In the 1960's Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters passed out fliers at "Happenings" asking: Can you pass the Acid Test? In fact the first electric kool aid acid test was held at the Canoga Park, CA, Unitarian church. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test: by Tom Wolfe was penned during this period.
Can you Pass The Welsh Rarebit test?
What is Welsh Rarebit you might ask?
Welsh rarebit is a traditional Welsh snack, comparable to toasted cheese.
Traditional rarebit is made by grating cheese, a little milk and butter, adding seasoning (particularly mustard), and spreading the mixture onto hot toast; the whole is then heated briskly from above A modernized representative recipe:
1 oz. butter; 1/4 cup all-purpose flour; 1/2 tsp. dry mustard; room temperature; 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce; dash of hot-pepper sauce; 3 cups aged Cheddar cheese, shredded.
In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat; stir in flour & mustard. Slowly stir in the ale and bring to a soft boil; cook, stirring, for 3 minutes, or until thickened and smooth. Stir in Worcestershire and hot-pepper sauces. Gradually add the cheese, stirring briskly until the cheese has melted. Immediately remove saucepan from the heat. (Boiling can cause cheese to curdle). Serve over toasted bread slices.
The Oxford English Dictionary states that it can also be "simply, slices of toasted cheese laid on toast"; though Welsh Rarebit is much, much more!
Welsh Rarebit is a dream-inducing dish sometimes even causing Vivid, lucid nightmares that are famously attributed to overindulgence in Welsh rarebit. This phenomenon was immortalized in Dreams Of A Rarebit Fiend, a series of comic strips written and drawn by Winsor McCay beginning in 1904. McCay began his most Freudian strip. Each strip portrayed a nightmare experienced by a person, a "rarebit fiend" who had made the poor choice of consuming too much rarebit before bedtime. Satiric and sardonic, with Freudian overtones The Dreams strips are not generally meant for children. Rather, they often are surrealistic looks at what could happen if a person gets caught up in a bizarre situation--only to awaken from a nightmare brought on by overindulgence in Dream of a Rarebit Fiend.
There is also a 1906 Edison film based on McCay's comic strip named "Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend" a special effects-filled journey through rarebit-induced nightmares.
This film went on to inspire a Welsh rarebit-fueled nightmare sequence in the Douglas Fairbanks film of 1919 film "When the Clouds Roll By".
There was also an episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. in which the Welsh Rarebit that Gomer consumes causes him to sleepwalk and verbally attack Sergeant Carter, causing uproarious results.
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~Monsignor Mike Murphy
Hi thanks for the work you done make this article on Welsh Rarebit.
ReplyDeleteHey Michael - As a child I'd indulge in Welsh Rarebit because it was GOOD and it was also part of our families heritage - but, I'm now an adult vegan - so how do I indulge in a vegan Welsh Rarebit and also cut down on the dairy for my son who is a vegetarian but not so lactose tolerant - I know you might not have the answers for me and that's totally cool but there is a community of dairy lovers out there who have made the choice not to eat dairy for all different reasons and so looking for options on favorites is great ! Thanks for the post :)
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