Feeling Cheesy

Feeling Cheesy



Cheese is one of my favorite foods. I can't get out of the local cheese store without spending $25 - $30, and that's snacking cheese. Just for the hell of it I did a count on SG and lost track at 45 recipes that include cheese. Sometimes the cheese is a main ingredient as in Welsh Rabbit, at other times it's a secondary ingredients as in Potato/Carrot Gratin. But whatever its role, cheese appears in appetizers, main dishes, breakfasts, and desserts. In this collection of recipes cheese is a key ingredient if not the main ingredient.

Peppers Stuffed with Feta: This recipe is one of my workhorses. They're good hot, room-temp, and even cold. They can be made a day in advance then baked just before serving. They're bright and colorful, making a great presentation. Depending on what you're serving them with, you can swap goat cheese for the feta to cut down on the saltiness and add more tartness. And changing up the herbs is always fair game.

Cheese Quick Bread: This is perhaps my favorite soup bread. It goes with all kinds of soups from Ciopino to Senate Bean Soup to Tomato Bisque to… well, it really goes with everything. And while it's not a last minute affair (it does need to cook for almost and hour and cool for nearly as long) it's faster than a yeast bread. It also makes great toast for breakfast and if you fry a couple of eggs over easy and slide them on then you're going to find mythological figures dropping in for breakfast.

Welsh Rabbit: I've loved Welsh Rabbit since I first had it at Chowning's Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg at age 10. I tried Chowning's rabbit again when was I there back in 2000 and it was exactly as I remembered for 30 years before. And delicious, but since then I've developed my own recipe and I like it better. Mine is a bit thicker even though it doesn't include either corn starch or eggs and it can go wrong. But it's pure cheesy goodness.

Veal with Feta Sauce - Rarified Circles: A few years back I did several cooking shows on local TV. I never got any business out of the effort - and it was an effort - so I haven't repeated it. It wasn't as though the TV station was going to pay me and without a sponsor it was a freebie. In fact, I had to buy the food and the people at the station ate it. The last show I did was a veal dish and I had veal cutlets left over, so when I got home I came up with this dish.

Cheshire Quiche: A friend of mine, Q Correll, developed this recipe. Onions, bacon, eggs, cream, and cheese is about as standard as you can get — except the cheese, good English Cheshire, produces an extraordinarily light quiche. I've no idea why. Q has no idea why. Nobody I've ever talked to has any idea why. But instead of the usual somewhat heavy custard one finds in most quiches this one almost floats through your mouth and down your gullet

Potato/Carrot Gratin: Orange and white are the colors of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville's home team. Personally I detest football and as a rule avoid anything orange and white because I don't want people getting the wrong idea. But this is so good with its layers of potatoes, carrots, herbs, and gruyere that I make an exception. You can make up the gratin a day in advance and refrigerate it, then pull it out and cook it the next day so it's a great party dish.

Strawberry Cheese: I came up with this recipe years ago for a Paper Chef contest entry. It features mascarpone and ricotta, lightly sweetened. This is served in an almond tuile and topped with a coarse strawberry puree flavored with Amaretto. Very elegant, very good and, except for the tuiles, very easy.

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Potato/Beer Chowder

Brewpub Basic



It's odd how the lunch culture varies from workplace to workplace. I worked at one company where everyone would go out and get fast food then (usually) bring it back and eat it at their desks. At the next place I worked I got involved with a crew that went out to lunch every day. Sometimes there'd be six or seven of us, sometimes just two or three, but it was always the same basic group.

In Oregon everyone brought their lunch to work, although we'd go out to eat at one of the three greasy spoons in the area about once a month (we called these "editorial bonding lunches"). While in New Hampshire everyone ate at the company cafeteria

We'd go out to eat at one of the three greasy spoons in the area about once a month (we called these "editorial bonding lunches").

In California we'd grill burgers outside every now and then, but for the most part everyone ate alone at their desks. However, there was a brewpub not far from the office and every three or four months we'd go there for lunch. The beer was good and the food, typical pub fare, wasn't bad on the whole. However they served a potato/beer chowder that was outstanding. So I'd usually order a cup of chowder and half a sandwich

Of course I had to try to duplicate the recipe and I managed to come very close, the trick turned out to be the combination of milk, beer, and chicken broth. The chicken broth took me awhile to figure out.

