Welsh rarebit

I admit to never having had this until today. And, I'm still not sure I actually had it, as it didn't turn out quite right. My partner, a celiac, just last night realized since there are now gluten-free beers, he could have this dish again. After an extensive Google search, I choose my recipe - very typical consisting of cheese, butter, beer, salt and pepper. Oh, and a little mustard.

But, the cheese, butter and beer never came together. Searching more, I saw other recipes including based on a bechemel. One person on a recipe site said that he/she added a little flour with the beer to keep it together.

It tasted OK, but the globby cheddar was annoying and ruined the dish. My partner remembers is being "saucier" when he ate it in the past. . .but that was over ten years ago, before he was diagnosed.

So, my question to those who have far more experience than I: what recipe to you use that keeps the whole thing together?

My own fixin's, developed after a little trial and error:

1 lb. grated sharp cheddar (preferably an English or Irish)
3/4 cup malty beer
1 tsp. mustard powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. Worchestershire sauce

No butter or flour. I often dial up the mustard and/or Worchestershire for more tang. I'll admit, too, to dosing it sometimes with Tabasco sauce.

I've seen recipes for Welsh Rarebit that use butter and flour, but the beer is replaced with milk. I have not tried these. It doesn't, somehow, seem quite Welsh.

I would hesitate to use flour in a beer-based rarebit. Depending upon the flour, the yeast in the beer may have some untoward consequences.

Cheers,
Wade

Hmm, I don't know what I did as it's been a decade or more since I last made it, but I don't remember it being too tough. One thing is, be sure to use really real cheddar; there's other oils and stuff in many supermarket cheddars that could throw its behavior off. (Sounds like you used good quality cheddar, but I just mention it anyway.

I wondered if the cheese was partially at fault. He decided this on a whim and I didn't have a good cheddar in the house and only Jewel was open when I went shopping. I normally do my cheese-buying at other places!

I will try it again with a different cheddar. I am limited by the beer, too, since he can't have 'regular' beer. Two years ago we had no beer, but now we have three brands! None of them are dark, much to our chagrin.

I might try it once with a bechemel, just to see what happens. Maybe just a small amount. The last time he had it was in Australia - like 15 years ago - so maybe he isn't remembering how "creamy" is was or wasn't.

On a similar topic, can I make mustard powder by grinding mustard seeds? Colemans has wheat in it, so I can't use that. The only other one I've noticed was at Whole Foods in the jars you use to fill little baggies - I don't know what's in it at all. I guess I could ask them, just didn't occur to me at the time.

Yeah, mustard powder is ground mustard seeds, so you sould be able to do it yourself.

If you don't want to, I would call up the Spice House, explain the gluten-free restriction, and ask them if there's anything but mustard in their mustard powder.

I've had success with low-quality cheddar (as I've been making it since I was a poor college student), the key is to keep the heat low and stir constantly. I've never failed that way.

In Wednesday's NY Times Mark Bittman has a recipe for Welsh Rarebit which you may want to try. It has flour which should help with the thickening.

December 27, 2006
Recipe: Welsh Rarebit
Time: About 20 minutes, plus cooling
Adapted from Fergus Henderson

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon mustard powder, or to taste
½ teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
¾ cup strong dark beer, like Guinness
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, or to taste
1 pound Cheddar, Double Gloucester or other English cheese (or other good semi-hard cheese, like Comté or Gruyère, or a mixture), grated
4 to 8 pieces lightly toasted bread.

1. Put butter in a saucepan over medium heat and, as it melts, stir in flour. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and very fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in mustard and cayenne, then whisk in beer and Worcestershire sauce.

2. When mixture is uniform, turn heat to low and stir in cheese, again stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and pour into a broad container to set (you can refrigerate for up to a day at this point).

3. Spread mixture thickly on toast and put under broiler until bubbly and edges of toast are crisp. Serve immediately.

Yield: 4 or more servings.

Thank you much! I'll see if this helps with the separation problem.