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Welsh Rarebit

A cheese sauce made with butter, flour, mustard, beer, salt, pepper, poured over toast and broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.

  3. Add cheese, mustard, beer, salt, and pepper; stir until smooth.

Assemble and broil

  1. Pour the mixture over toasted bread.

  2. Broil until bubbly and golden brown.

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. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Mustard + beertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together314 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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 rich flavor and a stretchy, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and forms the base for the flour roux.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cheese mixture into a smooth, spreadable sauce.
Beer or ale
Thins the sauce and adds malty, slightly bitter flavor.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavor that balances the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Stir the cheese in until smooth. Cheese added to a hot liquid can turn grainy or stringy if overheated. Keeping the heat moderate and stirring steadily helps the cheese melt evenly into a smooth sauce.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, flour, beer, pepper. 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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