Potato/Beer Chowder
Serves 4.

1 1/2 lb Yukon Gold potatoes — peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
4 strips bacon
1/4 c all-purpose flour
1 lg onion — peeled and diced
1 c beer
1 c milk
2 c chicken broth
6 oz sharp cheddar cheese — shredded
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of cayenne pepper

Cook the bacon to desired doneness in a large soup pot over low heat. Drain bacon (reserving rendered bacon fat in the soup pot) and crumble.

Heat milk and beer in the microwave on high.

Add onion to bacon grease and cooking until lightly browned — about 5 minutes. Add flour to pot and stir, cooking, about 4 minutes longer. Stir in the milk and beer, being careful to avoid clumping and continue cooking until thickened.

Stir in the chicken broth. Add the potatoes and simmer until tender. Stir in the cheese a handful at a time, stirring between each addition until soup is homogenous. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Serve garnished with bacon and chopped green onions.

Try this chowder with...
Schwarma
Garlic Bread
Tomatoes Parmigiano

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Tartiflette au Reblochon

Stinky Cheese and Potatoes



I don't do New Year's resolutions — in fact that resolution is the only one I've ever kept. However, a year ago I decided to eat less meat. I was prompted by a couple of factors, first I wanted to simply eat less meat simply because I decided I was eating too much meat and second because when I did eat meat I wanted to take more care in sourcing it from local producers — and at those prices I can't afford to eat a lot of meat.

As a consequence I've become more sensitive to main-dish recipes that include little or, well, little meat. Somehow I just can't quite get to the point of going completely meatless. However, there are loads of dishes such as stir fries, casseroles, soups, and so on that, while they include some meat, it doesn't hold center place. When I saw a recipe for Tartiflette, a potato and cheese casserole form the Savoy region of France that contains a bit of bacon I immediately had to learn more.

The word "reblochon" is derived from reblessa, which means "to steal."

From what I could find tartiflette isn't a traditional recipe but was created in the 80s by an association of reblochon cheese-makers to promote their cheese. Reblochon is a soft, washed-rind cheese similar to brie in appearance. Unlike brie, though, it's a somewhat "stinky" cheese.

The word "reblochon" is derived from reblessa, which means "to steal." During the middle ages the farmers were taxed on their milk so they would milk once for the tax collectors and then sneak back out later and milk the cows a second time thus stealing the milk. The second milking produced milk much higher in butter fat. The true reblochon is made fome raw milk and is aged no more than six to eight weeks. Because it's aged less than 90 days the true reblochon can't be imported.

Although gruyere is often recommended as a replacement, gruyere is a hard waxy cheese. On the recommendation of a cheese expert, I chose Italian talegio as a substitute, he also suggested Italian Bel Paese. A French chef on a forum suggested a young French raclette as well and I can see that working.

I was really pleased with the dish. It's deeply rich and savory with an unctious mouthfeel and a distinctly pungent odor.

Tartiflette
Serves 6.

1 1/2 lb Yukon Gold potatoes — peeled
1/2 lb reblochon (or telagio, bel paese, or soft raclette)
5 oz bacon
1 md onion — diced
1/4 c dry white wine
6 tbsp crème fraiche
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp butter

Choose potatoes that are roughly the same size, and boil for about 20 minutes until slightly tender but not cooked through. Drain and allow to cool.

Heat oven to 350F.

Slice cheese 1/4-inch thick and do not remove rind. Reserve.

Cook bacon in a skillet over medium low heat until just slightly crisp. Drain bacon on a paper towel and pour all but about a tablespoon of bacon grease out of the skillet. Let bacon cool a bit, then chop very coarsely. Increase heat to medium and sauté until translucent. Add wine and reduce by half.

Cut potatoes into 1/3-inch thick slices. Butter a 9-inch casserole dish (the photo above is of individual casseroles) and layer 1/2 of potatoes in the bottom. Season generously with salt and pepper. Spread with crème fraiche. Then layer with onions, bacon, and half the cheese.

Layer on remaining potatoes, season with salt and pepper, and add remaining cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour. Remove foil, turn on broiler, and broil until golden brown.

