Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Welsh-rarebit
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, melt the butter with Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, and salt.
Add the cheese and stir until it begins to melt.
Gradually mix in the beer, ale, or porter until the desired consistency is reached.
Quickly stir in the egg yolk once the cheese is melted.
Serve
Serve immediately over the buttered toast.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + beertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together174 recipes
Shared aroma: 5-ethyl-3-hydroxy-4-methyl-2(5h)-furanone (spice).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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 rich, creamy body and flavor.
- Egg yolk
- Adds richness and helps thicken the sauce as it sets when warmed gently.
- Beer, ale, or porter
- Thins the melted cheese to a spreadable consistency and adds a malty depth.
- Butter
- Adds fat for smoothness and helps the cheese melt evenly without clumping.
The step that matters
Quickly stir in the egg yolk once the cheese is melted. Cheese sauces can turn grainy or scrambled if the egg yolk is exposed to high heat. Stirring it in quickly off the heat or over low heat, once the cheese has melted, lets it enrich and thicken the sauce smoothly.
“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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