Welsh Rarebit-another great way to eat my favorite thing: CHEESE!

So, this is really melted cheese on toast and yet, it isn’t. it isn’t because this cheese is REALLY GREAT cheese mixed with really great ingredients. This is not some crappy yellow-dyed cheddar sold in big blocks at Ralphs.  I started with Red Dragon cheddar which I obtained from Venissimo Cheese. This particular WELSH cheese has mustard and ale already built into it and then additional milk, butter, mustard and ale are added again and all of this is whisked together until it is a smooth sauce that is spooned over lightly toasted rye bread. Make no mistake, this is not for the faint of heart. Rye has a very decisive taste, so does mustard and ale. The total ingredients end up being a really creamy concoction that deserves to be one of Mimi Sheraton’s 1000 Foods to Eat Before You Die. 

The 1000 things book has prompted me to try all sorts of new foods and to revisit some that I had had before. I remember eating rarebit in 1988 when I spent a week in England after living in Germany for the year prior.  I took a day trip to Stonehenge and for lunch, we ate at a local café and had rarebit for the lunch. It wasn’t Wales but they served it.  I was 16 and just thought it was melted cheese on bread. This is close to something they had in Germany which I had eaten many times that they called (appropriately enough) “toast”.  Even then I liked melted cheese but certainly I have y come to appreciate GOOD cheese.  My suggestion in the time of Covid?  Since you can’t go to Wales, buy some really great Cheddar and have some melted cheese.  Mimi would approve.