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Tomato Rarebit
cup stewed tomatoes 1 tablespoonful butter cup grated cheese 1 egg Salt and cayenne as needed Strain out the seeds from the cup of well-seasoned stewed tomatoes, pressing through all of the pulp, and let simmer uncovered until reduced to half a cup. Cook this rarebit over water, either in a double boiler or chafing-dish. Melt the butter and add the cheese, and stir until the cheese melts. Add seasonings and tomato pulp and heat together, stirring constantly. Blend a little of this hot mixture with the beaten egg before, adding it. Remove from the heat as soon as the egg is well stirred in, and serve on slices of crisp ryebread toast.
A small chafing-dish supper built on reduced tomato pulp rather than beer or milk. The whole thing hangs on gentle heat: the egg goes in last and the pan comes off the water immediately.
- QuantitiesThe ingredient list gives "cup stewed tomatoes" and "cup grated cheese" without the fractions that once preceded them. Working backwards from the method, which reduces the tomato to half a cup, a cup of stewed tomatoes and a cup (about 4 oz) of grated cheese give sensible proportions with 1 tablespoon butter and 1 egg.
- The hingeTemper the egg exactly as written -- stir a spoonful of the hot cheese into the beaten egg first, then return it. Adding cold egg straight to melted cheese curdles it into threads, and the mixture will not come back together.
- Cook over water, not on the burnerA double boiler or chafing dish keeps the cheese below the temperature at which its fat breaks out and pools. Direct heat gives a greasy, grainy rarebit even with good cheese.
- Which cheeseThe recipe does not say which cheese; a firm, sharp American or Cheddar-type is the usual choice for a rarebit of this period. Grate it yourself if you can; pre-shredded cheese carries an anti-caking coating that can leave the sauce slightly chalky.
- Reducing the tomatoStraining out seeds and simmering uncovered to half volume is what keeps the rarebit from being watery. Canned stewed tomatoes work; season them before reducing, since the recipe specifies "well-seasoned".
- CayenneThe recipe leaves the amount to the cook. A pinch is enough; 1/8 teaspoon for this quantity is a reasonable starting point if you want the heat noticeable.
- The toastRye toast must be crisp and dry all the way through, or the sauce soaks it to pulp. Toast it slightly darker than you would for breakfast and sauce it at the table.
- YieldRoughly a cup of sauce -- two light suppers or four small savoury portions. It does not hold or reheat; the egg tightens.
Rarebit belongs to a family of cheese-on-toast dishes that English cookery has recorded since at least the eighteenth century under the name Welsh rabbit, the "rarebit" spelling appearing later and usually explained as a genteel correction; the traditional gloss that the original name was a joke about Welshmen having no game to eat is an old explanation rather than a documented origin. By the turn of the twentieth century, the chafing dish had made it fashionable American supper food, cooked at the table for late guests, and cookbook writers spun out variants -- with ale, with milk, with tomato, with oysters. Its appearance in a left-overs book is logical enough: the tomato version stretches a small amount of cheese further while adding acidity.