Welsh rarebit, Welsh rabbit, or occasionally simply rarebit, is traditionally a savory sauce made from a mixture of cheese and various other ingredients and served hot over toasted bread. The term "Welsh rarebit" refers to a dish most commonly served in Great Britain and the United States. The original name(s) apparently date from the 18th century in Great Britain. ^[1]

Various recipes for Welsh rarebit include the addition of ale, mustard, ground cayenne pepper or ground paprika^[2][3][4] and Worcestershire sauce^[5][6]. Ale is a type of Beer brewed from Malted Barley using a top-fermenting Brewers' yeast. For other uses see Mustard. The Multi-Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device or MUSTARD was a concept explored by the British The Cayenne is a red hot Chili pepper used to flavor dishes and for medicinal purposes Paprika is a spice made from the grinding of dried sweet red or green Bell peppers ( Capsicum annuum) Worcestershire sauce (ˈwʊstəˌʃɪə wooster-sheer is a widely used fermented liquid Condiment first made at 68 Broad Street Worcester by two The sauce may also be made by blending cheese and mustard into a sauce béchamel^[7][8] (a sauce Mornay). Béchamel sauce (beɪʃəˈmɛl in English beʃaˈmɛl in French beʃaˈmɛlla in Italian also known as white sauce, is a basic Sauce that is used as the base A Mornay sauce is a Béchamel sauce with shredded or grated Cheese added Some recipes for Welsh rabbit have become textbook savoury dishes listed by culinary authorities including Escoffier, Saulnier, Hering and others, who tend to use the form Welsh rarebit, emphasizing that it is not a meat dish. Georges Auguste Escoffier (28 October 1846&ndash12 February 1935 was a French Chef, Restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated Le Répertoire de La Cuisine by Louis Saulnier, is a Reference book available in the original French and in English Translations In the United States, a frozen prepared sauce^[9] by Stouffer's can be found in supermarkets. Stouffer's is a brand of frozen prepared foods available in the United States and Canada.

Acknowledging that there is more than one way to make a rarebit, some cookbooks have included two recipes: the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book of 1896 has two recipes, one béchamel-based, the other with beer,^[8] The Constance Spry Cookery Book of 1956 has two recipes, one with flour and one without^[7], Le Guide Culinaire of 1907 has two recipes for 'Welsh Rarebit', one with ale and one without^[2]. The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book ( 1896) by Fannie Merritt Farmer is a 19th century general reference cookbook which is still available both in reprint Constance Spry ( December 5 1886 - January 3 1960) was a famous British Florist and Author in the mid-20th century Georges Auguste Escoffier 's Le Guide culinaire is a pivotal book in the history of European Haute cuisine, being Escoffier's largely

The term rarebit is to some extent used for variants on the dish, especially buck rarebit which has a poached egg added, either on top of or beneath the cheese sauce. A poached egg is an egg that has been cooked by poaching. No oil or fat is used in its preparation

It is typically made with Cheddar cheese, in contrast to the Continental European fondue which classically depends on Swiss cheeses and of which Welsh rabbit is a local variant^[7]. Cheddar cheese is a relatively hard pale yellow to off-white and sometimes sharp-tasting Cheese from the English village of Cheddar, in Somerset Fondue is a Swiss communal dish shared at the table in an Earthenware pot ( Caquelon) over a small burner ( rechaud)

Origin of the names

The first recorded use of the term Welsh rabbit was in 1725, but the origin of the term is unknown. Year 1725 ( MDCCXXV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a ^[1] It may be an ironic name coined in the days when the Welsh were notoriously poor: only better-off people could afford butcher's meat, and while in England rabbit was the poor man's meat, in Wales the poor man's meat was cheese. The Welsh people ( Welsh: Cymro ("Welshman" Cymraes ("Welsh woman" Cymry ("Welshmen/women" Cymry It may be a slur against the Welsh, since the dish contains no meat and so was considered inferior. Then again, because the word Welsh was at the time used by the English to describe anything inferior or foreign, it may allude to the dish's Continental European origin.

