Welsh rarebit is a thick savoury cheese sauce spread on toast and grilled until bubbling and browned. It is not cheese on toast, and anyone who has had a good one will tell you so at length.
What it actually is
The cheese is cooked into a sauce rather than simply melted. A basic recipe:
- Melt butter, stir in flour to make a roux.
- Add ale or beer — a dark bitter or stout — and whisk to a thick paste.
- Add a generous quantity of strong mature cheddar, off the heat, so it melts without splitting.
- Season with English mustard, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, and sometimes an egg yolk to enrich it.
- Cool slightly so it thickens, spread thickly on toast, and grill until blistered.
The result is sharp, savoury, faintly boozy and considerably more complex than melted cheese. It should be spreadable rather than pourable — a runny mixture slides off the toast.
The name
It was originally Welsh rabbit, recorded in 1725, and the joke was at Welsh expense. The implication was that the Welsh were too poor to afford meat, so a hunk of cheese was as close to rabbit as they got. Similar constructions existed elsewhere — “Scotch woodcock” is scrambled egg on toast with anchovies, and contains no woodcock.
“Rarebit” appears later, in the 1780s, as a genteel correction by people either unaware of the joke or uncomfortable with it. Etymologically it means nothing at all — there is no such word as a “rarebit” outside this dish.
Both names remain in use, and food writers still occasionally argue about which is correct. “Rarebit” has won by usage.
The variations
- Buck rarebit — with a poached egg on top. The best version, and worth the extra minute.
- Blushing bunny — made with tomato soup or tomato instead of ale.
- Yorkshire rarebit — with a slice of ham underneath.
- Hot Welsh rarebit with leeks — a modern Welsh version that makes the national connection explicit.
When it is eaten
Traditionally a supper dish or a savoury course — in Victorian and Edwardian dining a small savoury was served after the pudding, and rarebit was a standard one. That course has disappeared entirely, and rarebit is now lunch, a light supper, or a hangover measure.
It also appears on high tea menus in Wales and the North, and a good pub will serve it as a starter with a glass of the same ale that went into it.