Name: Welsh Earebit with Ale
Ingredients: ¼ pound cheese, grated; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons ale; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); ¼ teaspoon dry mustard; ¼ teaspoon pepper; a dust of cayenne; 1 large slice of buttered toast

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 Earebit with Ale

Ingredients

Directions

In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together the cheese, butter, ale, salt, dry mustard, pepper, and cayenne until smoothly blended.
Pour the mixture over a large slice of buttered toast and serve immediately.

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.

Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,805 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,861 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cheese: Melts into a smooth, rich sauce that gives the dish its body and savoury flavour.
Butter: Adds fat that keeps the melted cheese smooth and glossy rather than greasy or grainy.
Ale: Thins the melted cheese into a pourable sauce and adds a malty, slightly bitter note.
Dry mustard: Adds a sharp, pungent edge that cuts through the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Stir over medium heat until smooth. Cheese proteins can tighten and turn grainy or oily if overheated, so gentle medium heat and steady stirring help the sauce stay smooth and blended.

Swap the mustard

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

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits about as well
Mustardthe original
Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, 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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Welsh Earebit with Ale