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{{Short description|British dish of cheese sauce on toast}}
{{for|the radio variety show|Welsh Rarebit (radio programme)}}
{{For|the radio variety show|Welsh Rarebit (radio programme)}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox prepared food
{{Infobox food
| name = Welsh rarebit
| name = Welsh rarebit
| image = Rarebit loz.png
| image = Welsh rarebit.JPG
| image_size = 300
| image_size = 300
| caption =
| caption =
| alternate_name = Welsh rabbit (original name)
| alternate_name = Welsh rabbit
| country = [[United Kingdom]]<!---Please do not change this to "England" or "Wales" unless you can provide a reliable secondary source which explicitly states that Welsh rabbit was invented in England or Wales.--->
| country =
| region =
| region =
| creator =
| creator =
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| type = [[Savoury (small dish)|Savoury]]
| type = [[Savoury (small dish)|Savoury]]
| served =
| served =
| main_ingredient =
| main_ingredient = Cheese, bread
| variations = Buck Rabbit, Blushing Bunny, [[Hot Brown]]
| variations = Buck rabbit, blushing bunny, [[Hot Brown]]
| calories =
| calories =
| other =
| other =
}}
}}
'''Welsh rarebit''' (spelling based on [[folk etymology]]) or '''Welsh rabbit''' (original spelling)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/welsh%20rabbit|title=Welsh Rabbit - Definition of Welsh rabbit by Merriam-Webster|publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/Welsh-rarebit |title=Welsh rarebit - definition of Welsh rarebit in English from the Oxford dictionary |publisher=}}</ref> is a traditional Welsh [[Dish (food)|dish]] made with a savoury [[sauce]] of melted [[cheese]] and various other ingredients and served hot, after being poured over slices (or other pieces) of [[toast]]ed [[bread]],<ref>Chris Roberts, ''Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind Rhyme'', Thorndike Press, 2006, {{ISBN|0-7862-8517-6}}</ref> or the hot cheese sauce may be served in a [[chafing dish]] like a [[fondue]], accompanied by sliced, toasted bread.<ref name="SpryHume" /> The names of the dish originate from 18th-century Britain.<ref name="oed" /> Despite the name, the dish contains no rabbit meat.


'''Welsh rarebit''' or '''Welsh rabbit''' ({{IPAc-en|'|r|ɛər|b|I|t}} or {{IPAc-en|'|r|ae|b|I|t}})<ref>{{OED|rarebit}}</ref> is a dish of hot [[cheese sauce]], often including [[ale]], [[mustard (condiment)|mustard]], or [[Worcestershire sauce]], served on [[Toast (food)|toasted bread]].<ref name="SpryHume" /> The origins of the name are unknown, though the earliest recorded use is 1725 as "Welsh rabbit" (possibly [[Irony|ironic]] or jocular as the dish contains no [[Rabbit#As food and clothing |rabbit]]); the earliest documented use of "Welsh rarebit" is in 1781. Variants include ''English rabbit, Scotch rabbit, buck rabbit, golden buck'', and ''blushing bunny''.
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==Sauce==


Though there is no strong evidence that the dish originated in [[Welsh cuisine]], it is sometimes identified with the Welsh '''caws pobi''' 'baked cheese', documented in the 1500s.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Witts|first=Nicholas|date=2017-02-04|title=A Brief History of Welsh Rarebit|url=https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/wales/articles/a-brief-history-of-welsh-rarebit/|access-date=2022-02-07|website=Culture Trip}}</ref>
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Recipes for Welsh rarebit include the addition of [[ale]], [[mustard (condiment)|mustard]], ground [[cayenne pepper]] or ground [[paprika]]<ref name="LeGuide">''[[Le Guide Culinaire]]'' by Georges Auguste [[Escoffier]], translated by H. L. Cracknell and R. J. Kaufmann</ref><ref>''[[Le Répertoire de la Cuisine]]'' by [[Louis Saulnier]], translated by E. Brunet.</ref><ref>''Hering's Dictionary of Classical and Modern Cookery'', edited and translated by Walter Bickel</ref> and [[Worcestershire sauce]].<ref>Recipes published on the labels of [[Lea and Perrins]] ([[H. J. Heinz Company|Heinz]]) Worcestershire sauce,</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://graphic-design.tjs-labs.com/show-picture?id=1093969680|title=IT TAKES MORE THAN BEER TO MAKE A PERFECT RAREBIT|publisher=}}</ref> The sauce may also be made by blending cheese and mustard into a [[Béchamel sauce]].<ref name="SpryHume">The Constance Spry Cookery Book by [[Constance Spry|Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume]]</ref><ref name="bcscb">[[Fannie Farmer|Farmer, Fannie M.]], ''[[Boston Cooking-School Cook Book]]'' Boston, 1896, {{ISBN|0-451-12892-3}}</ref> Some recipes for Welsh rarebit have become textbook [[savoury (small dish)|savoury dishes]] listed by culinary authorities including [[Auguste Escoffier]], [[Louis Saulnier]] and others, who tend to use the form Welsh ''rarebit'', emphasizing that it is not a meat dish.


