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Rare-Bit, Welsh
Cut as much cheese as is necessary into small pieces; add a lump of butter and a little ale; mix in a saucepan on a good fire until it is well amalgamated; add pepper and salt and a little mustard; pour out upon a square of toast on a hot dish. Some people add a little beef gravy to the rare-bit when it is simmering in the saucepan, and just a dash of chopped garlic. (See also RABBIT (RARE-BIT), WELSH, and CHEESE, TOASTED.)
A cheese sauce poured over toast, given here without a single measurement. The proportions matter less than the heat and the choice of cheese.
- QuantitiesFor four rounds of toast, work with about 8 oz of cheese, 1 oz butter and 3-4 tablespoons of ale. That gives a sauce thick enough to sit on the toast rather than run off it.
- The cheeseA firm, well-aged Cheddar or a Lancashire suits the dish, though the recipe names no variety. Avoid pre-grated cheese, which is dusted with anti-caking starch and goes grainy, and avoid young mild cheese, which turns to rubber and oil.
- Low heat, not "a good fire"This is the hinge. Cheese proteins tighten and squeeze out their fat above roughly 160F, and the sauce splits into strings and grease. Melt over the lowest heat you have, stirring constantly, and take it off the moment it is smooth.
- The aleA mild bitter or brown ale. Something heavily hopped will turn bitter as it reduces, and a strong stout will dominate. Warm the ale with the butter before the cheese goes in, so the cheese meets liquid rather than dry metal.
- Mustard"A little mustard" here is most likely English mustard, powder or made, roughly half a teaspoon. It is not only seasoning: mustard is thought to help hold the sauce together as well.
- Beef gravyThe optional addition is a spoonful of beef gravy or a reduced meat juice. A teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce or a scrape of beef stock reduction stands in for it.
- ToastToast it dry and hard on both sides, and have it ready and hot on the plate before the cheese is finished. Sauce poured onto cool or soft toast soaks straight through.
- BrowningIf you want the top blistered, run the assembled toast under a hot grill for under a minute. Longer and the sauce breaks.
The name has been argued over since the eighteenth century. "Welsh rabbit" is the older printed form, recorded in English sources from the 1720s; "rare-bit" is a later, genteeler respelling. The usual explanation -- that the name was national mockery, cheese being the only rabbit a Welshman could expect -- is traditional rather than documented. Cassell's gives the dish under both headings and cross-references them, as the note at the foot of this entry shows, along with CHEESE, TOASTED.