool at room temperature 5 hours. Retighten sides of pan and refrigerate. Move cake after 24 hours to a cardboard round, and box or serve.
