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Welsh Rarebit

A savory cheese sauce served over crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Welsh Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a chafing dish.

  2. Add the grated cheese, salt, cayenne, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard.

  3. Mix the cream and beaten eggs together.

  4. Once the cheese is melted, stir in the cream and eggs constantly until smooth.

  5. Add the baking soda and serve over hot crackers.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

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

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 and provides the main body and rich flavour.
Eggs
Thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat, giving it a smooth, custard-like body.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the sauce smooth and easy to pour.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the cheese melt smoothly.
Baking soda
Raises the pH of the cheese, helping it melt more smoothly and stay less stringy.

The step that matters

Stir the eggs and cream into the melted cheese. Eggs curdle if they get too hot or are added without constant stirring. Once the cheese is melted, keep the heat moderate and stir constantly so the eggs thicken the sauce evenly and it stays smooth.

Swap the mustard

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

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

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