2 tablespoons butter
2 cups grated cheese
½ cup milk (or beer)
A dash of vinegar
½ teaspoon mustard
Salt and pepper
½ cup chopped gherkin pickles
Melt cheese in butter, steadily stir in liquid and seasonings. Keep stirring until smooth, then add the pickles and serve.
This may have been called Irish after the green of the pickle.
Dutch Rabbit
Melt thin slices of any good cooking cheese in a heavy skillet with a little butter, prepared mustard, and a splash of beer.
Have ready some slices of toast soaked in hot beer or ale and pour the Rabbit over them.
The temperance version of this substitutes milk for beer and delicately soaks the toast in hot water instead.
Proof that there is no Anglo-Saxon influence here lies in the use of prepared mustard. The English, who still do a lot of things the hard way, mix their biting dry mustard fresh with water before every meal, while the Germans and French bottle theirs, as we do.