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WELSH RAREBIT (another way)
Put four ounces of Cheddar cheese into a small stewpan with a tea-spoonful of mustard, two table-spoonfuls of ale, and half a tea-spoonful of pepper. Stir till the mixture is dissolved, place on hot buttered toast, and serve very hot. Probable cost, 6d.
A four-line rarebit that depends entirely on how the cheese is handled. Keep the heat low and it stays glossy; push it and it splits into oil and rubber.
- The hinge: gentle heatCheddar tends to break when overheated, shedding fat and going stringy. Melt it over the lowest possible burner, or in a bowl over barely simmering water, and stir constantly rather than letting it sit.
- Quantities in modern termsFour ounces of cheese is about 115 g, or a cup coarsely grated. Two tablespoons of ale is the same measure today. Half a teaspoon of pepper is a great deal by current taste; a quarter is closer to what most people want.
- Grate, don't cubeThe original says only "put in"; grating or thinly slicing the cheese cuts the time on the heat considerably, which is the whole battle.
- The mustardA teaspoonful in a Victorian British kitchen most likely meant dry mustard powder rather than a wet prepared mustard. If you use jarred mustard, consider halving it.
- The aleA dark mild or brown ale suits this better than anything hoppy — modern IPAs turn the sauce bitter as it reduces. Flat beer is fine and arguably better, since it foams less.
- Toast firstHave the buttered toast made and hot before the cheese goes on the heat. The mixture stiffens within a minute of leaving the pan, so the sequence matters.
- YieldServes two as a savoury or light supper, one as a substantial one. The original gives no number.
- "Probable cost, 6d"Sixpence. Costings of this kind accompany most entries in the book.
Welsh rarebit is melted cheese on toast dressed up with a name, and the name has been argued over since it first appeared in print as "Welsh rabbit" in the early eighteenth century. The joke is generally traced to English condescension: the Welshman's rabbit is cheese, because he has no game. "Rarebit" is a later genteel respelling by people uneasy with the pun, and by Cassell's day both forms circulated freely. The dish belonged to the savoury course, the small hot mouthful served after the sweet at a Victorian dinner, and also did duty as supper-room food in clubs and chophouses. That Cassell's prints several versions — this is the "another way" — reflects how much the treatment varied from kitchen to kitchen: ale or milk, mustard or none, baked under the salamander or simply poured over toast.