⚫
==Sauce==
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 provides one béchamel-based recipe and another with beer,<ref name="bcscb" /> ''[[Le Guide Culinaire]]'' of 1907 has one with ale and one without,<ref name="LeGuide" /> and the ''[[Constance Spry]] Cookery Book'' of 1956 has one with flour and one without.<ref name="SpryHume" />
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Some recipes simply melt grated cheese on toast, making it identical to [[cheese on toast]]. Others make the sauce of cheese, [[ale]], and [[mustard (condiment)|mustard]], and garnished with [[cayenne pepper]] or [[paprika]].<ref name="LeGuide">[[Escoffier|Georges Auguste Escoffier]], ''[[Le Guide Culinaire]]'', translated by H. L. Cracknell and R. J. Kaufmann</ref><ref>[[Louis Saulnier (writer)|Louis Saulnier]], ''[[Le Répertoire de la Cuisine]]'', translated by E. Brunet.</ref><ref>''Hering's Dictionary of Classical and Modern Cookery'', edited and translated by Walter Bickel</ref> Other recipes add wine or [[Worcestershire sauce]].<ref>Recipes published on the labels of [[Lea and Perrins]] ([[H. J. Heinz Company|Heinz]]) Worcestershire sauce,</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://graphic-design.tjs-labs.com/show-picture?id=1093969680|title="It takes more than beer to make a perfect rarebit"|website=Gallery of Graphic Design|access-date=21 October 2023}}</ref> The sauce may also blend cheese and mustard into a [[béchamel sauce]].<ref name="SpryHume">The Constance Spry Cookery Book by [[Constance Spry|Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume]]</ref><ref name="bcscb">[[Fannie Farmer|Farmer, Fannie M.]], ''[[Boston Cooking-School Cook Book]]'' Boston, 1896, {{ISBN|0-451-12892-3}}</ref>


==Variants==
==Variants==
[[Hannah Glasse]], in her 1747 [[cookbook]] ''[[The Art of Cookery]]'', gives recipes for "Scotch rabbit", "Welsh rabbit" and two versions of "English rabbit".<ref>[[Hannah Glasse|Glasse, Hannah]], ''The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy, ...by a Lady'' (Posthumous edition, L. Wangford, London, c. 1770), p. 146. [https://archive.org/stream/artcookerymadep02glasgoog#page/n232/mode/2up Online 1774 edition read here]</ref>
[[Hannah Glasse]], in her 1747 [[cookbook]] ''[[The Art of Cookery]]'', gives close variants "Scotch rabbit", "Welsh rabbit" and two versions of "English rabbit".<ref>[[Hannah Glasse|Glasse, Hannah]], ''The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy, ...by a Lady'' (London: L. Wangford, c. 1775), p. 190. [https://archive.org/stream/artcookerymadep02glasgoog#page/n232/mode/2up]</ref>


<blockquote><p>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.
<blockquote><p>To make a ''Scotch rabbit'', toast a piece of 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.</p>


<p>To make a Welsh 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.
<p>To make a ''Welsh 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.</p>


<p>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.
<p>To make an ''English rabbit'', toast a slice of 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, and put it in a tin oven before the fire, and it will be toasted and browned presently. Serve it away hot.</p>


<p>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 enough lays it on the bread, just brown it with a hot shovel.</blockquote>
<p>Or do it thus. Toast the bread and soak it in the wine, set it before the fire, cut your cheese in very thin slices, 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.</p></blockquote>


[[File: Welsh rarebit with an egg.JPG|thumb|Buck rarebit (Welsh rarebit with an egg)]]
[[File:Welsh rarebit with an egg.JPG|thumb|Buck rarebit (Welsh rarebit with an egg)]]


Served with an egg on top, a Welsh rarebit is known as a ''buck rabbit''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/buck-rabbit|title=Definition of "buck rabbit" - Collins English Dictionary|publisher=}}</ref> or a ''golden buck''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/golden%20buck|title=Golden Buck - Definition of Golden buck by Merriam-Webster|publisher=}}</ref>
Served with an egg on top, it makes a ''buck rabbit''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/buck-rabbit|title=Buck rabbit definition and meaning |website=Collins Online Dictionary|access-date=21 October 2023}}</ref> or a ''golden buck''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/golden+buck|title=Definition of GOLDEN BUCK|website=Merriam-Webster|access-date=21 October 2023}}</ref>


Welsh rarebit blended with tomato (or tomato soup) is known as Blushing Bunny.<ref>Lily Haxworth Wallace, Rumford Chemical Works, ''The Rumford complete cookbook'', 1908, [https://books.google.com/books?id=BFsEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA196 full text, p. 196]</ref>
Welsh rarebit blended with tomato (or tomato soup) makes a ''blushing bunny''.<ref>Lily Haxworth Wallace, Rumford Chemical Works, ''The Rumford complete cookbook'', 1908, [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_BFsEAAAAYAAJ/page/n215 full text, p. 196]</ref>


A version of Welsh rarebit called ''{{lang|fr|Le Welsh}}'' is traditionally served in the French Nord-pas-de-Calais region.<ref>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-36665190</ref>
In France, ''{{lang|fr|un Welsh}}'' is popular in the [[Nord-Pas-de-Calais]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-36665190|title=Wales fans try the French Welsh rarebit|first=Max|last=Evans|date=30 June 2016|publisher=BBC}}</ref> and [[Côte d'Opale]] regions.


