WELSH RABBIT Á LA MORGAN ROBERTSON
I wonder how many folk who read these pages remember Morgan Robertson. Poor old Morgan is dead and gone, now, but in his day he wrote some of the best sea stories ever put into English. He used to keep bachelor hall in a funny little studio down on 25th Street, off Sixth Avenue, New York—and when his friends came to call his special delight was a Welsh Rabbit. He told me how to make it, and I am trying to pass the recipe on. The beauty of Robertson’s rabbit was that it never got stringy.
First you put a good-sized lump of butter into a chafing dish and let it sizzle. Add some Coleman’s mustard and paprika and stir it round a bit. For six people I would use two pounds of cheese. Real old New York State full cream cheese—none of this odoriferous imported stuff. The kind of cheese they used to make down on the farm. Cut it up in chunks and put it in the pan with a little beer (near beer will do), or you could use milk. Keep adding a little more beer as the cheese commences to melt and put in a little Worcestershire sauce, if you like it. When it is well melted take a heaping tablespoonful of corn starch, mix it with a little water, and mix it with the mess. Meanwhile keep stirring it. Let it bubble and when it comes to the consistency of pancake batter (meanwhile keep stirring it—you can’t stir it too much!) it is ready to serve. And please serve it on toasted bread. If there is anything makes me tired, it is to have Welsh Rabbit served on crackers—it isn’t the same thing. Don’t be afraid the rabbit will get stringy, because it won’t. Some folks put the corn starch in dry, instead of mixing it with water. Either way is right. Season it to suit yourself. But for the love of Mike don’t beat an egg up in it. That’s another kind of fish entirely.