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Ale, with Cheese
Crumble about a quarter of a pound of Cheshire or Gloucester cheese, and put it into a saucepan with a small tea-spoonful of sugar, another of mustard, and enough ale to cover it. Let it remain on the fire until thoroughly melted, stirring all the time, and then add the yolk of an egg. Serve it on a very hot dish, and stick all over it little sippets of toasted bread, or pieces of pulled bread. Time to prepare, fifteen minutes. Probable cost, 6d. Sufficient for three or four persons.
A molten cheese-and-ale dish in the Welsh rarebit family, served as a savoury rather than a sandwich topping. The whole thing turns on heat control.
- The hinge: gentle heatCheese held above a bare simmer tightens and weeps its fat, leaving a stringy mass in a pool of grease. Keep the pan low, stir constantly, and pull it off the heat before adding the yolk so it thickens rather than scrambles.
- QuantitiesA quarter pound is 4 oz / about 115 g of cheese, with just enough ale to cover the crumbled cheese in a small pan; the recipe gives no measure for the liquid. Too much liquid gives a soup that will not come together.
- The cheesesCheshire and Gloucester are firm, moderately acidic English cheeses; Cheshire in particular is crumbly and can turn grainy if pushed too hot. A mature Cheddar or Lancashire will serve in their place. Avoid anything very young and rubbery, and avoid pre-shredded cheese, which is dusted with starch.
- The aleMany Victorian ales, milds and browns especially, were maltier and less aggressively hopped than a modern IPA, though strongly hopped pale ales existed too. Use a mild, brown ale or a plain bitter; a heavily hopped beer will turn the dish bitter as it reduces.
- MustardA teaspoon of mustard here means English mustard powder or made English mustard. It is doing real work — the sharpness cuts the fat — so do not substitute a mild yellow condiment.
- Sippets and pulled breadSippets are small triangles or fingers of toast. Pulled bread is the crumb torn from a part-baked loaf in ragged pieces and dried in the oven until crisp — the Victorian answer to a crouton.
- ServingA very hot dish is not a flourish but a requirement: the mixture stiffens as it cools. Serve immediately, in warmed shallow bowls or a warmed gratin dish. Three to four as a savoury course, two as a light supper.
Cheese melted with ale is a long-standing British savoury, belonging to the tradition that produced Welsh rabbit (the spelling 'rarebit' is a later, genteeler form), which appears in English cookery writing from the early eighteenth century onward. Cassell's places it among a family of quick cheese dishes intended for supper or for the savoury course that closed a Victorian dinner, after the sweet and before the dessert fruit. Cheshire and Gloucester were both widely distributed English hard cheeses in the nineteenth century. The egg yolk stirred in at the end is the enriching touch that separates this from cheese simply toasted on bread.