==Origin==
==Name==
The first recorded reference to the dish was "Welsh rabbit" in 1725, but the origin of the term is unknown.<ref name=oed>[[Oxford English Dictionary]], Second Edition, 1989.</ref>
The first recorded reference to the dish was "Welsh rabbit" in 1725 in an English context, but the origin of the term is unknown. It was probably intended to be jocular.<ref name=oed>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 3rd Edition, 2011, ''s.v.'' '[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/227751 Welsh rabbit]' and '[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/227752 Welsh rarebit]'</ref>

There is some suggestion that Welsh Rabbit derives from a [[South Wales Valleys]] staple, in which a generous lump of cheese is placed into a mixture of beaten eggs and milk, seasoned with salt and pepper, and baked in the oven until the egg mixture has firmed and the cheese has melted. [[Onion]] may be added and the mixture would be eaten with bread and butter and occasionally with the vinegar from pickled [[beetroot]].<ref>Stephens, M, 1986. Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales, OUP</ref><ref>Written recollections of the artist John Selway, 2013</ref>


===Welsh===
===Welsh===
"Welsh" was probably used as a pejorative [[dysphemism]],<ref>[[Eric Partridge]], ''Words, Words, Words!'', 1939, republished as {{isbn|1317426444}} in 2015, p. 8</ref> meaning "anything substandard or vulgar",<ref>Kate Burridge, ''Blooming English: Observations on the Roots, Cultivation and Hybrids of the English Language'', {{isbn|0521548322}}, 2004, p. 220</ref> and suggesting that "only people as poor and stupid as the Welsh would eat cheese and call it rabbit",<ref>Robert Hendrickson, ''The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins'', 1997, as quoted in Horn, "Spitten image"</ref><ref>''cf.'' "Welsh comb" = "the thumb and four fingers" in Francis Grose, ''A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue'', 1788, as quoted in the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', ''s.v.'' 'Welsh'</ref> or that "the closest thing to rabbit the Welsh could afford was melted cheese on toast".<ref>Roy Blount Jr., ''Alphabet Juice'', 2009, {{isbn|1429960426}}, ''s.v.'' 'folk etymology'</ref> Or it may simply allude to the "frugal diet of the upland Welsh".<ref>Meic Stephens, ed., ''The Oxford companion to the literature of Wales'', 1986, ''s.v.'', p. 631</ref> Other examples of such [[Culinary name#Humor|jocular food names]] are ''Welsh caviar'' ([[laverbread]]);<ref>Ole G. Mouritsen, ''Seaweeds: Edible, Available, and Sustainable'', 2013, {{isbn|022604453X}}, p. 150</ref> ''Essex lion'' (calf); ''Norfolk capon'' (kipper); ''Irish apricot'' (potato);<ref>E.B. Tylor, "The Philology of Slang", ''[[Macmillan's Magazine]]'', '''29''':174:502-513 (April 1874), p. 505</ref> ''[[Rocky Mountain oysters]]'' (bull testicles); and ''[[Scotch woodcock]]'' (scrambled eggs and anchovies on toast).<ref>Laurence Horn, "Spitten image: Etymythology and Fluid Dynamics", ''American Speech'' '''79''':1:33-58 (Spring 2004), {{doi|10.1215/00031283-79-1-33}} [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31406355_Spitten_image_Etymythology_and_Fluid_Dynamics full text]</ref>
The word ''Welsh'' may have been adopted because it carries a now-archaic sense in [[English people|English]] to mean "foreign, non-native" - an etymological phenomenon seen in its ultimate ancestor, the [[Proto-Germanic]] ''[[walhaz]]'' ("foreigner") and many of its descendants like the dated sense of [[German language|German]] {{wiktang|welsch}} ([[Romance language|Romance]]-speaker).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Welsh|title=Online Etymology Dictionary|publisher=}}</ref> It is also possible that the dish was attributed to the [[Welsh people|Welsh]] because they 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."<ref>[[Andrew Boorde]]: ''The Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, the which do the teache a man to speak part of all manner of languages, and to know the usage and fashion of all manner of countreys'' (1542)</ref> In Boorde's account, "cause boby" is the Welsh ''{{lang|cy|caws pobi}}'', meaning "baked cheese", but whether it implies a recipe like Welsh rarebit is a matter of speculation.


The dish may have been attributed to the Welsh because they were fond of roasted cheese: "I am a Welshman, I do love cause boby, good roasted cheese." (1542)<ref>[[Andrew Boorde]]: ''The Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, the which do the teache a man to speak part of all manner of languages, and to know the usage and fashion of all manner of countreys'' (1542)</ref> "Cause boby" is Welsh ''{{lang|cy|caws pobi}}'' 'baked cheese', but it is unclear whether this is related to Welsh rabbit.
===Rarebit===
[[File:Jielbeaumadier welsh 2010.jpg | 200px|right]]


