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Buck Rarebit
4 ounces cheese 4 whites of eggs Cayenne and salt 4 rounds of hot buttered toast Cut up the cheese, melt with the seasoning, poach whites of eggs, and pour the cheese on the toast; place the poached whites on the top of the cheese, and serve immediately.
A thrift dish from a chapter on using up leftover egg whites: melted cheese on toast, crowned with a poached white instead of the whole egg a buck rarebit normally carries. Two things decide whether it works, the cheese and the whites, and both want low heat.
- Melt the cheese gentlyFour ounces is about one cup grated; a firm, well-aged cheddar has the most flavour for the quantity. Cheese melted dry over direct heat will tighten and weep oil, so use a heavy pan over the lowest flame or a bowl set over simmering water, and stir in a tablespoon or two of milk, cream or ale to keep it fluid and pourable.
- Poaching whites aloneWithout the yolk to hold them, whites spread badly in open water. Bring the water to a bare shiver rather than a boil, add a teaspoon of vinegar, and slide each white in from a cup; two to three minutes sets it firm. Small buttered ramekins or egg-poaching cups give a neater result.
- Seasoning"Cayenne and salt" is left to judgement: a generous pinch of cayenne and a small pinch of salt for the whole batch is about right, remembering that aged cheddar is already salty. A little dry mustard is traditional in rarebit and does no harm here.
- The toastRounds cut with a cutter from thick bread, toasted and buttered while hot. Cut them before the cheese is ready; melted cheese waits for nothing.
- Serve immediately means itCheese poured on toast begins to stiffen within a minute or two and the poached white cools fast. Assemble at the stove and carry the plates straight to the table.
- YieldFour rounds, so a light supper or savoury course for two, or four small servings at the end of a meal.
- What to do with the yolksThe dish uses whites only. If you are starting from whole eggs, keep the yolks for custard, mayonnaise or hollandaise the same day.
Welsh rarebit -- seasoned melted cheese poured over toast -- was a staple of the British savoury course and the light supper table by the nineteenth century, and a "buck rarebit" is the same dish with an egg set on top. The name is traditionally explained as an extension of the older "Welsh rabbit" joke about a cheese dish standing in for meat, though that explanation is folk tradition rather than documented etymology. What marks this version is that it uses whites alone: cooks who used yolks by themselves for custards, sauces and pastry glazes were left with whites and, without refrigeration, little time to use them, and savoury dishes of this kind were one answer.