Try the tarteflette with...
Braised Red Cabbage
Pureed Cauliflower
Triple Fudge Brownies

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Saganaki

Greek Meze Extraordinaire



A few years back I catered a tapas/meze party for my parents. As someone who is inordinately fond of tapas (Spain), meze (Greece), apertivos/antipasti (Italy), and hors d'Oeuvres (France) I had a ball coming up with a menu. I have. I didn't stick to a particular cuisine but instead came up with a smorgasbord of bite-sized munchies.

I served Mushrooms Stuffed with Pancetta and Sun-dried Tomatoes, Spanish Chorizo baked in Wine and Herbs, Artichoke Bruschetta, Pinchos Morinos (I did these as small cubes of meat), Spanokopitas, Lemon-Chicken Strips, Keftedes, Feta-Stuffed Peppers, Tuna-stuffed Eggs, and Saganaki. I'd made all of these dishes before — at least in some form — except the saganaki.

The saganaki got the most comments, and no wonder, it's not only good to eat, but is also fun to eat.

Saganaki is a Greek fried cheese dish and can be made with a number of different cheeses: kefalograviera, kasseri, haloumi, or graviera. Kasseri and haloumi are the easiest to find here in Knoxville. Kasseri is a dry cheese similar to Parmigiano and haloumi is sort of a cross between feta and mozzarella. I prefer the milder flavor and chewier texture of haloumi. Note, you can fry the cheese in butter, but I prefer using olive oil.

Along the lines of saganaki, I once had a Lebanese friend who would fry Lebanese feta in butter for breakfast. He would stuff the fried cheese on pita and drizzle it with honey. It was a great breakfast, but I've had difficulty finding a feta that works.

Saganaki
Serves 8.

16 oz cheese — kefalograviera, kasseri, haloumi, or graviera at room temperature
1/2 c flour
2 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3 tbsp olive oil
2 lemons — cut into quarters

Combine flour, pepper, and nutmeg in a small pie plate. Cut cheese into 2 x 1 x 1/2 inch slices and dredge in flour, shaking off excess, then lay on a sheet of wax paper.

Heat oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, dredge cheese in flour again, shaking off excess, and fry in batches until browned - 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per side.

Serve with lemon wedges to squeeze over cheese.

Of all the things I served at that party, the saganaki got the most comments, and no wonder, it's not only good to eat, but is also fun to eat. Not sure why, but it is fun.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | appetizer | meze | greece | cheese

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SG Archive: Welsh Rarebit

Phoney Coney



When I was around 10 my family visited Colonial Williamsburg. I only remember one thing from that trip: My first taste of Welsh Rarebit (or rabbit, the etymology is rather confused). It was at Chowning's Tavern (I remembered that as well) and I adored it. Smooth unctuous cheddar with a hint of spiciness served on crisp toast and contrasted with the bright acid flavor of tomato. Seriously good stuff.

When I lived in northern Virginia a few years ago I made another visit to Williamsburg and again had rarebit at Chowning's. To my complete surprise, the intervening 40 years (and the multitude of rarebits I had made) hadn't affected my memory of the way that first experience tasted at all.

However, in the intervening years I'd developed a recipe of my own and it remains my favorite.

Welsh Rarebit
Serves 4.

24 oz. sharp cheddar cheese — shredded
1 cup beer
2 tbsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
6 tbsp butter

Melt butter in a heavy sauce pan over low heat. Add cheese a small handful at a time and stir until melted. (Note: The butter and cheese will tend to remain separate.) Whisk in half of beer. (This should combine the butter and cheese.) Add additional beer in small increments until mixture is a smooth sauce. Whisk in remaining ingredients.

Note: Depending on the cheese and your preferred consistency you may not need all the beer or may need a bit more.

Although toast is traditional, my favorite base for rarebit is homemade English muffins.

Try rarebit with...
No-Knead English Muffins
Tomatoes Parmigiano
Fried Okra

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | sandwich | cheese

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SG Archive: Cheshire Quiche

Gang aft Agley



I got an urge for quiche last week and thought it was a great opportunity to take advantage of local suppliers. I had some local smoked bacon in the freezer and figured that Friday afternoon I'd cruise by the farmer's market for fresh eggs and then the Horn of Plenty market for local cream and butter.

