Why it works: Cheese and cream cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 473 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Welsh Rarebit
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a double boiler over boiling water.
Break the cheese into small pieces and stir it into the melted butter.
Season with red pepper, dry mustard, and salt, then stir in the baking soda.
As the cheese softens, slowly add the ale, stirring constantly until smooth and thick.
Stop cooking immediately to prevent curdling; serve on toast 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 + cream cheesetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together473 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,747 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 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 to give it body, richness and its characteristic flavour.
- Ale
- Thins the melted cheese into a smooth, pourable sauce and adds a malty flavour.
- Baking soda
- Raises the pH of the cheese, helping it melt smoothly and resist curdling.
- Butter
- Adds fat that keeps the cheese sauce smooth and glossy as it melts.
The step that matters
Stop cooking immediately to prevent curdling. Cheese proteins and fat separate when overheated or held too long at high heat, leaving a grainy, oily sauce. Removing it from heat as soon as it is smooth and thick keeps the emulsion intact.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, cream cheese, cream, butter, pepper):
- Potatofits better
- Onionfits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, cream cheese, cream, butter, 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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