Why it works: Milk and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Welsh Rarebit
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cheese sauce
In an enamelled saucepan, heat the milk.
If the cheese is soft, cut it into small pieces; if dry, grate it.
Add the cheese to the milk and stir until dissolved, then remove from heat.
Whisk the egg and mix it into the cheese mixture.
Return the pan to low heat and stir until the mixture is creamy but do not let it boil.
Assemble and serve
Toast one side of the bread until golden brown.
Spoon the cheese mixture onto the untoasted side of the bread, ensuring it covers smoothly.
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.
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Cheddar cheese + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,964 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Cheddar cheese + breadtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together62 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 to provide the main body, richness and savoury flavour.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cheese melts into, giving a smooth, pourable sauce.
- Egg
- Adds richness and, when gently heated, helps thicken the sauce into a creamy texture.
The step that matters
Keep the cheese sauce below boiling. High heat makes the cheese proteins tighten and squeeze out fat, leaving the sauce grainy and oily. Gentle heat keeps it smooth and creamy, and the egg can scramble if it gets too hot.
“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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