Welsh Rarebit is a delicious blend of savory ingredients: sharp cheddar, egg yolk, Worcestershire sauce, whole grain mustard and beer, piled onto slabs of toasted bread and broiled into a bubbly cheese sauce. A jammy sweet broiled tomato tops them off, a slight break from tradition that makes these cheese toasts even better.
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Why do they call it Welsh Rarebit?
And speaking of tradition, did you know that the Welsh Rarebit began as Welsh Rabbit? The original name caused some confusion considering that no rabbits are now or were ever harmed in the making of it. As Wikipedia explains: "The word rarebit is a corruption of rabbit, "Welsh rabbit" being first recorded in 1725 and the variant "Welsh rarebit" being first recorded in 1785 by Francis Grose." You may even find it on menus as "English rabbit" or "Scotch rabbit."
Whatever you call it, it’s absolutely delicious and ready to eat in less than 15 minutes.
You need only three ingredients to make an excellent grilled cheese sandwich: bread, most any variety will do; cheese, as long as it melts; and butter because it really does make everything better. But this isn't that kind of sandwich. It's related, but in a rowdy cousin kind of way.
It's complex, but not complicated. You can easily adjust the recipe to serve two or ten. Serve as an appetizer, or lunch or dinner as a side dish to steaming hot bowls of creamy Tomato Bisque.
Recipe Options
- Use any beer you like here from pale ale to a dark beer like Guinness.
- Spice up the melted cheese mixture with a pinch of hot paprika, cayenne pepper, or a few dashes of hot sauce like Tabasco.
- Swap creamy Dijon mustard in for the whole grain mustard.
How to make Welsh Rarebit
Step 1: Whisk together sharp cheddar, egg yolk, mustard, Worcestershire, and beer. Stir in cheese until coated.
Step 2: Season tomato slices then partially toast bread and tomatoes under broiler.
Step 3: Top toasted bread with cheese mixture.
Step 4: Broil until cheese is bubbly and tomato slices are tender.
step 5: Top broiled cheese mixture with tomatoes and serve.
Recipe Video
Welsh Rarebit
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon whole-grain mustard
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons beer
- ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 4 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 2 thick slices rustic sourdough loaf about 1-inch thick
- 4 slices Roma tomato about ¼-inch thick
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat broiler.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together mustard, egg yolk, beer and Worcestershire sauce. Season lightly with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir in shredded cheddar until well blended (the cheese should be uniformly wet with no liquid remaining on the bottom of the bowl.).
- Arrange bread slices and tomato slices on a baking sheet. Drizzle tomato slices with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Broil 3 minutes until bread is a light golden brown.
- Remove from broiler and spread cheese mixture evenly over each bread slice, all the way to the edges. Broil until melted and bubbly, 3 to 4 minutes more.
- Top of each bread slice with two broiled tomato slices on and serve immediately.
this is a SUPER good, simple rarebit recipe! I vastly prefer it to the ones that contain roux -- there's no need for that and it mutes the flavor. your version puffs up really beautifully while broiling and the tomatoes added afterwards are a delicious touch.
Hi Diane! I'm so glad you're enjoying the recipe. I love your cooking notes and agree 100% about the roux.
Worcestershire sauce isn't vegetarian. It's made from fish
Hi, Max. There are several brands that offer a vegetarian version. One of my favorites is a vegan version - you can find it here.
This is wonderful, as is the tomato bisque recipe which I made to go with it, as suggested. I felt like I'd gone to a nice bistro for lunch. THANK YOU, Marissa!
That is wonderful to hear, Jackie! Thank you so much. 🙂
Such a cute name! I've heard of it many times but have never tried it. It looks delicious! Would be so awesome with a big bowl of tomato bisque!
Love how you think, Kelly! Thank you!
I've never had welsh rarebit, but I need to make this! The photos are so enticing Marissa!
Thanks so much, Leanne!
Your recipe brought back fond memories. Will be trying soon.
So glad to hear it, Larry. I hope you'll enjoy it!
Oftentimes on Sunday, we will have our big meal of the day in the afternoon. On those occasions we want something lighter for our evening meal and this would be perfect.
That's wonderful, Karen! Thank you.
My grandmother used to make Welsh Rarebit all the time and I love it! It was sort of her "famous" dish. So good with those tomato slices and in grilled cheese form, oh my!
How fun! The tomato slices definitely add that little something!!
i haven't had this for years. mum used to make it often for us as children. i guess it was a cheap way to feed 4 kids.:) but we always and only knew it as Welsh rabbit. It was meant to fool you into thinking you were eating some kind of meaty protein i suppose....kinda like welsh broth which is water.. cheers sherry
Thanks, Sherry! I love it! I've never heard of Welsh broth...kind of like 'stone soup' I suppose...
It is absolutely delicious! The food of my birthday...if you follow those food holidays! 😉 The flavor is just jumping off the page, my friend! YUM!
That's so cool, Annie! I'll have to look mine up too. 🙂 Thank you!
I have never tried Welsh Rarebit Marissa, but I'm totally game! It looks delicious!
Yay! I hope you love it, Mary Ann!
I like this rowdy cousin!! Behaving is sometimes overrated, lol!! Girl, you know me and my cheese - loves it, I do 😉 Great twist with the tomato....that way if I have more than one piece, I won't mind cause the tomato practically makes it a health food...hehehe...that's my story and I'm stickin' to it 🙂
So true, we can't behave all the time, right? 😉 Thanks, dear!
Haha! I love that you described this one as the rowdy cousin of a grilled cheese sandwich. I've never met a grilled cheese I didn't like, so I'm pretty sure I'm on board here, too! Funny thing, though: I totally thought Welsh Rarebit had rabbit in it, too...but I've never actually stopped to look at a recipe. Thanks for the history there!
David, I've learned so many fun facts from your posts, I'm glad I could share one with you! Thanks, friend. 🙂
This looks so delicious, just perfect for a quick lunch and nice to read a little about the history of the name.
Thanks so much, Miriam!