===Rabbit and rarebit===
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]]. According to the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 'Welsh rarebit' is an "etymologiz<!-- Oxford spelling -->ing alteration. There is no evidence of the independent use of rarebit". The word ''rarebit'' has no other use than in Welsh rabbit.<ref name=oed/><ref>The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th edition (2006)</ref>
The word ''rarebit'' is a corruption of ''rabbit'', "Welsh rabbit" being first recorded in 1725, and "rarebit" in 1781.<ref name="oed"/> ''Rarebit'' is not used on its own, except in alluding to the dish.<ref name=oed/> In 1785, [[Francis Grose]] defined a "Welch rabbit" [sic] as "a Welch rare bit", without saying which came first.<ref>Francis Grose, ''A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue'', 1785, ''s.v.'' '[https://books.google.com/books?id=RyVKAAAAMAAJ&q=rare%20bit&pg=PA133 rabbit]' and '[https://books.google.com/books?id=RyVKAAAAMAAJ&q=rare%20bit&pg=PA176 Welch rabbit]'</ref> Later writers were more explicit: for example, Schele de Vere in 1866 clearly considers "rabbit" to be a corruption of "rarebit".<ref>Maximilian Schele de Vere, "Fated Words", ''Harper's New Monthly Magazine'', '''32''':188:202-207 (January 1866), p. 205</ref>


Many commentators have mocked the misconstrual of the jocular "rabbit" as the serious "rarebit":
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"Eighteenth-century English cookbooks reveal that it was then considered to be a [[Wiktionary:luscious#Etymology|luscious]] supper or [[tavern]] dish, based on the fine cheddar-type cheeses and the wheat bread [...] . Surprisingly, it seems there was not only a Welsh Rabbit, but also an English Rabbit, an Irish and a Scotch Rabbit, but nary a rarebit."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthmay.htm|title=Hunting The Welch Rabbit, Hearth to Hearth Article, JOA&C May 2000 Issue|publisher=}}</ref>
* [[Brander Matthews]] (1892): "few [writers] are as ignorant and dense as the unknown unfortunate who first tortured the obviously jocular Welsh rabbit into a pedantic and impossible Welsh rarebit..."<ref>Brander Matthews, ''Americanisms and Briticisms'', 1892, [https://books.google.com/books?id=GD07W2Zm_nsC&q=rarebit p. 39-40]; also in Brander Matthews: "As to 'American Spelling", ''Harper's New Monthly Magazine'', '''85''':506:277-284, p. 279</ref>
* Sivert N. Hagen (1904): "''Welsh rabbit''... is of jocular origin... Where, however, the word is used by the sophisticated, it is often 'corrected' to ''Welsh rarebit'', as if 'rare bit{{' "}}<ref>Sivert N. Hagen, "On the Origin of the term ''Edda''", ''Modern Language Notes'' '''19''':5:127-134 (May 1904), p. 132</ref>
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* [[Ambrose Bierce]] (1911): "{{Smallcaps|Rarebit}} ''n.'' 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."<ref>[[Ambrose Bierce]], ''[[Devil's Dictionary|The Devil's Dictionary]]'' in ''The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce'', v. 7, 1911, ''s.v.'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=q7NLAQAAMAAJ&dq=rarebit+welsh+rabbit&pg=PA274 p. 274]</ref>
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* [[Henry Watson Fowler|H. W. Fowler]] (1926): "Welsh Rabbit is amusing and right. Welsh Rarebit is stupid and wrong."<ref>Fowler, H. W., [[A Dictionary of Modern English Usage]], Oxford University Press, 1926</ref>


Welsh rabbit has become a standard [[savoury (small dish)|savoury]] listed by culinary authorities including [[Auguste Escoffier]], [[Louis Saulnier (writer)|Louis Saulnier]] and others; they tend to use ''rarebit'', communicating to a non-English audience that it is not a meat dish.
Michael Quinion writes: "Welsh rabbit is basically cheese on toast (the word is not 'rarebit' by the way, that's the result of false etymology; 'rabbit' is here being used in the same way as 'turtle' in [[mock turtle soup|'mock-turtle soup']], which has never been near a turtle, or 'duck' in '[[Bombay duck]]', which was actually a dried fish called bummalo)".<ref>Michael Quinion, ''World Wide Words'' http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/welsh.htm</ref>


⚫
"Eighteenth-century English cookbooks reveal that it was then considered to be a luscious supper or [[tavern]] dish, based on the fine cheddar-type cheeses and the wheat bread [...]. Surprisingly, it seems there was not only a Welsh Rabbit, but also an English Rabbit, an Irish and a Scotch Rabbit, but nary a rarebit."<ref>Alice Ross, "Hunting The Welch Rabbit", ''Journal of Antiques and Collectibles'', May 2000</ref>
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''. It is not certain that this erroneous idea originated with Grose...."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=2yJusP0vrdgC&pg=RA3-PA952&dq=%22welsh+rabbit%22&sig=l5yBOfuSWhBHXwFRBCl_Q8MVGPw Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, p. 592] at books.google.com (accessed 9 November 2007)</ref>


==Extended use==
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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. Welsh Rarebit is stupid and wrong."<ref>Fowler, H. W., [[A Dictionary of Modern English Usage]], Oxford University Press, 1926</ref>
Since the 20th century, "rarebit", "rarebit sauce", or even "rabbit sauce" has occasionally been a cheese sauce used on [[hamburger]]s or other dishes.<ref>Gyula Décsy, ''Hamburger for America and the World'', 1984, {{isbn|0931922151}}, p. 31</ref><ref>Dawn Simonds, ''Best Food in Town: The Restaurant Lover's Guide to Comfort Food in the Midwest'', 2004, {{isbn|1578601460}}, pp. 47, 48, 59</ref><ref>"Universal sauces for main courses", Michael Greenwald, ''Cruising Chef Cookbook'', 2000, {{isbn|0939837463}}, p. 280</ref><ref>"From One Hostess ''to Another''", ''[[Good Housekeeping]]'', May 1919, p. 44</ref>


