I think it was at Chet’s family farm and the boys have to go out to investigate something. When they come back, the girls assure them that they didn’t let all that cheese go to waste. (No mention of beer.
Family rates and all that.)
Cheese, beer and bread is such an ancient combo. Welsh Rarebit is a cooked ploughman’s† lunch.
(† I know the factoid about that term being a modern invention. It’s not true)
Do you consider 1837 to be modern?
The widely repeated factoid is that the milk marketing board supposedly invented it in the mid 20th. They promoted it, but the idea of farm workers eating bread and cheese and washing it down with beer is probably as old as bread, cheese and beer.
There’s nothing innocent about a good, aged, sharp cheddar. Turn your back on it and next thing you know your liquor cabinet is empty and your daughter is pregnant.
I made half of @romansperson’s recipe today. It was very good and hit all the Stouffer’s notes for me. Here is a picture. Yes, I’m using a paper plate, so sue me. It’s not very orange because the delicous Oscar Wilde cheese was white (like Oscar, presumably). I didn’t let it set up, but poured immediately over sliced tomatoes. Delicious!
It will be set up later and I have another tomato. May do the broiler thing with the second serving. No, I won’t use the paper plate for that.
Thinking about proportions of butter to flour to liquid to cheese, I made these comparisons. I think the takeaway here is it’s just about impossible to mess this up.
@romansperson’s recipe
1 pound of shredded cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
¾ cup strong dark beer, like Guinness
@Johanna’s recipe
1 pound of shredded cheddar cheese
3 tbs butter
3 tbs flour
1½ cups beer
@Mangetout’s recipe*
125g mature cheddar (approx. 4 ounces or 1 cup)
35g butter (approx 3 tablespoons)
35g plain flour (approx. 1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons)
150ml beer (approx 2/3 cup or 5 ounces)
(additional liquid: 1 egg)
Alton Brown’s recipe
6 ounces (1.5 cups of shredded cheddar cheese)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dark beer
* When doing any kind of baking, I prefer to use metric measures and a scale. I learned this from Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood.
Glad you enjoyed! I’ve never tried rarebit over tomatoes, it’s always been just cheese and toast.
Somewhere I have a recipe for Welsh rarebit with some tomatoes mixed into it. Maybe it’s not “Welsh” rarebit anymore, but some kind of bastard-upstart rarebit.
Question: Is Welsh rarebit without beer a “virgin rarebit”?
I wrote in fact two versions of my recipe. The first is the classic sauce while working the toaster. The other is made nacho-style in the oven. I didn’t like the latter as much as the first (as you said in your OP, “the results were not great”), so I skipped sharing it here. I felt I had to make it, though, because I took caws pobi ‘roasted cheese’ entirely literally. So your idea of fusing the two versions is something I’ll have to try.
I just have to put in a plug for Branston’s pickle. If you can find it in America, you’re lucky; get it. It puts all American pickle relish to shame.
It’s Welsh rabbit. “Rarebit” is a silly, silly word.
That and sharp cheddar are my summertime lunch sandwich. It’s available in my regular grocery stores in Canada.
I order mine online (nowhere to get it locally). It is sublime.
I’m not sure beer is strictly an obligatory ingredient anyway, Wales has a LOT of Methodist chapels and temperance societies, so those folks would probably be making it with milk, if they were making it.
I tend to use the word ‘rarebit’ without ‘Welsh’ when I am making something that’s way outside of standard, but still based on some sort of roux-thickened cheese sauce on toast or bread; the other day I made ‘wild mushroom rarebit’ (which was basically a load of fried mushrooms on toast with the cheesy-beery sauce over the top).
I can get Branston’s pickle from my local HEB (a little bragging, in case people think South Texas is a complete backwater).
To me, Branston’s doesn’t in any way resemble American pickle relish. Yeah, both have the word “pickle” in the name, but they’re not anything alike. I have to confess, it mystifies me. That and chutney. I don’t know what to do with them.
That’s interesting. You must be referring to the British “cheese & pickle sandwich,” which Mrs. Thursday packed for Fred every Monday (cf. TV series Endeavour). I have googled this sandwich and looked at pictures. I still don’t quite get it.
When I was in the 8th grade in upstate New York, one of the girls in my class used to bring Swiss cheese, mustard, and onion sandwiches for lunch. I don’t know if the onions were pickled. Probably not.
Apropos of nothing: I think it would be nice to have a tub of Welsh rarebit in the fridge to spread on toast in the morning, then warm it up in the toaster oven.
A.K.A. the plowman’s lunch, an ancient rural tradition that the British dairy board invented in the 1950s to sell off their excess cheese.
I’d trade my nice local Kroger (and I won’t even TALK about our local Safeway/Albertsons) for any HEB in a heartbeat. Much less the upscale Central Market one I visited!
When Central Market first opened, they didn’t carry normal groceries, just fancy-schmancy gourmet stuff. But even rich people want Tide, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, and Charmin’ and don’t want to have to make another stop. Or have their maid make another stop. 
So the store had to compromise and start stocking some basics.
HEB is pronounced “H-E-B,” saying each letter individually. The HEB that apotheosized into CM was already in an upscale neighborhood and for years had been called the “Gucci-B.”
Going to have to try that. Branston Pickle was a staple in our house, but I never tried it in a sandwich. It and sharp cheddar cheese would likely be good. What kind of bread do you suggest?
Aside to @ThelmaLou : your lunch looks great! Did it taste as good as it looks?
I just use whatever is at hand: white bread, whole wheat, antique seed bread (Dempsters).
I just like it for summer, though. Season’s done. Maybe some rabbit…
Thanks! I’ll give it a shot. Next summer, of course, as per your recommendation.