No. 946

Golden Buck, Welsh Rarebit a la Cutting or Yorkshire

Golden Buck, Welsh Rarebit a la Cutting ou Yorkshire

Golden Buck.—Cut some best quality American cheese; not to fresh, into five-eighths of an inch squares, put these into a sautéing pan with half a gill of beer, and a pinch of red pepper, place the pan on a hot fire, and stir well the mixture with a small wire whisk until the cheese is melted and flowing. Lay on a serving dish two slices of toasted bread, each three and a half inches wide, and three-eighths of an inch thick; cut them slanting into four parts so as to obtain four triangles, then lay them together again to form the original square, and pour over the melted cheese; on each of the triangles place a well drained poached egg, and serve immediately.

Welsh Rarebit.—Is made exactly the same as the golden buck, suppressing the poached eggs.

Welsh Rarebit a la Cutting.—Use exactly the same preparation as the ordinary Welsh rarebit, only the cheese to be a little thinner, and add to it just when ready to serve a well beaten egg, stirring it thoroughly with the cheese, but at the same time watch well that it does not boil; pour this preparation on to the prepared toasts.

Yorkshire Rarebit.—Is finished by having two poached eggs, and two slices of bacon for each slice of toast.

← No. 945 Puff Paste Salmon Patties—Small Hot Side Dishes No. 946a Chester Crusts →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer gives four dishes in one entry, all built on the same pan of melted cheese and beer. The variations are only in what goes on top, so the technique notes below apply to all of them.

Half a gill of beerA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is about 1/4 cup, or 4 tablespoons. It is a splash to loosen the cheese, not a liquid base. Use a mild ale; anything strongly hopped turns bitter as it reduces.
"American cheese" means cheddarIn Ranhofer's day this meant firm domestic factory cheddar, nothing like the processed slices the phrase now brings to mind. "Not too fresh" is the instruction that matters: use a sharp cheddar aged at least six months, since young cheese throws off water and goes stringy.
Ignore "a hot fire"Cheese held over high heat breaks and turns to oil and rubber. Melt it over low to medium-low, whisking steadily, and pull the pan the moment the mass flows smoothly. A little cornstarch tossed with the diced cheese is insurance against separating.
The hinge in the a la CuttingThe beaten egg goes in at the last moment, and the mixture must not boil — Ranhofer says so explicitly. Best added off the heat: whisk a spoonful of the hot cheese into the egg first, then return it all to the pan and stir until it thickens. Boiling gives you curds of scrambled egg in oily cheese.
Cut the toast before saucingThe four triangles reassembled into a square presumably let the finished dish be portioned without dragging a knife through the cheese, though Ranhofer does not say why. Cut, reassemble, then sauce.
Toast dimensionsThree and a half inches square by three-eighths of an inch thick is a sturdy slice — roughly a thick-cut sandwich slice trimmed square. Toast it dry and hard; soft bread collapses under the cheese.
Poached eggsDrain them properly on a towel, as instructed, or the water thins the cheese. Poach them first and hold in warm water; the cheese takes only two or three minutes and will not wait.
YieldAs written this is two slices of toast with four eggs — one generous serving or two light ones. The Yorkshire version, at two poached eggs and two slices of bacon per toast, is a single plate for one.

A Little History

The Welsh rabbit — "rarebit" is a later genteel back-formation from an eighteenth-century joke, the Welshman's rabbit being cheese rather than game — had been an English tavern supper for well over a century before Ranhofer set it down for Delmonico's. What his entry records is its promotion to a New York restaurant dish, with the toast trimmed square, the cheese finished with beer and cayenne, and a hierarchy of garnishes to justify separate names and separate prices: plain rarebit, a golden buck with poached egg, a Yorkshire with egg and bacon. There is also an "a la Cutting" version, thickened with beaten egg. All four belong to Ranhofer's chapter of hot side dishes, the small savory course that filled the gap between courses at a long dinner.