Welsh rarebit
A British cheese toast that differs from the ordinary kind in one way: the cheese is not laid on the bread but turned into a sauce. A roux of butter and flour, dark beer, mustard and Worcestershire sauce make a base in which cheddar melts without splitting — a common problem with ordinary grilled cheese. The sauce must be as thick as a stiff custard: looser, it runs off the toast and burns on the tray.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Cheese sauce 15 min
- Toast 5 min
- Grilling 6 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneMake a golden roux
Melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook 3 minutes, stirring, until it smells nutty and darkens slightly. A darker roux binds less but tastes more — and the sauce is bound anyway by a quarter kilo of cheese.
Ingredients: 250 g cheddar · 30 g butter · 25 g plain flour · 120 ml beer · 2 tsp mustard · 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce · 1 pcs egg yolk · ½ tsp black pepper · 1 pinch cayenne pepper
Add the beer and boil
Add the beer gradually, whisking, and cook 2 minutes until thickened. Choose a beer that is dark but dry — a sweet porter or chocolate stout gives a cloying, oddly dessert-like sauce.
Ingredients: 250 g cheddar · 30 g butter · 25 g plain flour · 120 ml beer · 2 tsp mustard · 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce · 1 pcs egg yolk · ½ tsp black pepper · 1 pinch cayenne pepper
Melt the cheese over low heat
Turn the heat to its lowest and add the grated cheddar a handful at a time, stirring each in until melted, about 5 minutes in all. Over high heat the cheese splits and releases its fat — the roux prevents that, but only at low temperature.
Ingredients: 250 g cheddar · 30 g butter · 25 g plain flour · 120 ml beer · 2 tsp mustard · 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce · 1 pcs egg yolk · ½ tsp black pepper · 1 pinch cayenne pepper
Cheese by the handful, low heat — or it releases its fat.Season and stir in the yolk
Take off the heat, stir in the mustard, Worcestershire sauce, pepper and cayenne, and finally the yolk. The yolk goes in off the heat: it gives the sauce shine and helps it brown under the grill, but sets if added to a boiling mixture.
Ingredients: 250 g cheddar · 30 g butter · 25 g plain flour · 120 ml beer · 2 tsp mustard · 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce · 1 pcs egg yolk · ½ tsp black pepper · 1 pinch cayenne pepper
Check the thickness
The sauce should fall from a spoon in a heavy ribbon and hold its shape, like a stiff custard. Too thin, it runs off the toast; if so, cool it 10 minutes — it thickens noticeably as it cools.
Ingredients: 250 g cheddar · 30 g butter · 25 g plain flour · 120 ml beer · 2 tsp mustard · 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce · 1 pcs egg yolk · ½ tsp black pepper · 1 pinch cayenne pepper
A heavy ribbon from the spoon — thinner runs off the toast.Toast the bread on both sides
Toast the thick slices on both sides in a toaster or under the grill, and butter them. Toasting both sides is essential: an untoasted base steams under the hot sauce and the toast goes soggy underneath.
Ingredients: 4 pcs bread · 20 g butter
Spread the sauce to the edges
Spread the sauce thickly, right to the edges of the slice. Exposed edges scorch quickly under the grill before the centre starts to bubble.
Ingredients: 250 g cheddar · 30 g butter · 25 g plain flour · 120 ml beer · 2 tsp mustard · 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce · 1 pcs egg yolk · ½ tsp black pepper · 1 pinch cayenne pepper
Grill and serve
Put the slices on a tray under the oven grill heated to its highest setting (about 250 °C), about 10 cm from the element, for 3–4 minutes, until the sauce bubbles and takes on dark patches. Scatter with chives and serve immediately, with pickles. It loses its charm as it cools — the sauce sets within minutes.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp chives · 100 g pickles
Bubbling with dark patches — three to four minutes.
Before you start
The cheese must be mature
A mild young cheese makes a decent sauce with no character. Mature cheddar (ideally aged 12 months or more) has enough flavour to carry through the beer and mustard; it melts less stringily, and the flour in the roux keeps the sauce from splitting.
Buck rarebit
The same toast with a poached egg on top is called buck rarebit and makes a full breakfast. The runny yolk melts into the cheese sauce, and the combination is better than it sounds.
Sauce ahead
Store the made sauce in the fridge for up to 3 days (it contains a barely cooked yolk) — it sets hard but spreads after a quarter of an hour at room temperature or 20 seconds in the microwave. Welsh rarebit in five minutes.