The only local cheese available is a cheddar that's not very good, but my friend, Q Correll, makes the lightest quiche I've ever eaten using imported Cheshire and I thought it would be particularly good with the smoked bacon. I could tell this was going to be a kick-ass quiche.

So Friday morning I started the bacon thawing and headed for the market. Neither of the two egg suppliers was there. Major let down.

Cheshire cheese makes a surprisingly light quiche.

Then the Horn of Plenty only had buttermilk — no cream or whole milk — and was also out of butter. Suddenly the wonderful quiche I'd been anticipating had become just another very good quiche.

As I said, the Cheshire makes a surprisingly light quiche and the smoked bacon was, indeed, an excellent match. Although I had to use half and half and butter from the supermarket that didn't hurt (it just didn't help). To the pastry I added dried thyme and, on a hunch, grated parmesan. I could have skipped the filling and just eaten crust for supper.

Cheshire Quiche
Recipe by Q Correll.
Serves 6.

1 1/2 c Cheshire cheese — shredded
8 slices smoked bacon — cooked and coarsely chopped
1 ea small onion — diced and sauteed in butter until translucent
1 1/2 c half and half
3 ea eggs
1/2 tsp powdered mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
dash of cayenne
9" pie crust

Heat oven to 375F.

Sprinkle cheese, bacon, and onion in pie shell. Whisk together remaining ingredients and pour into pie shell. Cook on middle rack of oven for 45 minutes or until center is set.

All in all a very good meal, even if my plans did go astray. And I'll get another chance to do it with fresh eggs and cream.

Try this quiche with...
Fried Green Tomatoes
Dad's Dressing
Fudge Brownies

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | main dish | quiche

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Kitchen Windows: Going with the Flow - Melted Cheese

Many moons ago (when I was younger, slimmer and married) my wife introduced me to her favorite snack: a dip made from melted Velveeta and Rotel tomatoes. I know, I know, Velveeta is a cheese purist's nightmare and frankly I agree, but I was young and in love and decided to go with the flow.

Even now, motivated by nostalgia, once a decade I'll buy a bag of Fritos, a can of Rotel tomatoes and a block of Velveeta. After three minutes in the microwave and with an Amazing Rhythm Aces album on the turntable I can recapture my 20s for a few minutes. And besides, abomination or not, it's still melted cheese.

You can read the complete article at NPR's Kitchen Window.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | kitchen window | cheese

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Grilled Cheese Sandwich

The Ultimate

This was the second post I made on this blog, sort of ironic that it's about a grilled cheese sandwich. I decided to repost it when I happened to run across it because whenever I describe this sandwich almost everyone wants to know about the bread.

I've been fighting off an urge for a grilled cheese sandwich for a couple of months. I don't know why I was fighting it off, but I was. So this past weekend I gave in. But not easily.

In Beard on Bread, James Beard has a recipe for sour cream bread that is the absolute best grilled cheese bread on earth. (Susanne, I think I gave you the wrong recipe when you asked for it.) The bread is tender but also has an open crumb. So as the sandwich cooks and the cheese melts the bread absorbs the cheese.

As the sandwich cooks and the cheese melts the bread absorbs the cheese.

This brings a new element to a grilled cheese sandwich because it isn't two pieces of bread containing melted cheese, instead it is a single thick slice of bread suffused with cheese.

Sour-Cream Bread - Adapted from Beard on Bread
Makes 2 loaves.

2 1/4 tsp quick yeast or 1 package active dry yeast
3 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup warm water (100F to 115F)
2 cups sour cream, at room temperature
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour

Mix the yeast, sugar, warm water, sour cream, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of a stand mixer.

Using the paddle attachment, add 4 cups of the flour, cup by cup, to make a very wet, sticky dough. Switch to the dough hook and knead for 8 to 10 minutes, adding additional flour as needed to form a slightly sticky dough. Scrape out onto a floured board and finish the kneading by hand.

Shape the dough into a ball, place in a buttered bowl, and turn to coat it with the butter. Cover with plastic and let sit in a warm spot to double in bulk.