==In culture==
==In culture==
[[File:Winsor McCay - Dream of the Rarebit Fiend 1910-08-21.png|thumb|''[[Dream of the Rarebit Fiend]]'' by [[Winsor McCay]]]]
The notion that toasted cheese was a favourite dish irresistible to the Welsh has existed since the Middle Ages. In ''[[Shakespeare's Jest Book|A C Merie Talys]]'' (100 Merry Tales), a printed book of jokes of 1526 AD (of which [[William Shakespeare]] made some use), it is told that God became weary of all the Welshmen in heaven, 'which with their krakynge and babelynge trobelyd all the others', and asked the Porter of Heaven Gate, St Peter, to do something about it. So St Peter went outside the gates and called in a loud voice ' ''Cause bobe'', yt is as moche to say as ''rostyd chese'' ': at which all the Welshmen ran out, and when St Peter saw they were all outside, he went in and locked the gates, which is why there are no Welshmen in heaven. The 1526 compiler says he found this story 'Wryten amonge olde gestys'.<ref>In two known editions, one undated. W. Carew Hazlitt (Ed.), ''A Hundred Merry Tales: The Earliest English Jest-Book'', facsimile (privately published, 1887), fol xxi, verso [https://archive.org/stream/hundredmerrytale00hazl#page/n87/mode/2up Read here]. See also Hermann Oesterley (Ed.), ''Shakespeare's Jest Book. A Hundred Mery Talys, from the only perfect copy known'' (London 1866).</ref>
The notion that toasted cheese was a favourite dish irresistible to the Welsh has existed since the [[Middle Ages]]. In ''[[Shakespeare's Jest Book|A C Merie Talys]]'' (100 Merry Tales), a printed book of jokes of AD 1526 (of which [[William Shakespeare]] made some use), it is told that God became weary of all the Welshmen in [[Heaven]], 'which with their krakynge and babelynge trobelyd all the others', and asked the Porter of Heaven Gate, St Peter, to do something about it. So St Peter went outside the gates and called in a loud voice, '''Cause bobe'', yt is as moche to say as ''rostyd chese''<nowiki/>', at which all the Welshmen ran out, and when St Peter saw they were all outside, he went in and locked the gates, which is why there are no Welshmen in heaven. The 1526 compiler says he found this story 'Wryten amonge olde gestys'.<ref>In two known editions, one undated. W. Carew Hazlitt (Ed.), ''A Hundred Merry Tales: The Earliest English Jest-Book'', facsimile (privately published, 1887), fol xxi, verso [https://archive.org/stream/hundredmerrytale00hazl#page/n87/mode/2up Read here]. See also Hermann Oesterley (Ed.), ''Shakespeare's Jest Book. A Hundred Mery Talys, from the only perfect copy known'' (London 1866).</ref>

⚫
A legend mentioned in [[Betty Crocker|''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. The author also claims that [[Ben Jonson]] and [[Charles Dickens]] ate Welsh rarebit at [[Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese]], a pub in London.<ref>{{cite book | title=Betty Crocker's Cookbook | year=1989 | page=184 | publisher=Prentice Hall}}</ref> 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.<ref name="oed"/>

⚫
According to the American satirist [[Ambrose Bierce]], the continued use of ''rarebit'' was an attempt to rationalise the absence of rabbit, writing in his 1911 ''Devil's Dictionary'': "RAREBIT n. 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."<ref>''[[Devil's Dictionary]]'' by [[Ambrose Bierce]], 1911</ref>

In H. G. Wells's 1898 short story "[[The Man Who Could Work Miracles (story)]]" Mr. Fotheringay helps himself to a couple of Welsh rarebits "out of vacancy".

The comic strip "[[Dream of the Rarebit Fiend]]", by [[Winsor McCay]], featured the fantastic dreams that various characters had because they ate a Welsh rarebit before going to bed.


⚫
[[Betty Crocker|''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. It also claims that [[Ben Jonson]] and [[Charles Dickens]] ate Welsh rarebit at [[Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese]], a pub in London.<ref>{{cite book | title=Betty Crocker's Cookbook | year=1989 | page=184 | publisher=Prentice Hall}}</ref> It gives no evidence for any of this; indeed, Ben Jonson died almost a century before the term Welsh rabbit is first attested.<ref name="oed"/>
In "Gomer, the Welsh Rarebit Fiend", Season 3 Episode 24 of ''[[Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.]]'', indulging in Welsh rarebit causes Gomer (and later Sgt. Carter) to sleepwalk.{{cn|date=October 2018}}


