The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving. As we research for our daily content, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know.

We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in a new section titled “Did You Know?”.

For today’s Did You Know we will look at Welsh Rarebit fun facts.

Welsh Rarebit Fun Facts: Welsh rarebit or Welsh rabbit is a dish made with a savory sauce of melted cheese and various other ingredients and served hot, after being poured over slices (or other pieces) of toasted bread, or the hot cheese sauce may be served in a bowl accompanied by sliced, toasted bread.

  • The names of the dish originate from 18th-century Great Britain.
  • The word rarebit is a corruption of rabbit, “Welsh rabbit” being first recorded in 1725 and the variant “Welsh rarebit” being first recorded in 1785 by Francis Grose. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, ‘Welsh rarebit’ is an “etymologizing alteration. There is no evidence of the independent use of rarebit”.
  • September 3rd is National Welsh Rarebit Day.
  • Welsh rarebit is typically made with Cheddar cheese, in contrast to the Continental European fondue which classically depends on Swiss cheeses.
  • Acknowledging that there is more than one way to make a rarebit, some cookbooks have included two recipes: the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book of 1896 provides one béchamel-based recipe and another with beer, Le Guide Culinaire of 1907 has one with ale and one without, and the Constance Spry Cookery Book of 1956 has one with flour and one without.
  • American cartoonist Winsor McCay had an intriguing insight into the effects of the Welsh rarebit where characters often awoke from dreams after eating the delicious dish. His comic strip titled Dream of the Rarebit Fiend was published in newspapers from 1904 to 1925, and made into a silent movie of the same name in 1906.
  • A legend mentioned in Betty Crocker’s Cookbook claims that Welsh peasants were not allowed to eat rabbits caught in hunts on the estates of the nobility, so they used melted cheese as a substitute.

Welsh Rarebit Facts We Missed

Let us know if we missed any Welsh Rarebit in the comment section below. If we can verify that the facts is just that, a fact, we will give the reader credit in the article.

Reference: Wikipedia: Fun Facts about Welsh Rarebit.