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'Welsh rarebit' — or 'rabbit' — is a traditional Welsh snack, comparable to 'cheese on toast'.
Traditional 'rarebit' is made by grating cheese and blending it with beer or a little milk and butter, adding seasoning (particularly mustard), and spreading the mixture onto hot toast; the whole is then heated briskly from above (a procedure known as grilling in British English, broiling in North America).^[1] However, this last is a relatively new variation, dating from the widespread introduction of domestic electric and gas cookers in the early twentieth century. Traditionally the dish is a viscous liquid, normally poured or spooned. Classically the cheese used in Welsh rarebit is Lancashire, Cheddar or Double Gloucester, although Red Leicester is a popular substitute.
The Oxford English Dictionary states that it can also be "simply, slices of toasted cheese laid on toast", though this is more commonly known as 'cheese on toast'.

Contents

Name

Derivatives

Cheese on toast

Nightmares

See also

References

Further reading

Name

The OED establishes that the original name of the food was "Welsh rabbit", and mentions "Welsh rarebit" only as an "etymologizing alteration of [the preceding]. There is no evidence of the independent use of ''rarebit''". The source is not exactly known, but most likely was originally a slur. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was common in England to use the adjective "Welsh" for things of inferior quality, especially if these had been substituted for something better.^[2] This sense of "counterfeiting" may be connected with the use of "" or "" as a verb meaning "to refuse or avoid paying money laid as a bet". The first record of the term "Welsh rabbit" was in 1725, with the alternative form "rarebit" occurring from 1785. This highbrow distortion of using rarebit was a putdown of the Welsh and became part of the English language after Francis Grose inserted it in his dictionary of the vulgar tongue. ^[3] In the Victorian era and later, however, the latter form became preferred in recipe books. This was based on folk etymology — "rabbit", that is, was assumed to be a perversion of earlier "rarebit", although the reverse was in fact true.^[4] Although "Welsh rabbit" is still heard, "Welsh rarebit" is the more commonly used form now.^[5]

Derivatives

Sometimes a slice of tomato is placed atop the cheese mixture before grilling. When tomato or tomato soup is added to the cheese sauce, the resulting dish is called a 'blushing bunny'. There a number of other named derivatives. Perhaps because these are of recent origin, the spelling "rarebit" is more common for them. The 'buck rarebit' is a Welsh rarebit with a poached egg on top, the 'Irish rarebit' is topped with onions, vinegar, herbs, and gherkins. There is the 'Yorkshire rarebit' which is topped with both bacon and a poached egg. Other variations include the 'American rarebit' which is a Welsh rarebit topped with whisked egg whites, and the 'English rarebit' which uses red wine. A dish called 'Scotch rarebit' exists, although this comes close to cheese (preferably Dunlop) on toast. The 'King rarebit' is a normal Welsh rarebit with a fried egg on top.
This dish in some form is also common in other European countries. It is known as "Ramequin" or "Käseschnitte", although the French often use the term "Le Welsh", interestingly sometimes associated with Irish cuisine.

Cheese on toast

'Cheese on toast' is a simple snack dish prepared by putting cheese, usually sliced or grated, on top of bread and grilling it. Some people like to add onion, or extra flavouring, such as Brown sauce, Worcester sauce or tomato ketchup. The bread is usually unbuttered. Cheese on toast is distinguishable from Welsh rarebit since cheese is the only primary ingredient other than toast. Most commonly, cheddar cheese is used.
Some people do not distinguish between the two recipes and will call both cheese on toast or Welsh rarebit. Less common variations include using spreadable cheese.

Nightmares

Vivid nightmares are famously attributed to overindulgence in Welsh rarebit. This phenomenon is immortalized in ''Dreams Of A Rarebit Fiend'', a series of comic strips written and drawn by Little Nemo creator Winsor McCay beginning in 1904. Each strip portrayed a nightmare experienced by a protagonist, a rarebit who had made the poor choice of consuming too much rarebit before bedtime.
There is also a 1906 film based on McCay's comic strip named "Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend"^[6] by Edwin S. Porter, a special effects-filled journey through rarebit-induced nightmares. This film went on to inspire a Welsh rarebit-fueled nightmare sequence in the 1919 film "When the Clouds Roll By"^[7].
There was also an episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. in which the Welsh Rarebit that Gomer consumes causes him to sleepwalk and verbally attack Sergeant Carter.^[8]
A significant part of the Dad's Army episode ''A Soldier's Farewell'' revolves around a nightmare Captain Mainwaring suffers after eating toasted cheese. In it, he dreams he is Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo, and is defeated by a rather familiar-looking Wellington in Sergeant Wilson.
In the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie "Carefree (film)", Astaire plays Roger's psychiatrist and in an attempt to get her to realize her true desires he orders her a great deal of strange food, including Welsh rarebit, to eat for dinner in the hope that it will make her dream.

See also

★ Croque Madame

★ Croque Monsieur

★ ''Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend''

★ Grilled cheese sandwich

★ Monte Cristo sandwich

★ Horseshoe sandwich

★ Cheese roll

★ Pizza, which was called ''Italian Welsh Rarebit'' in the UK^[9]

References

1. See e.g. Food Network; BBC Food
2. Online Etymological Dictionary on ''Welsh''
3. Classical Dictionary of thye Vulgar Tongue, , Francis, Grose, , ,
4. Hoad, T. F. (Ed.) (1996) ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology''. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press
5. The Prevalence of Nonsense, , Ashley, Montagu, Harper and Row, , ISBN 0060041854
6. IMDB page on ''Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend''
7. ''When the Clouds Roll By'' on SilentEra.com
8. Episode summary for Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
9. 10 Things We Didn't Know Last Week from the BBC website..

Further reading

★ Cheese on toast for £345

★ How cheese on toast could be losing families £70 a year