- What is it? Basically, fancy Cheese on toast. It's made from a sauce of melted cheese and various other ingredients poured over slices of toasted Bread and served hot.
- Ale, Mustard, ground cayenne Pepper or ground paprika, Worcestershire Sauce and Béchamel sauce may be added to the mix.
- Why “rarebit”? This word, by the way, has no other use except the name of this meal. It's a corruption of Rabbit, “Welsh rabbit” being first recorded in 1725 and the variant “Welsh rarebit” being first recorded in 1785 by Francis Grose. Welsh rarebit contains no rabbit meat, however, so it's still a mystery. One theory as to how the dish got its name comes from Betty Crocker's cookbook. She suggests that Welsh peasants weren't allowed to eat the rabbits from their landlords' estates, so they ate cheese instead, although there's no other evidence for this.
- The word “Welsh” in archaic English meant "foreign, non-native", perhaps meaning that melted cheese on toast was seen as quite exotic back then!
- That said, a 1747 recipe book by Hannah Glasse gives recipes for English and “Scotch” rabbit as well as “Welch rabbit.” According to her, to make Welsh rabbit the bread must be toasted on both sides. The cheese is toasted on one side, laid on the toast and the other side of the cheese is then toasted with a hot iron. For Scotch rabbit, the bread is toasted on both sides and buttered. The cheese is toasted on both sides before being placed on top. For English rabbit, the bread is toasted and soaked in Wine. The cheese is placed on a bettered plate with a couple of spoonfuls of white wine, covered with another plate and placed over hot coals for a couple of minutes, then stirred, with mustard added to taste. This mixture is placed on the bread and browned with a hot shovel.
- Welsh rarebit with an Egg is called buck rarebit.
- Welsh rarebit mixed with tomatoes or Tomato soup is called a blushing bunny.
- Welsh rarebit is mentioned in a 16th century joke book. In the tale, God gets tired of all the Welshmen in heaven “with their krakynge and babelynge” and asked St Peter to do something about it. Saint Peter went outside and shouted “Cause bobe, yt is as moche to say as rostyd chese” and all the Welshmen ran out to get some, whereupon Saint Peter dodged back inside the pearly gates and locked them all out.
- In the early 20th century, there was a comic strip about Welsh rarebit. It was by an American cartoonist called Winsor McCay and was called Dream of the Rarebit Fiend. It was about the weird dreams the characters had after eating cheese on toast before bed.
- September 3rd is National Welsh Rarebit Day.
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