Punch the dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead for a minute, then divide into two equal pieces. Butter two 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf tins. Shape the dough into loaves and fit into the tins. Cover loosely and let rise again until doubled. Bake in a preheated 375F oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on top and bottom. Cool thoroughly before slicing.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Having just spent several hours baking bread just to make a grilled cheese sandwich, choosing the right cheese is essential. My preference is for Grafton Village One Year-Old Cheddar. It's available mail-order, but happens to be the best cheddar you can also find in some stores. (Note: The older cheddars don't melt as well.)

Please forgive me if this recipe seems obvious and fussy, but sometimes we don't devote the attention and care to a basic recipe that it deserves.

2 slices sour cream bread — sliced a scant 3/8" thick
3 tbsp salted butter — at room temperature
sharp cheddar cheese — sliced about 3/16th-inch thick

Butter both slices of bread on one side. Place one slice, buttered-side down, in a cold cast iron skillet. Arrange cheese on top. Top with the other slice of bread. Turn heat on to medium low.

The heat is critical. The goal is that the side of the sandwich in contact with the skillet should turn a perfect golden brown just as the cheese begins to liquefy. You will see the butter on the top slice of bread beginning to melt into the bread. This phase can take 10 - 12 minutes.

Now flip the sandwich and continue cooking until the other side is golden brown. This will be fairly quick — three to four minutes.

Add a couple of slices of tomato on the side and a glass of cold milk and you have a meal the gods would envy. The sandwich is a combination of simple ingredients (bread, butter, and cheese), complex flavor(tangy, sharp, yeasty, and salty), and, perhaps above everything else, elegant texture (crisp, creamy, and chewy).

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | grilled cheese | sandwich

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Kill Ed Levine

Death by Sandwich



As a rule I don't make New Year's Resolutions, but that's me. If a foolish promise turns you on then fine. But as I sat down this evening to eat supper I happened to think of Ed Levine and his resolution to lose weight this year and found myself overcome with contrariness. "Bullshit!" I thought, and "la te da."

I've long harbored a grudge against Serious Eats. How dare they? I started publishing Seriously Good in 2003 and then this little upstart blog comes along and steals my good name? Sorta. Kinda. It's just not right that Serious Eats has a number of amusing writers working in concert to steal the word "serious" from me. And it seems to me that Ed Levine is behind it all. I don’t know if that's true — but I don't care. I'm holding him responsible.

It was a sandwich that prompted this psychic break — a simple grilled cheese sandwich. Simple yes, but by no means plebian. This sandwich began with a locally-baked Pan de Mie which provided an important sweet note. The cheese was Kraft Extra-sharp Cheddar, which I think is a perfect grilled cheese, smooth and tangy when melted and also unexceptual — leaving room for other flavors. Then I added paper-thin slices of pork confit, not enough to overpower the cheese or bread, simply a deep background note of pork and spice. Lastly I grilled the sandwich in duck fat -- making the flavor all sparkly. (I wish the photo showed the cheese, but the bread sucked it up like a sponge.) A small bowl of clam chowder on the side wound up the meal.

So, over the next 12 months I will tempt Mister Ed Levine with sandwiches. Sandwiches he, the fancy New Yorker, can’t possibly duplicate or, if he does, will be bad for his health. I, too, am risking my health in this culinary Russian Roulette, but I'm confident that I will prevail and at the end of 2008 we will see that Ed Levine really isn't that serious about eating — or sandwiches.

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | sandwich | grilled cheese | ed levine

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Locust Grove Farm

Field Trips



Remember field trips? I understand that museums and arboretums are a big deal, but in Knoxville, Tennessee in the mid-60s? Not so much. We had one museum and no arboretum. But we did have a symphony orchestra that put on concerts for school children at the "coliseum" and we had Children's Theater.

The plays were presented at the University of Tennessee, produced by the Drama Department three times a year, and featured children in all the parts. The actors were chosen at a cattle call and I managed to appear in several of them (apparently I portrayed a fairly convincing old man for a 12-year-old, — when you and your audience are that age the trick is pretending you don’t have teeth and trembling slightly.)

Two weeks ago in an article in Fine Cooking I learned that Knoxville has a creamery, Locust Grove Farm, that makes raw, sheep's milk cheeses. There's something sad about learning about a local resource from a national magazine, nevertheless, this clearly called for a field trip so I contacted the cheese-maker and three days later I was on the farm, petting the sheep, inspecting the creamery, and chatting with Tim Clark. Perfect field trip.

