Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Welsh Rarebit
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a double boiler.
Add the cheese, mustard, and cayenne pepper, stirring constantly.
Slowly mix in the ale, beer, or milk until smooth.
Stir in the beaten eggs.
Serve
Serve hot over toast or toasted soda crackers.
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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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Walnut + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together849 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,805 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + beertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together314 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 give it its body and rich, savoury flavour.
- Eggs
- Thicken the sauce as they set gently with the heat, adding richness.
- Ale, beer, or milk
- Thins the cheese mixture to a smooth, pourable consistency.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness and helps the cheese melt smoothly.
The step that matters
Stir in the beaten eggs. Eggs thicken when heated but can scramble if the mixture is too hot. Keeping the double boiler gentle and stirring constantly lets the eggs thicken the sauce smoothly.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cheese, mustard, pepper, beer, egg):
- Beansfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
- Almondfits less well
- Sesamefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cheese, mustard, pepper, beer, egg. 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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