Ahh, rarebit. I’ve been told that the name is based on “Rabbit”, but with the phonology of the Scottish or Welsh retained. The Welsh part comes from the silly notion that Welshman would have a pot ready for their rabbit stew, but they would never be able to nab a rabbit. Not wanting the heated pot to go to waste, they would dump some cheese, beer and whatever else they could find to make “rabbit” stew. I can only imagine some 17th century Wendy’s lady going “Where’s the Rabbit?”

Moving on, this is snack is based on putting some cheese on toast, but with some kick! This is a great mid-day snack. Be careful about eating this just before going to bed, the gastro-instenstial effects of some of the ingredients have been known to cause nightmares in some people

Ingredients
2 cups shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1/2 cup European* beer
2 tsp. butter or margarine
1/2 tsp. paprika or red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1 egg
4 slices toast

Directions
Cook cheese, beer, butter and dry ingredients in saucepan over a low heat until cheese is melted, and stir it every once in a while.

Next, take a bit (tablespoon or so) of the cheese sauce from saucepan and put into a small bowl, add the egg and beat together. Return the mixture to the saucepan and stir until well blended. Continue cooking until it’s thickened.

Make your toast and spoon the sauce on it. Yum!

*Keep the intended taste of the sauce by using only European or like-minded beers that have some taste to them. Killians Irish Red is good. Samual Adams is good. Local micro-brews are probably good. Bud, Coors, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Corona, etc are NOT.