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Welsh Rarebit, No. 2

A warm cheese and egg mixture seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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, No. 2

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Determine the number of guests and use that many eggs.

  2. Weigh the eggs; use one third of the weight in cheese and one sixth in butter.

  3. Beat the eggs well in a saucepan.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the butter and grated or finely chopped cheese to the eggs.

  2. Place the saucepan on the heat and stir until the mixture thickens.

  3. Season with salt and a generous amount of pepper.

Serve

  1. Serve in a warm dish.

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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Their proteins set when heated, thickening the mixture into a rarebit-like sauce.
Cheese
Provides savoury flavour and body, and melts into the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture and a silkier mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir until the mixture thickens. Egg proteins set at fairly low heat, so over-high heat or lack of stirring can scramble the eggs and leave lumps. Gentle heat with constant stirring gives a smooth, thick sauce.

“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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