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Welsh Rabbit

A cheese and cream spread served on toast, optionally seasoned with pepper and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Welsh Rabbit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the cheese into very thin pieces.

  2. Add the cream to the cheese.

Make and serve

  1. Heat over low heat until the cheese is completely dissolved.

  2. Serve with toast and optional pepper and mustard.

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. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  5. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

Old rich cheese
Melts into the sauce and supplies most of the flavor and body.
Cream
Adds moisture and smoothness so the melted cheese stays creamy.

The step that matters

Heat over low heat. High heat makes cheese proteins tighten and fat separate, leaving the sauce stringy or greasy. Low, gentle heat lets the cheese melt evenly into a smooth sauce.

Swap the mustard

The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, cream, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, cream, 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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