Welsh rarebit supposedly causes vivid dreams. The 1902 book ''Welsh Rarebit Tales'' is a collection of short horror stories supposedly from members of a writing club who ate a dinner which included a large portion of rarebit immediately before sleeping in order to give themselves inspiring dreams.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cummins |first1=Harle Oren |title=Welsh Rarebit Tales |date=1902 |publisher=The Mutual Book Co |lccn=08010614}} {{Gutenberg | bullet=none | no=60294 | name=60294}}</ref> [[Winsor McCay]]'s comic strip series ''[[Dream of the Rarebit Fiend]]'' recounts the fantastic dreams that various characters have because they ate a Welsh rarebit before going to bed. In "Gomer, the Welsh Rarebit Fiend", Season 3 Episode 24 of ''[[Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.]]'', indulging in Welsh rarebit causes Gomer (and later Sgt. Carter) to sleepwalk and exhibit inverse personality traits.<ref>{{Cite web|website=IMDb|last=Ruskin |first=Coby |title=Gomer, the Welsh Rarebit Fiend |date=1967-03-01 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0589982/?ref_=ttep_ep24 |series=Gomer Pyle: USMC |access-date=2022-02-28}}</ref>
In the [[Neil Simon]] play [[Plaza Suite]], Act I character Karen Nash offers Miss McCormack a Welsh rarebit, in an effort to disrupt an impromptu meeting between her and Sam Nash, Karen's husband. (Nancy Enterprises, 1969)


A humorous appendix of anonymous authorship is sometimes added to the end of [[Thomas Browne]]'s ''[[Pseudodoxia Epidemica]]'', debating the existence and nature of the 'Welsh Rabbit' as though it were a real animal.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vulgar Errors: Welsh Rabbits |url=http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudoz.html |access-date=2023-03-03 |website=Writings of Sir Thomas Browne}}</ref>
In the film ''[[Phantom Thread]]'' (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017), Reynolds Woodcock orders a Welsh rarebit for breakfast with a poached egg, bacon, scones, jam (not strawberry), and sausages.{{cn|date=October 2018}}


==See also==
==See also==
Line 88: Line 85:
{{Portal|United Kingdom|Food}}
{{Portal|United Kingdom|Food}}
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* Other dishes of toasted bread and melted cheese:
* ''[[Dream of the Rarebit Fiend]]''
** [[Cheese roll]]
* [[Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (season 3)#Episodes|Gomer, the Welsh Rarebit Fiend]]
⚫
** [[Croque-monsieur]] and [[croque-madame]]
* [[Beer soup]]
* [[Cheese on toast]]
** [[Hot Brown]]
* [[Cheese roll]]
** [[Khachapuri]]
⚫
** [[Mollete]]
⚫
* [[Croque-monsieur]] and [[croque-madame]]
* [[Dagwood sandwich]]
** [[Grilled cheese sandwich]]
* [[Grilled cheese sandwich]]
** [[Horseshoe sandwich]]
* [[Horseshoe sandwich]]
** [[Monte Cristo sandwich]]
* [[Hot Brown]]
** [[Quesadilla]]
* [[Scotch woodcock]], a similarly-named savoury
* [[Jiggs dinner]]
* [[List of cheese dishes]]
⚫
* [[Mollete]]
* [[Monte Cristo sandwich]]
* [[List of Sandwiches]]
{{Div col end}}
{{Div col end}}
{{-}}


==References==
==References==
{{reflist|28em}}
{{Reflist}}


{{Cheese dishes}}
{{Cheese dishes}}
{{English cuisine}}
{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Welsh Rarebit}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Welsh Rarebit}}
[[Category:British cuisine]]
[[Category:British cuisine]]
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[[Category:British snack foods]]
[[Category:Cheese dishes]]
[[Category:Cheese dishes]]
[[Category:Bread dishes]]
[[Category:Toast dishes]]
⚫
[[Category:Welsh cuisine]]

Latest revision as of 08:27, 1 July 2024

For the radio variety show, see Welsh Rarebit (radio programme).

Welsh rarebit
Alternative namesWelsh rabbit
TypeSavoury
Place of originUnited Kingdom
Main ingredientsCheese, bread
VariationsBuck rabbit, blushing bunny, Hot Brown

Welsh rarebit or Welsh rabbit (/ˈrɛərbɪt/ or /ˈræbɪt/)[1] is a dish of hot cheese sauce, often including ale, mustard, or Worcestershire sauce, served on toasted bread.[2] The origins of the name are unknown, though the earliest recorded use is 1725 as "Welsh rabbit" (possibly ironic or jocular as the dish contains no rabbit); the earliest documented use of "Welsh rarebit" is in 1781. Variants include English rabbit, Scotch rabbit, buck rabbit, golden buck, and blushing bunny.

Though there is no strong evidence that the dish originated in Welsh cuisine, it is sometimes identified with the Welsh caws pobi 'baked cheese', documented in the 1500s.[3]

Sauce[edit]

Some recipes simply melt grated cheese on toast, making it identical to cheese on toast. Others make the sauce of cheese, ale, and mustard, and garnished with cayenne pepper or paprika.[4][5][6] Other recipes add wine or Worcestershire sauce.[7][8] The sauce may also blend cheese and mustard into a béchamel sauce.[2][9]

Variants[edit]

Hannah Glasse, in her 1747 cookbook The Art of Cookery, gives close variants "Scotch rabbit", "Welsh rabbit" and two versions of "English rabbit".[10]

To make a Scotch rabbit, toast a piece of 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 Welsh 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 a slice of 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, and 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, cut your cheese in very thin slices, 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.

