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EveryCheese

Melted and fondue

Welsh rarebit

A savoury sauce of melted cheese, ale and mustard, poured over toast and grilled until it bubbles.

Welsh rarebit is hot toast covered with a seasoned cheese sauce and browned under the grill. The sauce is typically made with a hard cheese such as Cheddar, ale or beer, mustard and Worcestershire sauce. It is a British savoury, eaten for supper, as a snack or, in Victorian dining, at the end of a meal.

What goes in

Mature Cheddar: 38%38%Bread: 31%31%Ale or beer: 13%13%Butter and flour: 6%English mustard: 6%Worcestershire sauce: 6%6parts
  • Mature Cheddar638%, Grated, strong and sharp.
  • Bread531%, Thick slices, toasted.
  • Ale or beer213%, Gives depth and tang.
  • Butter and flour16%, A light roux.
  • English mustard16%, Heat.
  • Worcestershire sauce16%, Savoury depth.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each ingredient's share of the dish.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Bake Toast the bread on both sides.
  2. Step 2: Grate Grate the cheese.
  3. Step 3: Simmer Make a small roux of butter and flour, then whisk in the ale.
  4. Step 4: Melt Stir in the cheese, mustard and Worcestershire sauce until smooth and thick.
  5. Step 5: Layer Spread the mixture thickly over the toast.
  6. Step 6: Bake Grill until bubbling and patched with brown, then serve.
  7. Mature Cheddar: 38%38%Bread: 31%31%Ale or beer: 13%13%Butter and flour: 6%English mustard: 6%Worcestershire sauce: 6%
    Finished Welsh rarebit, by share.

Rabbit or rarebit

The dish was first recorded in 1725 as Welsh rabbit. It contains no rabbit, and the name was probably a joke about the Welsh, who had a reputation in England for loving toasted cheese. Rarebit is a later spelling that appeared towards the end of the eighteenth century, perhaps to make the name sound less odd. Both names are still used.

Family of toasts

Melted cheese on toast was known in Wales and England well before the name. Related dishes include buck rarebit, which adds a poached egg, and the Yorkshire rarebit. Recipes vary: some simply melt cheese with a little milk, while others make a roux-based sauce with egg yolk. A good rarebit is sharp, savoury and well browned on top.

Where it is used

SupperPub snackSavoury course

The cheeses in it

CaerphillyA Welsh crumbly cheese some cooks prefer.Lancashire cheesePrized for its creamy melt.

Also part of it, and being written: Cheddar cheese (The usual rarebit cheese.).

More on EveryCheese

🇬🇧 United KingdomLancashire cheese A cow's-milk cheese from England with creamy, nutty, or crumbly varieties.Cow · Semi-hard · Nutty

Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and kitchen makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

The weekly digest

Every Monday: seven cheeses you may not know, the cheese days of the week ahead, and one dish explained step by step.