I was just browsing through my old recipe book when I came across recipes for Welsh rarebits; Some people think Welsh rarebit is just cheese melted on toast, but in fact it’s cheese melted in a pan with a liquid, usually as far as I know, beer but it can also be milk so it would be more like a cheese sauce, and I did see one recipe using wine… I guess the success of that would be the quality of the cheese. The earliest recorded named Welsh rarebit was in 1725, but that’s only when it wa written down. It’s a traditional Welsh supper dish, but it’s so delicious it’s become a universal favourite.
How do you fancy these variations:
Fish rarebit
- 3 oz cooked, cold, chopped fish (no bones or skin)
- 6 oz cheese, sliced
- 1½ oz butter
- 1 tsp made mustard
- ½ gill milk
- ½ water
- 1 tsp flour
- pepper
- 2 squares of hot buttered toast spread with a little anchovy essence
- melt the butter and add the fish, cheese and milk and cook over a very low heat
- mix the flour, mustard and pepper with the water to a smooth paste
- add paste to the cheese mix and stir in until it boils, boil for 3 mins
- serve on the toast
Rather a lot of boiling for my mind, and the pour fish would end up a mush; I would miss out the fish but follow the recipe and only add it when the sauce comes together, then simmer until the fish is cooked.
Tomato rarebit
- ¼ lb tomatoes, peeled and chopped
- ¼ lb cheese, finely grated
- 1 oz butter
- salt,pepper and mixed mustard
- i tsp flour, smoothed in a little water
- 2 yolks of egg, beaten
- 18 triangles of hot buttered toast
- extra grated cheese
- melt the butter and add the tomatoes, cook for a few minutes then add the flour, boil for a few minutes
- draw the pan aside and add the cheese and yolks, stir over a low heat until it is creamy
- season with salt, pepper and mustard
- serve on the toast with a sprinkling of grated cheese
Pimento rarebit
- 2 level tsp chopped pimento
- 4 oz dry cheese, finely grated
- 1½ oz butter
- ¼ level tsp chopped chives
- milk
- seasoning
- 4 pieces of buttered toast
- extra chopped pimento
- melt the butter and add cheese, pimento and chives and stir over a low heat, gradually adding the milk until the cheese is melted. Add sufficient milk to make it a creamy mass
- add seasoning to taste and pour over toast, garnishing with small pieces of pimento
I think for our tastes we might add slightly more pimento and chives, and i would use chives as garnish as well.
I don’t think my family would like the fish rarebit, although i think I might, but I’m sure they would enjoy the other two recipes – from Modern Practical Cookery, published about 1930
Most people I know call it Welsh Rabbit. But most of them don’t even know where Wales is.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha!! Actually, it may have originally been rabbit way back in the very olden days!
LikeLike
mmmmm and again mmmmmm
LikeLiked by 1 person