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Welsh Rarebit

A cheese sauce made with mustard, ketchup, Tabasco, and milk, served over toast or crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,426 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Welsh Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 180°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the rarebit

  1. Melt cheese in a double boiler, stirring constantly until it reaches 180°F.

  2. Add mustard, catsup, salt, and Tabasco sauce.

  3. Stir in milk until the mixture is rich and smooth.

Serve

  1. Serve on hot toast or crackers.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Mustard + milktop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,658 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cheese
Melts into the sauce to provide the rich, creamy body and savory flavor.
Milk
Thins the melted cheese into a smooth, pourable sauce.
Prepared mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavor that balances the richness of the cheese.
Catsup
Contributes sweetness and acidity that round out the sauce.

The step that matters

Melting the cheese slowly over gentle heat. Cheese proteins tighten and turn grainy or oily when overheated, so constant stirring over a double boiler keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, sauce, milk):

  1. Tomatofits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, sauce, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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