Blushing Bunny

A camp version of tomato rarebit, scaled for a crowd and written on the assumption that nobody is measuring. Two details decide whether it comes out smooth or grainy: the heat and the eggs.

• Keep it below a simmerOnce the cheese goes in, the pot should never boil again. Cheddar tends to break and turn stringy and oily if it is pushed much past a bare simmer, and canned tomato soup scorches on a direct fire. Pull the pot to the edge of the coals or use a low burner.
• The eggs will scramble if added straightBeat the eggs, then stir a ladleful of the hot soup into them before returning the mixture to the pot. Poured in cold and neat, they set into visible threads. Two minutes of gentle stirring after that is enough to cook them through.
• "Mouse cheese"Old American slang for cheap yellow store cheddar, the kind sold in a rindless block and elsewhere called rat cheese or mousetrap cheese. Any medium or sharp cheddar works; grate it rather than cutting cubes and it melts a good deal faster.
• Three large cansThe recipe does not specify a size, and "large" was not a fixed measure; older large soup cans were bigger than today's roughly 10.5 oz condensed can, so expect to need several modern cans to match. Do not dilute with water or milk unless the pot is too thick to pour.
• Season at the endCanned soup and a pound of cheddar are both salty. Taste before adding anything; dry mustard, a shake of Worcestershire and black pepper are the traditional additions and do more for it than salt.
• YieldAs written it feeds a crowd, though how many depends on the size of the cans. It thickens as it cools, so ladle it out while the toast is still hot.
• Toast matters more than it looksThick-cut bread, well toasted and buttered right before serving, is the only thing standing between the sauce and a soggy plate. Thin sandwich bread collapses.