Welsh rarebit recipe: a pub classic done properly

Welsh rarebit recipe: melted cheddar sharpened with mustard, ale and Worcestershire sauce, grilled onto thick toast until the top blisters and turns deep gold.

The dish is older than its name suggests: “rarebit” is a reworking of “rabbit,” an 18th-century joke about cooks in Wales making do with cheese on toast instead of meat. The technique has barely changed since: a roux-based cheese sauce, built off the heat so it stays smooth, then finished under a hot grill rather than baked.

Ingredients

A cheese sauce built off the heat so it never turns grainy.

• 50g butter
• 50g plain flour
• 200ml brown ale or stout
• 200g mature cheddar, grated
• 1 tsp English mustard powder
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 egg yolk
• A pinch of cayenne pepper
• 4 thick slices of sourdough or white bloomer bread

Method

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and stir in the flour to form a roux. Cook for one to two minutes, stirring, to cook out the raw flour taste before it meets any liquid.
2. Pour in the ale gradually, whisking constantly, until the sauce is smooth. Let it bubble for a minute so the alcohol cooks off, leaving a malty, savoury base.
3. Take the pan off the heat before adding the cheese. Cheese sauces split when the proteins overheat, so stir in the cheddar off the heat, a handful at a time, until melted and glossy.
4. Whisk in the mustard powder, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne and egg yolk. The yolk thickens the mixture and helps it set under the grill instead of sliding off the toast.
5. Toast the bread lightly, then spread the sauce thickly over each slice, right to the edges, so it does not pull away as it melts.
6. Chill for ten minutes if there is time: a cold topping holds its shape better and bubbles evenly rather than flattening under the grill.
7. Grill under high heat until the top is deep golden and blistered, three to four minutes, watching closely once it starts to colour, since cheese burns fast at that point.
8. Serve immediately, while the top is still molten.

What to drink with it

Rarebit wants a drink with enough bitterness to cut the cheese: the same stout or brown ale used in the sauce works, as does a dry, appley cider. Treat it as a starter or a late-night plate rather than a snack to share, since it only improves for the first two minutes off the grill and goes downhill after that.

Can the sauce be made ahead? Yes. Make the cheese sauce up to a day in advance and keep it covered in the fridge, then spread it cold onto toast and grill straight away, which gives an even better bubble on top.

It turns up on menus across pub-driven dining cities like London as often as a formal starter as it does bar food, proof that a centuries-old joke about cheap cheese on toast still earns its place on serious menus.