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Welsh Rarebit

A savory cheese sauce made with butter, beer, and spices, served hot over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat.

  2. Add the grated cheese and beer, stirring until the cheese melts.

  3. In a bowl, mix the beaten eggs, cayenne, salt, and onion juice.

  4. Combine the egg mixture with the cheese mixture, stirring well.

Serve

  1. Serve hot over 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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  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. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + beertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together680 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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 rich, creamy body and savory flavor.
Beer
Thins the melted cheese into a smooth sauce and adds a malty, slightly bitter note.
Eggs
Thicken the cheese mixture as they set with gentle heat, giving it a richer texture.
Butter
Melts first to coat the pan and add richness and fat to the sauce.

The step that matters

Combine the egg mixture with the cheese mixture, stirring well. Eggs can scramble or curdle if the cheese mixture is too hot. Keeping the heat low and stirring constantly lets the eggs thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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