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Welsh Rarebit

A cheese mixture thickened with cornstarch, beaten egg yolks, and seasonings, served hot on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and butter 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 chafing dish.

  2. Add the grated cheese and stir continuously until melted.

  3. If too much fat drains off, pour it off.

  4. Mix the paprika, dry mustard, cornstarch, and salt together, then slowly rub in the beer until combined.

  5. Add the beaten egg yolks and stir until smooth and thick.

Serve

  1. Serve on toast on very hot plates.

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 + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 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. Beer + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together314 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

American cheese
Melts into the sauce to provide the main body and rich flavor.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they heat and set, giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
Beer or ale
Thins the cheese mixture and adds a malty, slightly bitter depth.
Cornstarch
Stabilizes the sauce and helps prevent it from breaking or becoming grainy.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds savory, tangy depth that balances the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Add the egg yolks slowly and stir until thick. Egg yolks set when heated, so if the sauce is too hot or the yolks are added too quickly, they can scramble and make the sauce grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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