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Welsh Rarebit

A baked cheese and mustard topping served on toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Welsh Rarebit

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the topping

  1. In a bowl, mix the grated cheese, butter, mustard, salt, Neapolitan pepper, and egg yolks until smooth.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter both sides of the toasted bread and place it on a baking dish.

  2. Spread the cheese mixture thickly over the toast.

  3. Bake for 10 minutes until golden and bubbly, covering with paper if desired for a smooth finish.

Serve

  1. Remove from the oven 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.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  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

Fresh cheese
Melts into a smooth, rich sauce that forms the main body of the topping.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cheese mixture and help it set into a creamy, custard-like layer.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness and richness, helping the mixture spread and brown.
Made mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that cuts through the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Bake until golden and bubbly. Egg yolks set when heated, so the topping should be baked only until golden and bubbling. Overbaking can make it dry or grainy, while underbaking leaves it runny.

Swap the mustard

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, pepper, egg, bread. 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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