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Welsh Rare-bit

A cheese-based toast topped with a melted mixture of cheese, egg, milk, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheddar cheese and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Welsh Rare-bit

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese sauce

  1. Grate the cheese and place it in a small pan.

  2. Add the egg, milk, and mustard to the pan.

  3. Heat the mixture until it reaches boiling point.

Serve on toast

  1. Pour the cheese mixture over the buttered toast.

  2. Cut the toast into small squares and serve.

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. Cheddar cheese + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

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

  2. Cheddar cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together708 recipes

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + mustardtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,658 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cheddar cheese + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cheddar cheese
Melts into the sauce and provides the main rich, savoury flavour and body.
Egg
Its proteins set when heated, thickening the sauce and binding it together.
Milk
Adds liquid so the cheese melts into a smooth, pourable sauce.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that balances the richness of the cheese.
Buttered toast
Provides a crisp, buttery base that holds the sauce and adds fat and flavour.

The step that matters

Heating the mixture to boiling point. Egg proteins set when heated, so if the mixture gets too hot or is heated too fast, the egg can scramble and the sauce turns grainy. Heat gently and stir constantly so the sauce thickens smoothly while the cheese melts evenly.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheddar cheese, egg, milk):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheddar cheese, egg, milk. 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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