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WELSH RARE-BIT
Cut thin slices of bread, remove the crust, and toast quickly; butter it, and cover with thin slices of rather new rich cheese, spread over a very little made mustard, and place on a pie-tin or plate in a hot oven till the cheese is melted, when cut in square pieces of any size desired, and serve at once on a hot platter, as it is quite spoiled if allowed to get cold. The mustard may be omitted if desired; and some think it more delicate to dip the toast quickly, after buttering, into a shallow pan of boiling water; have some cheese ready melted in a cup, and pour some over each slice. The best way to serve is to have little plates made hot, place a slice on each plate, and serve one to each person.
This is the oven-baked form of Welsh rarebit rather than the poured-sauce version, and it lives or dies on temperature: everything must be hot at once and reach the table immediately.
- "A hot oven"Period terminology, with no thermometer behind it; roughly 425-450F on an upper rack is a reasonable modern equivalent, and the cheese will usually melt in a few minutes. Go by the look of it rather than the clock. A broiler set high is faster; watch it, as buttered toast under a broiler colors in seconds.
- "Rather new rich cheese"A young, high-moisture cheese that melts smoothly — mild Cheddar, Cheshire, Lancashire, Caerphilly, or a young Gouda. Sharply aged Cheddar has lost water and its protein network has changed, so it is more apt to break and weep oil under heat.
- "Made mustard"Prepared mustard, not dry mustard powder; in this period that generally meant powder mixed to a paste with water or vinegar. "A very little" is the recipe's own limit — a thin smear, well under half a teaspoon per slice.
- Melting cheese in a cupFor the alternative method, set the cup in a pan of barely simmering water rather than over direct heat. Cheese heated much past about 150F tends to lose its emulsion and separate into curd and grease, and it is difficult to bring back.
- The boiling-water dipAn instant in and out, and let the bread drain. The point is to steam the toast soft under its cheese instead of leaving it brittle; a second too long and the slice collapses.
- Hot plates are not a flourishThe instruction to serve on heated plates is the operative one. Melted young cheese firms up as it cools and turns tough and greasy on a cold plate, which is exactly the spoiling the recipe warns about.
- YieldThe recipe's own reckoning is one slice per person, served on its own hot plate. Assemble only as many as can be eaten straight from the oven; this does not hold or reheat.
Welsh rarebit appears in English print from the early eighteenth century as "Welsh rabbit," and the usual explanation is that the name was a jibe — the cheese standing in for the meat — though this reading is traditional rather than documented. "Rare-bit" is a later respelling that tried to make sense of the name, and by the time Buckeye Cookery was compiled in 1877 both forms circulated in American books. The dish belongs to the long tradition of the savory — a small hot cheese course served at the close of a meal or as a late supper — and the recipe's insistence on hot plates and immediate service is the point it makes most forcefully.