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Welsh Rarebit

A savory cheese sauce made with butter, cheese, egg, milk, Worcestershire sauce, salt, baking soda, and paprika, served on toast or crackers.

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

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a double boiler.

  2. Add the grated or finely cut cheese and stir until melted.

  3. Mix in the baking soda, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and paprika.

  4. Dilute the egg(s) with the milk and stir into the cheese mixture.

  5. Continue stirring until smooth and creamy.

Serve

  1. Serve on toast or 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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 body, flavor, and richness.
Egg
Thickens the sauce as it cooks and gives it a smooth, creamy texture.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and loosens the mixture so it blends smoothly with the cheese.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the cheese melt smoothly.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some acidity in the cheese, helping it melt more smoothly.

The step that matters

Stir the egg into the cheese mixture gently over low heat. Egg proteins set when heated, so adding them to hot cheese too quickly or at high heat can scramble them. Diluting the egg with milk first and stirring steadily keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.

“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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