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Welsh Rarebit

A savory cheese sauce served hot over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Welsh Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese sauce

  1. Rub the bottom of a chafing dish with garlic.

  2. Melt the butter in the dish.

  3. Pour in the ale or beer and bring to a boil.

  4. Add the grated cheese and stir until smooth and creamy.

  5. Mix in cayenne, mustard, and celery salt.

Add the eggs and serve

  1. Beat the eggs lightly and gradually mix in a few tablespoons of the cheese mixture.

  2. Combine the egg mixture with the contents of the chafing dish, stirring constantly.

  3. Just before serving, stir in lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce.

  4. Serve hot over toast.

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 + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

American cheese
Melts into the sauce to give it its body and rich, creamy flavor.
Eggs
Thicken the sauce as they set gently with the heat, giving it a richer body.
Ale or beer
Thins the melted cheese into a smooth liquid and adds a malty flavor.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor and keeps the cheese sauce silky.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavor that balances the richness of the cheese.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the rich cheese sauce.

The step that matters

Combine the egg mixture with the contents of the chafing dish, stirring constantly.. Eggs thicken by gentle heat, but if they get too hot they scramble. Tempering them with warm cheese first and stirring constantly keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the garlic

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, butter, beer, cheese, pepper, mustard, celery. 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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