Runny Rabbit

The most famous dish of Wales is melted cheese on toast. Even before Shakespeare, the caws pobi-loving Welshman was a stock figure of English literature.

Of course, you don’t have to be Welsh to like melted cheese. Renaissance Italian cookbooks refer to caccio in padelette, and in the 17th century the English themselves were serving “roast cheese” as an appetizer (a “whet”). “The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie, Kt., Opened” (1669) gives a recipe for “savory toasted or melted cheese” mixed with either meat gravy or the butter left over from buttered asparagus. He also suggested adding bacon, fried meat, onions, chives or anchovies.

In the early 18th century, a simpler recipe--melted cheese mixed with either beer or wine--got christened Welsh rabbit. Half a century later, literalists who objected that it contained no rabbit (and those who feared it was a snobbish reference to Welsh poverty) took to calling it Welsh rarebit. Oddly, the Scots seem never to have objected to the name of Scotch woodcock, which is Welsh rabbit with anchovies and other flavorings. There are also many traditional local “rabbits” in southern and western England.

Early in the 20th century, probably because of the anti-liquor sentiment of the time, we Americans invented our own rabbit by substituting canned tomato soup for the wine or beer. This dish is very much alive, and many people remember fondly the “pink rabbits” and “blushing bunnies” of their childhoods.

Now, here’s something to think about. The Spaniards introduced dairy products to Mexico and also imported the idea of melted cheese (queso fundido), which some suspect is part of Spain’s pre-Roman Celtic heritage. So, since the Welsh are Celts, maybe cheese nachos are really . . . Welsh, remotely, sort of.