Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Welsh Rarebit
Ingredients
Directions
Make the rarebit
In a chafing dish, mix the ale, Worcestershire sauce, and English mustard.
Add the cheese and season with salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.
Heat until boiling, stirring vigorously until the cheese melts and the mixture is smooth.
For a less stringy texture, add the yolk of an egg just before serving.
Serve
Pour over toasted bread or crackers.
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.
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Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + cheesetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,805 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,120 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Mustard + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,484 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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, savory body of the rarebit.
- Ale
- Thins the melted cheese into a smooth liquid and adds a malty flavor.
- Egg yolk (in the method)
- Adds emulsifying proteins that help keep the sauce smooth and less stringy.
The step that matters
Heat until boiling, stirring vigorously until the cheese melts and the mixture is smooth.. Cheese proteins can clump, turn grainy, or go stringy if overheated or stirred too little. Gentle heat with constant stirring lets the fat and proteins emulsify into a smooth sauce.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, cheese, pepper, bread):
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatofits about as well
- Mustardthe original
- Asparagusfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, cheese, pepper, bread. 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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