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Welsh Rarebit

A cheese-based sauce served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,829 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Welsh Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate the cheese.

  2. Rub the garlic or onion over the bottom of the chafing dish.

Make the rarebit

  1. Add the grated cheese, cream or milk, and mustard to the dish.

  2. Stir constantly until the cheese is melted.

Serve

  1. Serve on 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. Clove + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese
Melts into a smooth, rich sauce that gives the rarebit its body and flavor.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and loosens the melted cheese into a spreadable sauce.
Garlic or onion
Flavors the dish with aroma and sharpness as it is rubbed into the dish.
Made mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavor that balances the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until the cheese is melted. Cheese proteins tighten and turn grainy or stringy when overheated, and the fat can separate. Constant, gentle stirring keeps the heat even so the sauce stays smooth.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, cream, mustard, butter. 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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