Spider killer toasted cheese

Dog3 said:

Bob, the sammich sounds delightful. I've had a Norbury cheese in the past
but never a Shropshire cheese. I looked it up on Google and found a ton of
sites on it. Shropshire appears to be very similar to Norbury. Can you buy
the Shropshire locally?

I can get Shropshire locally in several places. It's very pungent as
it uses Roquefort mold. The San Francisco Bay Area has great cheese
availability not to mention a lot of little boutique cheesemakers who
are very good at recreating other foreign cheeses. This is a good
thing because CA commercial cheese pretty much sucks. I don't know if
the rest of you are subject to the huge "California Cheese" ad
campaign, but it's a it's all bull.

I'll keep a lookout for Norbury. There's a place in Berkeley that has
a fantastic cheese shop. My favorite blue (I'm a cheddar and blue
freak) is Cabrales from Spain. This stuff is fantastico!

nb

"notbob" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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<snip>

Quoted message said:

I want to try the classic rarebit and add some porter and mustard.
Anyone have any experience they could contribute with this classic old
dish, such as recipe steps, amount of porter, etc? Also, anyone know
where to get a toasted cheese dish? I'm an incurable cooking utensil
freak and would like to find one if such a thing is still available.

nb

There is no single classic rabbit recipe. However, the kind you have in mind
is an excellent choice. This is an update (using a mixer) to a very old
recipe from Magdalen College, Oxford. It is a favorite of mine. Just use
porter as the ale you use. If you would like to try one of the earliest
versions (ca 1700s) of toasted cheese/rabbit, you can cut a thick slice of
country bread and toast it. Soak it with about a quarter cup of dark ale (or
a little more depending on it's size) and put a thin layer of prepared
mustard on top. Top the bread with slices of any good cheese and put it
under a broiler for a few minutes until the cheese is partly melted and
browned.

As for toasted cheese dishes, I have seen them in sales of used silverplate.
They are listed as "covered toasted cheese dishes" I am sorry I can't be
more specific but I couldn't afford it and really didn't need it when I saw
them. I have also seen a modern version made of aluminum listed as something
else (some kind of egg dish I think) but essentially the same design as the
early toasted cheese dishes. The covers are important BTW for keeping the
cheese warm during serving.

Charlie

MAGDALEN RABBIT

Recipe from: Magdalen College

6 oz. Glouster cheese (or Cheddar)
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
cayenne pepper
ale

Coarsely grate cheese into a mixer bowl. Add the lemon juice, mustard, a
pinch of the cayenne and enough ale to make a smooth paste. Spread the
creamy mixture over crisp toast and place under the broiler for about 5
minutes or until the cheese is a golden brown.

Charles Gifford said:

is an excellent choice. This is an update (using a mixer) to a very old
recipe from Magdalen College, Oxford....

So, that's Welsh Rarebit.

I'm a dead man!

nb

notbob said:

San Francisco sourdough and some Shropshire cheese sounds
like an excellent start.

Bay Area? Where are you, Bob?

sf said:

Bay Area? Where are you, Bob?

Out on the mild frontier of Eastern Alameda ...and my name is not
Bob! 😉

nb

Good thread, Notbob, and good rec., but, how do you suppose Killick
prepared it on a crowded little frigate like the H.M.S. Suprise without
that propane torch and toaster oven? And did he make it on those
weevily ship's biscuits? eeeuuu..

D. "make mine manchego..." M.

D.A.Martinich said:

Good thread, Notbob, and good rec., but, how do you suppose Killick
prepared it on a crowded little frigate like the H.M.S. Suprise without
that propane torch and toaster oven? And did he make it on those
weevily ship's biscuits? eeeuuu..

Let's let Mr. O'Brian explain it:

"At one time this supper had consiisted of toasted cheese held in a
remarkably elegant piece of Irish sillver, a covered outer dish that
held six within it, the whole kept warm over a spirit-stove: the dish
was stil present, gleaming with a noble brilliance, but it held ony a
pap made of pounded biscuit, a little goat's milk and even less of
rock-hard cheese-rind rasped over the top and browned with a loggerhead
so that some faint odour of cheddar could stil just be made out."
-- Wine Dark Sea, 61

A loggerhead is an iron ball on the end of a metal rod and is used for
heating/melting tar/pitch into the ship's deck/planking seams.
Basically, it's a nautical version of a cooks hand held salamander and
no doubt works just as well on cheese as it does on tar.

nb

Hmmmm- I'll have to try that with some of my old Reggiano crust.

DM

"Ophelia" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Rabbit is the original term and you are right that rarebit is the modern
word for it

Rabbit is likely the original term or at least one of several names for this
process. Rarebit is not modern unless you consider the 1700s modern.

Quoted message said:

I have seen this from very old cookery books

Ophelia

I have seen a refrence to cheese rabbit from the late 1600s in one journal.
There are many from the 18th century. I've never seen one from the 16th
century. Anyway, here are comments by two very trusted people:

"Deane Duane: It's (rarebit) a fancy version that started coming into use
in the mid 1800's. Until then, from the 1600's, it was always "rabbit".
Having been in Wales recently, I never saw it spelled any other way than
"rabbit" - when they weren't calling by it by it's even earlier name, that
is: "caws pobi": which means toasted cheese."

"Victor Sack: According to the OED, Welsh Rarebit is "an etymologizing
alteration of Welsh Rabbit. There is no evidence of the independent use of
rarebit." The first reference cited for Welsh Rabbit is from 1725, the first
one for Welsh Rarebit is from 1785."

As Deane also points out elsewhere, the dish is almost certainly an English
concoction regardless the name "Welsh".

Charlie

Charles Gifford said:

As Deane also points out elsewhere, the dish is almost certainly an English
concoction regardless the name "Welsh".

Welsh, Smelsh! ....where the heck does the rabbit come from? Unless
someone is milking rabbits, I can make no logical connection from
toasted cheese to rabbit.

nb

"notbob" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Welsh, Smelsh! ....where the heck does the rabbit come from? Unless
someone is milking rabbits, I can make no logical connection from
toasted cheese to rabbit.

nb

Other than being of English origin, nobody knows. There are a lot of
"guesses" and theories, but nothing definitive.

Charlie