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Welsh Rarebit

A cheese sauce made with butter, tomato catsup, beer, and spices, served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Welsh Rarebit

Oven, in the book's wordsA very quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rarebit

  1. Combine grated cheese, butter, tomato catsup, salt, beer or ale, and red pepper in a double boiler.

  2. Cook while stirring continuously until the mixture is smooth and thick.

Serve

  1. Serve the cheese mixture on hot, buttered 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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cheese + beertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together174 recipes

    Shared aroma: 5-ethyl-3-hydroxy-4-methyl-2(5h)-furanone (spice).

  4. Tomato + beertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together272 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Cheese + tomatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 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

Cheese
Melts into the sauce to provide the main body, richness and savoury flavour.
Beer or ale
Thins the melted cheese into a smooth sauce and adds a malty flavour.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the sauce smooth and rich.
Tomato catsup
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the rich cheese.

The step that matters

Cook the cheese gently while stirring. Cheese proteins can tighten and turn grainy or stringy if overheated. Gentle heat in a double boiler, with constant stirring, lets the cheese melt evenly into a smooth sauce.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, beer, 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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