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*You can use a different bread, but a thick, sturdy, crusty artisanal loaf works best here. You need bread that won’t get soggy.
Preparation
1. MELT the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. When the butter is sizzling, whisk in the flour and cook for a minute, stirring until smooth (you have just created a roux: equal parts flour and fat used as a base and thickening agent).
2. STIR in the ale. Bring the mixture to a boil and stir for two minutes, or until it thickens.
3. REDUCE the heat and slowly whisk in the ale; there should be no lumps. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, mustard, paprika, cayenne, and salt.
4. STIR in the cheese with a spatula, continuing to stir until it is completely melted and the sauce is smooth. Remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl to slightly cool and thicken (if you have a pitcher, use that: It makes pouring the cheese sauce over the toast easy).
5. PREHEAT the broiler. Separately, toast the bread.
6. PLACE the toast on a heatproof pan. If you’re using the optional tomato and/or bacon, place them on top of the toast. Pour the cheese sauce over each slice of toast. Broil until bubbly and browned. Garnish with the optional herbs and serve immediately.
Variations
The first-known printed recipe appears in 1747, in The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse. She offers four variations:
- Welch rabbit: toasted bread with slices of melted cheese and mustard.
- English rabbit: toasted bread soaked in red wine† with slices of melted cheese.
- English rabbit: toasted bread soaked in red and white wine† with slices of melted cheese and mustard.
- Scotch rabbit: toasted bread with slices of melted cheese.
We invite you to create your own rabbit. Our neighbor first puts ‘nduja, a spicy sausage spread, on the toast. When we don’t have a fresh tomato, we use sautéed mushrooms and onions.
[7] A “buck rabbit” (a buck is a male rabbit) is rarebit topped with a fried or poached egg (photo © Nadin Sh | Pexels).
4. CHEESE SAUCE TIPS
The first requirement when melting cheese is to prevent it from becoming greasy (from separating) or clumpy. The key is low heat.
- Shred, grate, or finely chop the cheese rather than adding large pieces.
- Use a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
- Heat a splash of milk or cream in the saucepan over low heat until steamy.
- Gradually stir in the shredded cheese a bit at a time.
- Stir continuously, preferably with a whisk, so cheese does not settle and overheat on the pan bottom.
- Keep the heat low and stir gently until the cheese completely blends into a smooth sauce.
We’ve found no meaningful difference among various suggested stirring patterns—zigzag, circular, or always in one direction. The important thing is to keep the sauce moving.
5. THE HISTORY OF WELSH RAREBIT
Welsh rarebit began life in print as Welsh rabbit, a name first recorded in 1725—although the dish has never contained rabbit.
The later term “rarebit,” which appears in the late 18th century, seems to have been an attempt to make sense of a deliberately absurd old name.
One enduring (and endearing) piece of folklore says the meal was what a Welsh household ate when the hunter came home without a rabbit. Having no meat, the wife pulled together bread and cheese for supper.
The dish belongs to a very old British tradition of eating roasted or melted cheese with bread. Wales had a strong dairy culture, and cheese was a practical, sustaining food: it preserved milk and supplied protein in places and seasons where fresh meat was less dependable.
A Welsh term, caws pobi—“baked” or “roasted cheese”—appears in 16th-century references. That establishes a cultural connection with Welsh melted-cheese dishes, although it does not prove a direct, uninterrupted line to the particular recipe now called Welsh rarebit.
1785, the recipe was familiar enough to appear in Hannah Glasse’s influential cookbook, “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy” (1747), which gives recipes for Welsh rabbit as well as English and Scotch rabbits.
The term “Welsh rarebit” came later, often dated to 1785. “Rarebit” has no established independent meaning outside this dish.
Thus, most modern dictionaries and food historians treat it as a later alteration of “rabbit,” perhaps prompted by diners or publications who took the joke too literally and assumed the original name must be an error.
By the 19th and 20th centuries, “rarebit” became common on menus and in cookbooks, while many writers defended “rabbit” as the older and wittier form. We concur; although Welsh rarebit is now the more usual menu name.
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†In this older preparation, the bread was toasted on both sides, placed in a dish, and wine was poured over it to absorb—enough to flavor and soften the bread, but not enough to make it collapse. The wine-absorbed bread was covered with thinly sliced cheese, often laid on quite thickly; and the dish was put before a fire or under a broiler until the cheese melted, browned, and bubbled.
The initial toasting helped the bread retain some structure, while the wine softened the interior and gave it a rich, savory flavor. The finished texture would be crisp or browned on top, tender and wine-scented underneath, with melted cheese binding everything together.
If you want to use wine, brush or spoon it over the toast, one or two tablespoons per slice, before topping with cheese and broiling.
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