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Welsh Rarebit au Gratin
1/2 lb. Swiss cheese 6 slices thin toast Salt and pepper Mustard Sauce Cut the cheese into slices one inch thick; lay the toast in a dripping pan, cover each with slices of cheese, spread with a made mustard and dust lightly with salt and pepper. Set in a hot oven till well melted, about ten minutes. The addition of a dropped egg to each slice makes what is called a Golden Buck.
A baked rarebit rather than the stirred, beer-thickened kind — the cheese melts directly onto toast, so the only real variables are the cheese and the heat.
- "Slices one inch thick"That is a great deal of cheese for one slice of toast, and half a pound will not stretch to six inch-thick slabs in any case. Cut the cheese to about 1/4 to 1/3 inch and cover the toast edge to edge; thicker slabs will slide off before the centre melts.
- A hot ovenRead this as 425-450F. Ten minutes at that heat is right for melting without drying the toast out. A broiler set a few inches below the element does the same job in three or four minutes, watched closely.
- Dripping panA shallow rectangular pan that sat under a roast. A rimmed baking sheet is the modern equivalent; line it, because escaped cheese welds itself to metal.
- "A made mustard"Prepared mustard, mixed and ready, as opposed to dry mustard powder. Any sharp smooth mustard suits — Dijon or a plain yellow — brushed thinly, since it is a seasoning here rather than a layer.
- The cheeseAmerican cookbooks of this period generally meant domestic Emmental-style cheese by "Swiss." It melts into strings rather than a smooth sauce. Gruyere behaves better and browns more.
- SaltAged Swiss and prepared mustard both carry salt. Dust very lightly, or skip it and season only with pepper.
- The dropped eggA dropped egg is a poached egg. Poach separately and set one on each finished slice — cracking a raw egg onto the cheese in the oven gives an overcooked yolk before the white sets.
- YieldSix slices, which is a light supper for three or a first course for six.
Welsh rabbit — the spelling "rarebit" is a later genteel correction of a joke — is often said to belong to a tradition of names in which a cheap dish stands in for meat someone could not afford. It appears in print from the early eighteenth century, and by the time this book was compiled for Washburn-Crosby's Gold Medal flour it had become standard American chafing-dish and supper fare. The topped variants are familiar enough: an egg makes a golden buck, and a slice of bacon beneath the egg is usually given as a Yorkshire buck. That this version dispenses with the ale, butter and slow stirring of the classic method, in favour of cheese laid on toast and pushed into a hot oven, marks it as a quick household adaptation rather than the chafing-dish ritual.