Let's talk about Welsh Rarebit

Cafe Society
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1

Which is a cheese topping/spread/dip for toasted bread and possibly other things.

Stouffers used to make a frozen WR that was really good. But as with all products of any kind that I like, the company stopped producing it. Story of my life.

I’ve been researching Welsh Rarebit by reading recipes and watching YouTube videos. Here are my results.

The core ingredients are

  • Cheese – this needs to be a robust, mature cheddar (a cup or a lot more)
  • Worcestershire sauce (a teaspoon or more)
  • Mustard – prepared or powdered (a teaspoon or more)
  • Beer of some kind (depends)

Preparation methods immediately diverge into two tracks:

METHOD ONE
You make a basic white sauce (Bechamel) with butter, flour, and milk, stirring over heat til it thickens.

  • OR you add milk, thicken the sauce a bit, and then add beer/ale.
  • OR you skip the milk and add only ale to the roux until the sauce thickens.

To the sauce you have created by one of these processes, you add the grated cheese, the mustard in whatever form, and Worcestershire sauce.

If you have not already added beer, now is the time to add it.

Stir, stir, stir until you have a cheesy sauce.

METHOD TWO
Skip the Bechamel/white sauce, and just heap your grated cheese into a bowl and add beer/ale, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and maybe an egg yolk to the cheese and mix everything together. No sauce, just a pile of gloppy cheese with stuff mixed in.

Here the two methods come back together.

You will have already toasted at least two regular-sized thick slices of white bread on at one or both sides. (I suppose you can use some kind of multi-grain, bird-seed, health nut bread, if you absolutely must.) :roll_eyes:

Then pile some of whatever you have created using your chosen method, either thick cheese sauce or gloppy cheese pile, on top of the bread slices and put under the broiler (or grill, as the Brits say).

Let it get as brown and bubbly as you like.

Consume.

P.S. In some of my research, people make little tracks in the cheese with the back of a knife and drizzle Worcestershire sauce over.

Yesterday I used the second method and the results were not great. I did eat the cheese bread, so it wasn’t awful. And there was some of that Stouffer’s flavor that I remember-- I think it’s the Worcestershire/mustard combo. But I didn’t use good enough cheese. I used a wimpy cheddar and I got a wimpy result. I will try again, because even a failure is still edible.

Do you make this? Do you have an infallible method that you’re willing to share?

2

This is the recipe I use, and I think it tastes almost exactly like the Stouffer’s version if you use extra-sharp cheddar.

Welsh Rarebit

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon mustard powder, or to taste

½ teaspoon cayenne, or to taste

¾ cup strong dark beer, like Guinness

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, or to taste

1 pound Cheddar, Double Gloucester or other English cheese (or other good semi-hard cheese, like Comté or Gruyère, or a mixture), grated

4 to 8 pieces lightly toasted bread

Put butter in a saucepan over medium heat and, as it melts, stir in flour. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and very fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in mustard and cayenne, then whisk in beer and Worcestershire sauce.

When mixture is uniform, turn heat to low and stir in cheese, again stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and pour into a broad container to set (you can refrigerate for up to a day at this point).

Spread mixture thickly on toast and put under broiler until bubbly and edges of toast are crisp. Serve immediately.

3

I’ve done Alton Brown’s version in the past:

Looks like it’s a Roux/Version one option. It was tasty, but I probably didn’t use a good enough sharp cheddar to do it justice. And I admit to doing it over a nice marbled rye from a local deli, so my bread had a bit more character.

Note this version doesn’t do the bubbly broil step, and since I’ve never had the Stouffers option, I can’t say if it’s close. I’ll echo @romansperson - use a Good Cheese, and a Good beer, or it isn’t (IMHO) worth the effort. Like a lot of simple options, simple means the details count.

4

That looks great!

Looking at your proportions, I didn’t add nearly enough mustard or Worcestershire. This is a lot for a household of one, but if I freeze half, I’ll be able to recreate the Stouffer’s experience.

I’m definitely going to try your recipe.

@ParallelLines I never broiled the Stouffer’s sauce. I liked to put two slices of crisp bacon on the toast, a slice of tomato on top, then pour the sauce over-- bliss!

I see I have more research to do! Oh boy!

5

I’ve never had it, but anything with “a cup or a lot more” cheese sounds good in my mind.

But wait, that’s the stuff that is known to give you nightmares and leads you to sleepwalking!

Cite.

mmm

6

Wow, I never heard of that. Scary.

Your screen name is a cosmic pointer that you need to make this recipe.

7

That’ll definitely make it more meal-like! Oh, definitely try a smaller batch first - I’ve had poor luck with freezing cheese based sauces. Or if making a full batch - just set aside a very small portion to test freeze, and in the meantime pour the rest on roasted broccoli (or veggie of choice), a seared chicken breast or two, or for dipping soft pretzels in for a couple of different dishes over the next few days. :wink:

8

I like the way you think… :cheese:

9

You can halve the recipe if you don’t want that much.

It also makes a nice fondue.

