HFF 4.2: Downstairs Dinner

The Challenge: Make a dish of the working classes.

The Recipe: Welsh Rabbit (sometimes called "Welsh Rarebit") from A Shilling Cookery for the People by Alexis Soyer

The Date/Year and Region: 1855, London

How Did You Make It: I tried the first three versions (after a fashion). I started by preheating the oven to 325F; while this was heating, I sliced three pieces of sourdough bread*, and slightly hollowed out a French roll. Once the oven was hot, I placed all of these on a pan in the oven, and toasted them for ~5 minutes per side. Meanwhile, I cut 4oz of Dubliner** cheese into 1/2" cubes, and set it in a saucepan over medium heat to melt, along with 1.5" oz ale, 1 tsp dry mustard (it didn't specify 'made' mustard versus the herb alone, so I guessed), and a dash each of salt and pepper. When I flipped over the bread, I added 1/4" slices of Gloucester*** cheese on top of one slice, with a dash of mustard and cayenne. Halfway through baking that side, I used a knife to spread the cheese better. When the cheese was thoroughly melted, and the bread toasted, I removed the bread from the oven, and poured the melted Dubliner cheese over the rest of the bread and the roll.

*Not the called-for quartern loaf, but the least weird option at the store. 

**The 1st and 3rd recipes do not specify a type of cheese.

***This should have been a single Gloucester according to the recipe, but the only Gloucester at the store was a double with onion and chives. It's quite tasty, but I fear the additions overwhelmed the other flavors.

Time to Complete: 15-20 minutes, including pre-heatinv the oven.

Total Cost: $5 for the small amount of cheese and bread used

How Successful Was It?: It's hard to go wrong with bread and cheese. The sourdough bread was a bit underwhelming, and I think the Dubliner cheese sauce on it was ok, but could use more flavor (it also had some texture issues where the cheese and ale would not fully mix, and the cheese tended to harden instantly, so perhaps I need it hotter or more vigorously stirred in order to poor it easily). Anyway, verdict on #1 is rich, but not amazing. I'd try it again with more seasoning and maybe some different bread and/or cheese. The Gloucester on sourdough (#2) was similar, but the mustard and cayenne disappeared under the onion and chives. I would like to try this again with unflavored Gloucester and maybe more mustard (and different bread?). It was much easier just melting the cheese directly onto the bread. The roll (#3) was my favorite: the French roll worked better with the melted cheese (same as #1), and nicely absorbed the runnier portions of the melted cheese. I actually liked it enough to make two more for my dinner. I'm inclined to make this "Welsh Rabbit" again, moreso than the others, but would still like to try some different cheeses.

How Accurate Is It?: I already noted the cheese/bread types, where there is room for improvement. I used an electric stove/oven, but see where this would be fairly easy to make on a woodstove or cooking hearth.

Diverse varieties of the "Welsh Rabbit"