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Welsh Rarebit

A cheese-based dish served over toasted bread or crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Ketchup and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Welsh Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub the bottom of a dish with a piece of onion.

  2. Add the grated cheese to the dish.

  3. Mix in the tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, coarse sea salt, cayenne pepper, and butter.

Melt and serve

  1. Stir until the cheese begins to melt.

  2. Gradually add the ale or beer while stirring.

  3. Once smooth and creamy, pour the mixture over toasted bread 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. Ketchup + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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 a rich, creamy sauce and carries most of the flavor and body.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the melted cheese turn smooth and glossy rather than grainy.
Ale or beer
Thins the melted cheese into a pourable sauce and adds a malty, slightly bitter flavor.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Gradually add the ale or beer while stirring. Cheese proteins and fat can clump or separate when liquid is poured in all at once. Adding the ale slowly while stirring lets it blend evenly into a smooth, creamy sauce.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, tomato, ketchup, sauce, pepper, butter, beer. 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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