10

True… I could… :thinking:

11

Might be a good idea trying it for the first time too, just to see how well you like it. You may find you want to adjust it for your own personal tastes.

12

I can tell by reading your recipe that it’s going to be better than the one that I made.

13

I appreciate this thread. My first (and last) attempt at this was not very successful.

14

Indeed, hundreds of cases have been documented.

15

I love that this is the second time recently I’ve seen a reference to the work of Winsor McCay.

16

Can I just interject, before my Welsh wife sees this link and starts a new border conflict, that the Welsh nation is proud of this, one of its national dishes, and would be MOST offended - en masse - at the idea this post suggests, which is that it is English in origin.

17

I made this recipe to my own tastes. Quite tasty.

Caws Pobi
Welsh Nachos

“I do loue cawse boby, good rosted chese”

I renamed this dish so as to sidestep the dispute over whether it should be called “Welsh rabbit” or “rarebit.” In any case, I’m American and it reminds me much more of nachos than anything four-footed. If you served it over tortilla chips instead of toast, it would be nachos for real. I am trying to stay close to the traditional British recipe, though. (Except that, being moi, I just had to garlic it up some.)

3 tbs butter
3 tbs flour
1 tsp onion powder
3 cloves garlic, minced
1½ cups beer
1 tsp yellow mustard powder
1 tsp paprika
¼ tsp cayenne
¼ tsp pepper
1 tsp The Wizard’s Vegan Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp Tabasco sauce
kosher salt to taste
1 lb sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
8 slices of whole-wheat bread, toasted

Make a roux with the butter, flour, and onion powder; cook until very aromatic. Mix in the garlic shortly before this step is completed.

Whisk in the beer and then mix in the mustard powder, paprika, cayenne, pepper, Tabasco and vegan Worcestershire sauces, and salt.

Stirring constantly, raise the heat until the pot begins to boil. Mix in a little more beer if it gets too thick.

When the sauce is thickened, shut off the heat and whisk in the shredded Cheddar until it melts.

Serve immediately over the toasted bread, accompanied by parsley, sliced tomatoes, and sliced jalapeños (fresh or pickled). In the UK they accompany this dish with English-style pickle relish, which is much better than the American kind.

A talk in Welsh.
Mayden, come hether, and gyue me some roste chese!
Morwyn, therdomma moes imi gawse boby!

Tarry a lytle, man, and you shall haue enowgh.
Arow heth dycke, gower wheh gooh dygan.

—Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge (1542)

The sentences in modern Welsh:
Morwyn, yn dod yma ac yn rhoi i mi rhai chaws bobi!
Aros ychydig, ddyn, a bydd gennych ddigon.

18

As I understand it, the dish isn’t originally Welsh, but was named by the English with a sort of insult or slur in mind - ie “the Welsh are so poor and stupid they have to eat cheese on toast and call it ‘rabbit’”

However, I think it’s true that in the intervening time, Welsh people just ran with it and made it into something awesome.

My own version, about which I make no claim of authenticity (and which contains things that certainly are non-standard) is:

Ingredients:
35g butter
35g plain flour
150ml beer (a sweeter, malty beer is better, I think - a hoppy ale may impart a bitter flavour to the dish)
1 heaped teaspoonful of mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 red chilli
a small bunch of chives (or green onions)
125g mature cheddar or other well-flavoured cheese
1 egg
3 thick slices of bread

optional:
Marmite
capers to garnish

Method:

Melt the butter over a gentle heat. Add the flour and mix thoroughly together - fry this in the pan for a minute or two to cook the flour.

Add about 100ml of the beer and whisk over a medium heat until it starts to thicken.
Add more beer in small amounts until a thick sauce texture is achieved.
Add the mustard and Worcestershire sauce, chop and add the chilli and chives. Whisk together and set the sauce aside to cool.

When the sauce is cooled to room temperature or just above, grate the cheese and add about 100g of it to the sauce - reserve about 25g of cheese add the egg to the sauce and beat it all together.

Preheat the oven to 180C
(Optionally) spread some Marmite on the bread and place the slices on an ovenproof tray.

Share out the sauce on top of the bread slices, spreading it near to the edges. Sprinkle the remaining grated cheese over the top.
Place in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the top is browned and bubbling and the edges of the bread are toasted.
(Optionally) scatter a few capers over the top (or anything else you fancy - halved cherry tomatoes for example) Allow to cool so it’s not dangerously hot to eat, but serve while still quite warm.

The capers, chilli and Marmite are not at all original or standard, but they are all good, IMO.

19

My understanding is that the dish is Welsh in origin, but they obviously didn’t call it ‘Welsh rabbit’ - that was an English slur. The Welsh called it ‘Caws pobi’.

The BBC have an article on the origins: Did Welsh Rarebit start out as a joke by the English? - BBC News

20

I wondered when Marmite’s dark little face would show itself. :face_with_monocle: Actually the idea of spreading Marmite on the toast before adding cheese seems brilliant to me. It’s all in the same flavor family.

My cheese pot runneth over with all of these ideas and recipes. I’m off to HEB for some sharp, mature cheddar.