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Welsh Rarebit No.2
4 ounces Cheddar cheese 1 ounce butter 2 tablespoons milk Speck of salt, pepper and cayenne Shave four ounces of Cheddar cheese, and add to it two tablespoons of milk and a little butter; put it in a saucepan, and set it on the fire for a few minutes, stirring constantly until it is the consistency of thick cream. Serve at once on hot toast. A little mustard may be added if desired.
A four-ingredient rarebit that stands or falls on how gently the cheese is heated. The whole method is in the phrase "the consistency of thick cream" — past that point the sauce breaks.
- Keep the heat lowCheddar melted over direct heat will readily squeeze out its fat and turn to rubbery strands in a pool of grease. Use the lowest burner setting, or a bowl over barely simmering water, and pull it off the moment it flows smoothly.
- Choose the cheese carefullyA young to medium Cheddar melts far more readily than a dry aged one; very sharp, crumbly cheeses are the most likely to separate. Grate rather than cube — "shave" here means thin flakes that melt evenly.
- Weights, not cupsFour ounces of cheese is about a cup loosely grated, and one ounce of butter is two tablespoons. The scale is more reliable than the cup here.
- Milk is barely enoughTwo tablespoons of milk for four ounces of cheese gives a very thick, clinging sauce. If it stiffens on the way to the table, another spoonful of warm milk stirred in off the heat will loosen it; cold milk is more likely to make it stiffen or clump.
- Insurance against breakingA pinch of cornstarch tossed with the grated cheese, or using evaporated milk in place of fresh, helps keep the emulsion together, though evaporated milk will alter the flavour slightly. Neither is in the original, but both address its one weakness.
- The mustard and cayenneDry English mustard, about a quarter teaspoon, is the traditional addition and does more for the dish than the cayenne. Add it with the salt and pepper so it hydrates in the sauce.
- Toast and timingHave the toast made, hot, and on warmed plates before the cheese goes on the heat — the sauce takes three or four minutes and will not wait. Serve immediately.
- YieldEnough for two slices of toast as a light supper or lunch, or four smaller pieces as a savoury course.
Welsh rarebit appears in English cookery from the eighteenth century as "Welsh rabbit," often said to be a joke about melted cheese standing in for the meat a poor household went without; "rarebit" is generally traced to a later respelling by writers uneasy with the pun. The multiple numbered versions in books of this period reflect real disagreement about the liquid: milk, cream, ale or beer all had partisans.