You can read more about the back-story of the farm and Tim Clark in my column at Spot-On. But for those interested in the technical details and the cheese itself...

Locust Grove leases its 23 acres of pasture from some "nice folks" with a big fancy house and runs around 60 head of East Friesian along with a few Lacaune. Although not certified organic, the sheep are grass fed in the spring and summer and fed organic hay and a special organic food mixture Clark has made during the fall and winter. They don't use antibiotics and sheep spend the entire year in the pastures.

I didn't get to actually watch the cheese-making process because the sheep are no longer lactating and they won't be milking them again until January. But I did get a tour of the facility.

The building is concrete-block and metal divided into three sections. One section contains the two refrigerators (a 150 gallon and a 75 gallon) used to keep the milk cold between cheese-making sessions. Milking is done in an adjacent section, where they can milk a dozen sheep at a time. According to Clark things are pretty chaotic when the milking season begins as the sheep relearn what they're supposed to do, but smooth out as the season wears on.

The last room is where the cheese is actually made. That's Tim Clark in the photo pointing to the tank where the milk is mixed with rennet (Clark uses a microbial rennet) and cooked. Once the curds (milk solids) and whey (liquid) have separated they cut up the curds and press them in molds. They perform the entire process by hand because Clark likes doing it by hand. The door you see behind Clark is the "cave" where the cheese is stored and aged.

Locust Grove makes four cheeses. All are currently aged 60 days. The first one they started making is named Galloway and is made the same way Clark's Scottish mentor, Allen Brown, makes his cheese in Galloway in Scotland. This is a hard cheese, similar in texture and flavor to Spanish Manchego. Salt is added during the cooking process (the other three cheeses are brined). The salting is light and the cheese has a clean milk flavor with woody notes. It has what I would call a bold flavor and would be delicious anywhere you might use Parmigiano but, because it's a young cheese, it's much less assertive. They plan to start aging some Galloway for six months.

Their second cheese is named Appalachian Spring and is "Brenda's cheese." (Brenda is Tim's wife.) This is a semi-hard cheese riddled with tiny bubbles made using the washed curd method. It has a distinct dairy flavor and is more piquant than the other cheeses. My immediate reaction to it was that it would be delicious on a sandwich with Black Forest ham. It would also be great with fruit.

At the encouragement of Margaret Morris, the cheese-makers started making an actual Manchego, La Mancha. It too is a hard cheese but not as robust as the Galloway.

The final cheese is named Cumberland. It's based on the La Mancha but they add green peppercorns, sweet red chilis, onion, garlic, and ginger. It's a surprising cheese and at first I was unimpressed, but as I continued to sample it I changed my mind. It's an excellent nibbling cheese.

I plan to visit again when they start production back up, but in the meantime I'm going to be working with Clark to develop a lamb sausage. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Technorati: Food | essay | kevin weeks | seriously good | spot-on | cheese | cheese-making

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Welsh Rabbit (Rarebit)

Phoney Coney



When I was around 10 my family visited Colonial Williamsburg. I only remember one thing from that trip: My first taste of Welsh Rabbit (aka rarebit). It was at Chowning's Tavern (somehow I remembered that as well) and I adored it. Smooth unctuous cheddar with a hint of spiciness served on crisp toast and contrasted with the bright acid flavor of tomato. Seriously good stuff.

When I lived in northern Virginia a few years ago I made another visit to Williamsburg and again had rarebit at Chowning's. To my complete surprise, the intervening 40 years (and the multitude of rarebits I had made) hadn't affected my memory of the way that first experience tasted at all.

However, in the intervening years I'd developed a recipe of my own and it remains my favorite.

Welsh Rabbit

12 oz sharp cheddar cheese — shredded
1/2 c beer — ideally something with a lot of hops
1 tbsp ground mustard
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp butter

Melt butter in a heavy sauce pan over low heat. Add cheese a small handful at a time and stir until melted, adding a bit of beer as needed to keep the mixture sauce-like Once all the cheese is melted and you like the consistency, whisk in remaining ingredients.

Note: Depending on the cheese and your preferred consistency you may not need all the beer or may need a bit more. Serves 4.

Traditionally rabbit is served on toast, which is good, but my favorite bread for rabbit is homemade English muffins.

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