Buck rarebit (Welsh rarebit with an egg)

Served with an egg on top, it makes a buck rabbit[11] or a golden buck.[12]

Welsh rarebit blended with tomato (or tomato soup) makes a blushing bunny.[13]

In France, un Welsh is popular in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais[14] and Côte d'Opale regions.

Name[edit]

The first recorded reference to the dish was "Welsh rabbit" in 1725 in an English context, but the origin of the term is unknown. It was probably intended to be jocular.[15]

Welsh[edit]

"Welsh" was probably used as a pejorative dysphemism,[16] meaning "anything substandard or vulgar",[17] and suggesting that "only people as poor and stupid as the Welsh would eat cheese and call it rabbit",[18][19] or that "the closest thing to rabbit the Welsh could afford was melted cheese on toast".[20] Or it may simply allude to the "frugal diet of the upland Welsh".[21] Other examples of such jocular food names are Welsh caviar (laverbread);[22] Essex lion (calf); Norfolk capon (kipper); Irish apricot (potato);[23] Rocky Mountain oysters (bull testicles); and Scotch woodcock (scrambled eggs and anchovies on toast).[24]

The dish may have been attributed to the Welsh because they were fond of roasted cheese: "I am a Welshman, I do love cause boby, good roasted cheese." (1542)[25] "Cause boby" is Welsh caws pobi 'baked cheese', but it is unclear whether this is related to Welsh rabbit.

Rabbit and rarebit[edit]

The word rarebit is a corruption of rabbit, "Welsh rabbit" being first recorded in 1725, and "rarebit" in 1781.[15] Rarebit is not used on its own, except in alluding to the dish.[15] In 1785, Francis Grose defined a "Welch rabbit" [sic] as "a Welch rare bit", without saying which came first.[26] Later writers were more explicit: for example, Schele de Vere in 1866 clearly considers "rabbit" to be a corruption of "rarebit".[27]

Many commentators have mocked the misconstrual of the jocular "rabbit" as the serious "rarebit":

  • Brander Matthews (1892): "few [writers] are as ignorant and dense as the unknown unfortunate who first tortured the obviously jocular Welsh rabbit into a pedantic and impossible Welsh rarebit..."[28]
  • Sivert N. Hagen (1904): "Welsh rabbit... is of jocular origin... Where, however, the word is used by the sophisticated, it is often 'corrected' to Welsh rarebit, as if 'rare bit'"[29]
  • Ambrose Bierce (1911): "Rarebit n. 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."[30]
  • H. W. Fowler (1926): "Welsh Rabbit is amusing and right. Welsh Rarebit is stupid and wrong."[31]

Welsh rabbit has become a standard savoury listed by culinary authorities including Auguste Escoffier, Louis Saulnier and others; they tend to use rarebit, communicating to a non-English audience that it is not a meat dish.

"Eighteenth-century English cookbooks reveal that it was then considered to be a luscious supper or tavern dish, based on the fine cheddar-type cheeses and the wheat bread [...]. Surprisingly, it seems there was not only a Welsh Rabbit, but also an English Rabbit, an Irish and a Scotch Rabbit, but nary a rarebit."[32]

Extended use[edit]

Since the 20th century, "rarebit", "rarebit sauce", or even "rabbit sauce" has occasionally been a cheese sauce used on hamburgers or other dishes.[33][34][35][36]

In culture[edit]

Dream of the Rarebit Fiend by Winsor McCay

The notion that toasted cheese was a favourite dish irresistible to the Welsh has existed since the Middle Ages. In A C Merie Talys (100 Merry Tales), a printed book of jokes of AD 1526 (of which William Shakespeare made some use), it is told that God became weary of all the Welshmen in Heaven, 'which with their krakynge and babelynge trobelyd all the others', and asked the Porter of Heaven Gate, St Peter, to do something about it. So St Peter went outside the gates and called in a loud voice, 'Cause bobe, yt is as moche to say as rostyd chese', at which all the Welshmen ran out, and when St Peter saw they were all outside, he went in and locked the gates, which is why there are no Welshmen in heaven. The 1526 compiler says he found this story 'Wryten amonge olde gestys'.[37]

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. It also claims that Ben Jonson and Charles Dickens ate Welsh rarebit at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a pub in London.[38] It gives no evidence for any of this; indeed, Ben Jonson died almost a century before the term Welsh rabbit is first attested.[15]

Welsh rarebit supposedly causes vivid dreams. The 1902 book Welsh Rarebit Tales is a collection of short horror stories supposedly from members of a writing club who ate a dinner which included a large portion of rarebit immediately before sleeping in order to give themselves inspiring dreams.[39] Winsor McCay's comic strip series Dream of the Rarebit Fiend recounts the fantastic dreams that various characters have because they ate a Welsh rarebit before going to bed. In "Gomer, the Welsh Rarebit Fiend", Season 3 Episode 24 of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., indulging in Welsh rarebit causes Gomer (and later Sgt. Carter) to sleepwalk and exhibit inverse personality traits.[40]

A humorous appendix of anonymous authorship is sometimes added to the end of Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica, debating the existence and nature of the 'Welsh Rabbit' as though it were a real animal.[41]

