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Welsh Rarebit II

"My version of the old classic, using American cheese, mustard and soy sauce. Takes a bit of time, but worth the effort! Serve it on toast. Garnish with crumbled bacon and chopped tomato."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and milk match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,424 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

2 cups
Prep10 min
Cook20 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Combine the milk and shredded processed American cheese in a saucepan over low heat. Stir often for about 8 minutes until the cheese melts and the sauce is smooth.

  2. Stir in the prepared mustard, soy sauce and ground white pepper until evenly blended.

  3. Whisk a splash of the hot cheese sauce into the beaten egg in a small bowl to warm it gently.

  4. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan. Stir constantly over low heat for about 5 minutes until thickened and it reaches 160°F (71°C). Do not let it boil.

  5. Remove from the heat and serve the sauce warm.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cheese + milktop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,424 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + mustardtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,805 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Milk + eggtop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together88,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cheese + saucetop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together1,985 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the white pepper

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

  1. Capersbetter flavor fit
  2. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  3. Dillbetter flavor fit
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, milk, mustard, sauce, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).