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Welsh Rarebit

A cheese sauce made with butter, mustard, and ale, served hot over toast or crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Welsh Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the cheese and stir until nearly melted.

  3. In a bowl, beat the egg and mix in the mustard, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  4. Add the egg mixture to the cheese and stir well.

  5. Slowly stir in the ale or beer (or milk) and Worcestershire sauce.

  6. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly to prevent curdling.

Serve

  1. Serve hot over toast or soda 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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Mustard + beertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together314 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cheese + beertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together174 recipes

    Shared aroma: 5-ethyl-3-hydroxy-4-methyl-2(5h)-furanone (spice).

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 main body, richness and flavor.
Egg
Thickens the sauce as it heats and helps bind it into a smooth, creamy texture.
Ale or beer
Adds liquid to loosen the cheese and a malty, slightly bitter flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel and helps the cheese melt evenly.

The step that matters

Cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Egg proteins set with heat and can curdle or turn grainy if the sauce gets too hot or is not stirred. Constant stirring over gentle heat keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cheese, egg, pepper, beer, sauce):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cheese, egg, pepper, beer, sauce. 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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