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Welsh Rarebit

A melted cheese sauce with mustard and cayenne served over toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,950 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Welsh Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the cheese and water.

  2. Stir over medium heat until the cheese is melted.

  3. Add the mustard, olive oil, and cayenne pepper, mixing well.

Serve

  1. Pour the cheese mixture over hot, crisp dry toast.

  2. Serve immediately in a covered dish.

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. Olive + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

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

  4. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Cheese + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,802 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

New cheese
Melts into the smooth sauce that forms the body of the rarebit.
Mixed mustard
Adds sharp flavour that balances the richness of the melted cheese.
Olive oil
Adds fat that keeps the cheese sauce smooth and glossy.

The step that matters

Stir over medium heat until the cheese is melted. Cheese proteins toughen and the fat can separate if it overheats, so gentle heat and constant stirring keep the sauce smooth and cohesive.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, olive, pepper. 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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