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Welsh Rarebit

A cheese-based toast topping flavored with mustard, sea salt, and cayenne, baked until melted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,805 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Welsh Rarebit

Oven, in the book's wordsThe hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Grate the cheese.

  2. Sprinkle the mustard, coarse sea salt, and cayenne over the cheese.

Assemble and bake

  1. Heap the cheese mixture on slices of buttered toast.

  2. Place in a 400°F (200°C) oven for a few moments until the cheese begins to melt.

  3. 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. 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

Cheese
Melts into a creamy, stretchy topping that carries the flavour of the dish.
Mustard
Adds sharp, savoury depth that balances the richness of the cheese.
Buttered toast
Provides a crisp, absorbent base that holds the melted cheese topping.

The step that matters

Watching the cheese under the heat. Cheese protein and fat separate and turn greasy or stringy if overheated, so it should be removed as soon as it has just melted.

“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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