National Welsh Rarebit Day

Welsh Rarebit

I’ve decided to honour National Day’s Not Saints days but all the odd, weird, funny National Days we hear about on the web.

So today is #NationalDay of  Welsh Rarebit (or Welsh Rabbit)

Mrs Glasse, in her cookbook The Art of Cookery (first published in 1747 and last published in 1843), gives recipes for “Scotch rabbit”, “Welch rabbit” and two versions of “English rabbit”.

To make a Scotch rabbit, toast the bread very nicely on both sides, butter it, cut a slice of cheese about as big as the bread, toast it on both sides, and lay it on the bread.

To make a Welch rabbit, toast the bread on both sides, then toast the cheese on one side, lay it on the toast, and with a hot iron brown the other side. You may rub it over with mustard.

To make an English rabbit, toast the bread brown on both sides, lay it in a plate before the fire, pour a glass of red wine over it, and let it soak the wine up. Then cut some cheese very thin and lay it very thick over the bread, put it in a tin oven before the fire, and it will be toasted and browned presently. Serve it away hot.

Or do it thus. Toast the bread and soak it in the wine, set it before the fire, rub butter over the bottom of a plate, lay the cheese on, pour in two or three spoonfuls of white wine, cover it with another plate, set it over a chafing-dish of hot coals for two or three minutes, then stir it till it is done and well mixed. You may stir in a little mustard; when it is enough lay it on the bread, just brown it with a hot shovel.

Served with an egg on top, a Welsh rarebit is known as a buck rabbit or a golden buck.

Kentucky Hot Brown is a variant that adds turkey and bacon to the traditional rarebit recipe.

Welsh rarebit blended with tomato (or tomato soup) is known as Blushing Bunny

Who knew there was so many variations of cheese on toast! How do you like yours?

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Nanna Jane