See also[edit]

Look up Welsh rarebit, Welsh rabbit, or rarebit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "rarebit". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  2. ^ a b The Constance Spry Cookery Book by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume
  3. ^ Witts, Nicholas (4 February 2017). "A Brief History of Welsh Rarebit". Culture Trip. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  4. ^ Georges Auguste Escoffier, Le Guide Culinaire, translated by H. L. Cracknell and R. J. Kaufmann
  5. ^ Louis Saulnier, Le Répertoire de la Cuisine, translated by E. Brunet.
  6. ^ Hering's Dictionary of Classical and Modern Cookery, edited and translated by Walter Bickel
  7. ^ Recipes published on the labels of Lea and Perrins (Heinz) Worcestershire sauce,
  8. ^ ""It takes more than beer to make a perfect rarebit"". Gallery of Graphic Design. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  9. ^ Farmer, Fannie M., Boston Cooking-School Cook Book Boston, 1896, ISBN 0-451-12892-3
  10. ^ Glasse, Hannah, The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy, ...by a Lady (London: L. Wangford, c. 1775), p. 190. [1]
  11. ^ "Buck rabbit definition and meaning". Collins Online Dictionary. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  12. ^ "Definition of GOLDEN BUCK". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  13. ^ Lily Haxworth Wallace, Rumford Chemical Works, The Rumford complete cookbook, 1908, full text, p. 196
  14. ^ Evans, Max (30 June 2016). "Wales fans try the French Welsh rarebit". BBC.
  15. ^ a b c d Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd Edition, 2011, s.v. 'Welsh rabbit' and 'Welsh rarebit'
  16. ^ Eric Partridge, Words, Words, Words!, 1939, republished as ISBN 1317426444 in 2015, p. 8
  17. ^ Kate Burridge, Blooming English: Observations on the Roots, Cultivation and Hybrids of the English Language, ISBN 0521548322, 2004, p. 220
  18. ^ Robert Hendrickson, The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 1997, as quoted in Horn, "Spitten image"
  19. ^ cf. "Welsh comb" = "the thumb and four fingers" in Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1788, as quoted in the Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. 'Welsh'
  20. ^ Roy Blount Jr., Alphabet Juice, 2009, ISBN 1429960426, s.v. 'folk etymology'
  21. ^ Meic Stephens, ed., The Oxford companion to the literature of Wales, 1986, s.v., p. 631
  22. ^ Ole G. Mouritsen, Seaweeds: Edible, Available, and Sustainable, 2013, ISBN 022604453X, p. 150
  23. ^ E.B. Tylor, "The Philology of Slang", Macmillan's Magazine, 29:174:502-513 (April 1874), p. 505
  24. ^ Laurence Horn, "Spitten image: Etymythology and Fluid Dynamics", American Speech 79:1:33-58 (Spring 2004), doi:10.1215/00031283-79-1-33 full text
  25. ^ Andrew Boorde: The Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, the which do the teache a man to speak part of all manner of languages, and to know the usage and fashion of all manner of countreys (1542)
  26. ^ Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785, s.v. 'rabbit' and 'Welch rabbit'
  27. ^ Maximilian Schele de Vere, "Fated Words", Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 32:188:202-207 (January 1866), p. 205
  28. ^ Brander Matthews, Americanisms and Briticisms, 1892, p. 39-40; also in Brander Matthews: "As to 'American Spelling", Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 85:506:277-284, p. 279
  29. ^ Sivert N. Hagen, "On the Origin of the term Edda", Modern Language Notes 19:5:127-134 (May 1904), p. 132
  30. ^ Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary in The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, v. 7, 1911, s.v., p. 274
  31. ^ Fowler, H. W., A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, Oxford University Press, 1926
  32. ^ Alice Ross, "Hunting The Welch Rabbit", Journal of Antiques and Collectibles, May 2000
  33. ^ Gyula Décsy, Hamburger for America and the World, 1984, ISBN 0931922151, p. 31
  34. ^ Dawn Simonds, Best Food in Town: The Restaurant Lover's Guide to Comfort Food in the Midwest, 2004, ISBN 1578601460, pp. 47, 48, 59
  35. ^ "Universal sauces for main courses", Michael Greenwald, Cruising Chef Cookbook, 2000, ISBN 0939837463, p. 280
  36. ^ "From One Hostess to Another", Good Housekeeping, May 1919, p. 44
  37. ^ In two known editions, one undated. W. Carew Hazlitt (Ed.), A Hundred Merry Tales: The Earliest English Jest-Book, facsimile (privately published, 1887), fol xxi, verso Read here. See also Hermann Oesterley (Ed.), Shakespeare's Jest Book. A Hundred Mery Talys, from the only perfect copy known (London 1866).
  38. ^ Betty Crocker's Cookbook. Prentice Hall. 1989. p. 184.
  39. ^ Cummins, Harle Oren (1902). Welsh Rarebit Tales. The Mutual Book Co. LCCN 08010614. 60294 at Project Gutenberg
  40. ^ Ruskin, Coby (1 March 1967). "Gomer, the Welsh Rarebit Fiend". IMDb. Gomer Pyle: USMC. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  41. ^ "Vulgar Errors: Welsh Rabbits". Writings of Sir Thomas Browne. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
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