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Welsh Rabbit

A warm cheese dip made with butter, American cheese, milk, egg yolks, and spices, served on crackers or toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Welsh Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dip

  1. Melt the butter in a chafing dish.

  2. Stir in the salt, cayenne, and grated cheese.

  3. When the cheese is almost melted, slowly stir in the milk and beaten egg yolks.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately on crackers or toast.

  2. For extra flavor, add Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard, paprika, or onion juice if desired.

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. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  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

American cheese
Melts into a smooth, creamy base that gives the dip its body and flavor.
Egg yolks
Thicken the dip as they heat, adding richness and a silky texture.
Milk
Loosens the melted cheese into a pourable, smooth consistency.
Butter
Provides fat that helps the cheese melt evenly and adds richness.

The step that matters

Add the milk and egg yolks slowly, when the cheese is almost melted. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they meet high heat or are added all at once. Adding them slowly to warm, nearly melted cheese lets them blend in and thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the mustard

The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cheese, milk, egg, sauce, onion):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cheese, milk, egg, sauce, onion. 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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