It is also possible that the dish was attributed to Wales because the Welsh were considered particularly fond of cheese, as evidenced by Andrew Boorde in his Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge (1542), when he wrote "I am a Welshman, I do love cause boby, good roasted cheese. Andrew Boorde or Borde (1490&ndashApril 1549 was an English traveller Physician and Writer. "^[10] In Boorde's account, "cause boby" is the Welsh caws pobi, meaning "roasted cheese". It is the earliest known reference to cheese being eaten cooked in the British Isles but whether it implies a recipe like Welsh rabbit is a matter of speculation.

A legend mentioned in Betty Crocker's Cookbook claims that Welsh peasants were not allowed to eat rabbits caught in hunts on the estates of the nobility, so they used melted cheese as a substitute. Betty Crocker, an invented Persona and Cultural icon, is a Brand name and Trademark of American food company Rabbits are small Mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world Nobility is a government-privileged title which may be either hereditary (see Hereditary titles) or for a lifetime Cheese is a Food made from Milk, usually the milk of cows, Buffalo, Goats or sheep, by coagulation. The cookbook writes that Ben Jonson and Charles Dickens ate Welsh rabbit at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a pub in London. Benjamin Jonson ( c 11 June 1572 &ndash 6 August 1637) was an English Renaissance Dramatist Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is an old Public house in the City of London, England, located just off Fleet Street, on Wine Office Court London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. ^[11] There is no good evidence for any of this; what is more, Ben Jonson died almost a century before the term Welsh Rabbit is first attested^[1].

The term Welsh rarebit was evidently a later corruption of Welsh rabbit, being first recorded in 1785 by Francis Grose, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. This article is about the writer For his son the Governor of New South Wales, see Francis Grose (Lieutenant-Governor. The entry in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage is "Welsh rabbit, Welsh rarebit" and states: "When Francis Grose defined Welsh rabbit in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue in 1785, he mistakenly indicated that rabbit was a corruption of rarebit. Merriam-Webster, which was originally the G & C Merriam Company of Springfield Massachusetts, is an American company that publishes reference books It is not certain that this erroneous idea originated with Grose. . . . "^[12]

According to the American satirist Ambrose Bierce, the continued use of rarebit was an attempt to rationalize the absence of rabbit, writing in his 1911 Devil's Dictionary: "RAREBIT n. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24 1842 &ndash 1914? was an American Editorialist Journalist, short-story writer and Satirist. A Welsh rabbit, in the speech of the humorless, who point out that it is not a rabbit. To whom it may be solemnly explained that the comestible known as toad in the hole is really not a toad, and that ris de veau à la financière is not the smile of a calf prepared after the recipe of a she banker. Toad in the hole is also the name of a pub game See Entombed animal for the paranormal phenomenon Ris de veau are Veal Sweetbreads. They are an ingredient of many Gourmet food recipes "^[13]

In his 1926 edition of the Dictionary of Modern English Usage, the grammarian H. W. Fowler states a forthright view: "Welsh Rabbit is amusing and right. Henry Watson Fowler ( 10 March 1858 – 26 December 1933) was an English schoolmaster Lexicographer and commentator Welsh Rarebit is stupid and wrong. "^[14]

The word rarebit has no other use than in Welsh rabbit^[1] and, regardless of its evidently erroneous origin, "rarebit" alone has come to be used in place of the original name^[15].

References

See also

• Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
• Cheese on toast
• Croque Madame
• Croque Monsieur
• Grilled cheese sandwich
• Monte Cristo sandwich
• Cheese roll

A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, often referred to as Fowler's Modern English Usage or simply as Fowler's or Fowler Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, sometimes referred to simply as Brewer's — is a Reference work containing definitions and explanations of many Cheese on toast is a simple snack made by melting cheese on a slice of toast A croque-monsieur is a hot ham and Cheese (typically emmental or gruyère) grilled Sandwich. A croque-monsieur is a hot ham and Cheese (typically emmental or gruyère) grilled Sandwich. A grilled cheese sandwich (also known as a cheese toastie or toasted cheese sandwich is a toasted or fried sandwich consisting of two slices of bread A Monte Cristo is a Sandwich of ham, Turkey, and Swiss cheese between batter-dipped grilled or fried bread A cheese roll (occasionally known by the older name of Cheese roll-up) is a snack food similar to Welsh rarebit, but created by covering a slice of Bread

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