Welsh Rarebit

[BarbaRosa]

The other day MamaRosa suggested I make Welsh Rarebit, something her Mom use to make. I've never made it and can't really recall having it. So I googled and found that pretty much every site has it's own recipe.

Anyone have a good recipe for Welsh Rarebit?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. I'm sorry, but

having resided in a college dorm a long time ago, and forced to partake of the cafeteria food there, I am convinced there is no such thing as "... a good recipe for Welsh Rarebit."

That said, I went looking, because your query got me curious - I know it only as melted Velveeta on stale bread - and I found this at the NY Times Food Blog:

December 31, 2008, 11:48 am
Recipe of the Day: Welsh Rarebit
By Mark Bittman

Anyone can lay a few slices of cheese on toast and melt them, but this thick sauce of cheese, beer, and spices, spread on toast — a traditional British dish — is one of the best late-night snacks I know. Think end of the evening on New Year’s Eve.

Print Recipe
Welsh Rarebit

Yield 4 or more servings

Time About 20 minutes, plus cooling

Mark Bittman
Summary

Though the idea of eating savory food after a full meal makes sense only when evening stretches into night and, usually, when overindulgence in alcohol has taken place, rarebit is also good in the afternoon, and can be made in advance save for the final toasting. To get that just right, toast the bread on a baking sheet until each piece is evenly browned on top. Then turn the pieces over and toast them about half as much on the second side before adding the cheese.
Ingredients

* 2 tablespoons butter
* 2 tablespoons flour
* 1 tablespoon mustard powder, or to taste
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
* 3/4 cup strong dark beer, like Guinness
* 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, or to taste
* 1 pound Cheddar, Double Gloucester or other English cheese (or other good semi-hard cheese, like Comté or Gruyère, or a mixture), grated
* 4 to 8 pieces lightly toasted bread

Method

* 1. Put butter in a saucepan over medium heat and, as it melts, stir in flour. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and very fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in mustard and cayenne, then whisk in beer and Worcestershire sauce.
* 2. When mixture is uniform, turn heat to low and stir in cheese, again stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and pour into a broad container to set (you can refrigerate for up to a day at this point).
* 3. Spread mixture thickly on toast and put under broiler until bubbly and edges of toast are crisp. Serve immediately.

Source: Adapted from Fergus Henderson

[housewolf]

3. Oh that sounds DELICIOUS! I love Welsh Rarebit

especially on good, authentic British crumpets, or an English Muffin. YUM!!!!!

I'd trust Bittman's recipe - I'll bet it's great.

The keys, of couse are the ingredients you use, the flavors of the cheddar and the beer.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. That's a classic recipe

And MUCH different from cheeze whiz on toast!

[htuttle]

12. That's pretty much the recipe I use

I make it fairly often. I've come to think of it as a 'beer fondue' with added spices (the mustard, cayenne and Worcestershire). Start with a roux, then add spices and beer, then the cheese.

Fresh tomato slices go really well on top of it (just before the broiler step) or cherry tomatoes on the side (if I'm skipping the broiler step and just spooning the sauce onto the bread).

Yum! I'd think about making it again tonight, but I'm 1/2 way into Coq au Vin and Pommes de Terres au Gratin (ie., chicken and potatoes spelled all French like...)

[Tab]

2. I had a posting, but it seemed to have disappeared

In essence, though, without wanting to reconstruct the post, it's basically melted cheese on toast. People like to "spice" up the cheese with peppers or whatever, but ultimately it comes down to being melted cheese on toast.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

4. Melted Cheez Whiz on toast,

or Velveeta on toast.

That's my college cafeteria experience of it.

Even back then, when I ate anything and didn't care, I couldn't get this one down.

But look what I just found - bet there's a classic Welsh rarebit recipe here - the site looks interesting:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/

[Tab]

6. I'm sure someone can come up with a helluva melted cheese recipe

I just haven't expended that sort of energy in that directon myself.

Don't surprise me that Velveeta (melted) served for the moment.


I personally keep away from recipes like Welsh Rarebit as I'm lactose intolerant, and can only handle so much melted cheese, but my impression it it's basically a flavorful cheese on toast. Whoop-de-frickin-do. I've never known it to be something else.

That said, if my lactose problem wasn't an issue, I love cheese. So cheese on toast is cool with me.

Part, I think, though, is that it's been made to be a fancy name for what is ultimately a (perhaps peppered) cheese on toast.

- Tab

[yellowdogintexas]

11. NO it is a rich excellent thick cheese sauce on toast or crackers. My mom made fantastic

Welsh Rarebit except being Southern it was Welsh Rabbit, known in our house simply as "a rabbit" Normally our traditional New Year's Eve supper, and many other cold winter nights.

Mom put a beaten egg in hers and no alcohol but you MUST have the Worcestershire sauce and some cayenne, that is essential. Extra Sharp yellow cheddar combined with colby makes a really good one.

We ate it on crackers with raw onion and pickles. Sauce on the cracker topped with bits of onion and pickle..I liked dill but my parents liked sweet.

Now I am craving it and it is too damn many Weight Watcher points for me.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. A deconstructed, alcoholic, open faced grilled cheese - what's not to love?

When people have only beer, cheese and bread, they still create! I love a good rarebit.

But this has only made me start to desire intensely the more sophisticated swiss cheese fondue.

[Tab]

7. Scrrew the Rarebit, go straight for the fondue

I have a recipe posted recently.

Or screw the recipe and just get the kirsch or wine and the hell with the fondue.

[Tesha]

8. mm mm

good recipe, and you can always trust Bittman.

We had that a lot when we were kids, and it was great. I never realized until I was a teen that it was good and filling and cheap... cheap being the key here. Mom always called it a substitute for rabbit, for when the hunting was lean for our ancestors in Wales.... who knows! She was always just a comedian.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

10. I've always called it Welch Rabbit too.

I thought it was a joke; the hunter doesn't get a rabbit so they have melted cheese on toast for dinner. Sort of like Cape Cod Turkey which is dried, salted cod.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

13. 1946 Trader Vic version that an older friend makes/made

We were talking about older foods that have disappeared and I mentioned Welsh Rarebit (really, this thread brought it to front of consciousness) and she said that she used to make it a lot - the version in her Trader Vic's cookbook (1946) So we looked it up. In that cookbook, it's more of an anecdote than a recipe, but he says that he likes to make toast, fry bacon up and crumble it into baked beans, put the baked beans on the toast and pour the "rabbit" over. His version of the rabbit is the same butter, cheese, beer, worcestershire and mustard that has been noted. Interesting. It's on our schedule to re-create.