While browsing my dictionary, I came across "Welsh rabbitt", and was much surprised to find that the original recipe did in fact have rabbit meat in it. I had for years been under erroneous impression that it was a corruption of "Welsh rarebit."
I wonder if any AWADtalk participant has ever had this wonderful Sunday evening delicacy in its original form.
(maverick, front and centre)
http://www.mj12.com/anson/recipes/rabbit.html

Sorry, Bill – I reject this explanation out of hand! I have eaten this dish and different forms of it for many moons and it has NEVER had ANYTHING to do with rabbit – that might be said to be the whole point! This is a more typical recipe:

http://chantry.ir.ucf.edu/~kat/recipe/Welsh_Rabbit

For a quick YART try the Coming to you first thread under W&F. Do me a favour and post the link if anyone finds this - trawling thru' the archives gets more and more difficult when you have only the 'last accessed' indexing to assist!

Dear maverick: If a genuine Welshman has never heard of rabbit meat being part of the recipe, I feel less disillusioned. Two quick questions: Do you accept the "Welsh rarebit" theory? What is W&F?

Well, Bill, I have to confess to no Welsh blood in my genes (as far as Mum told me ) - but living in Wales and having had a Welsh family close to us when living in Kent, this is certainly a well-tasted dish.

Sorry for laziness - I was abbreviating Wordplay & Fun.

Yes-- but in that wonderful thread about food-- and cookers and grills -- and how one cooks a welsh rabbit-- we never discussed the nightmares...

Does any one know about the association of eating cheese and getting nightmares? the first time i came across it was in Jane Eyre when Mr. Rochester's wife (secretly locked up in the attic) escapes-- and stabs him with a scissors. and to quite the rucus, and not scare his house guests-- he sends them all back to bed-- saying "No problem, just a servant who had a welsh rabbit for dinner.."

and i have seen the same assoications else where (duh, do i remember where ? no)..

or we could desend to the gutter and talk about cutting the cheese-- oops! that's a yart too!

I had for years been under erroneous impression that it was a corruption of "Welsh rarebit.
I thought rarebit was the corruption of rabbit, in this case. Don't trust me on what it tastes like, though, because we can't get it around here.

So long since I read Jane Eyre, I don't remember the assertion that Welsh Rabbit could cause nightmares. I looked in Internet for information about tyramine toxicity which aged cheese can cause. Only thing worth copying was

Symptoms of a tyramine reaction include severe hypertension, palpitations, agitation or nervousness, etc

Of rarebit and nightmares - Winsor McCay, a brilliant cartoonist from the early part of last century, created Little Nemo in Slumberland, who had alarming dreams after eating at bedtime (ate everything from peanuts to raisin pie and blackberry pie right before bed). He also created a separate comic, based specifically on nightmares brought about by the rabbit that is no rabbit - Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend.

http://www.geocities.com/~teddyblue/silas1.html

wwh posts a Welsh Rabbit recipe at http://www.mj12.com/anson/recipes/rabbit.html and asks whether any one had tasted it. Being half Welsh myself and having had Welsh Rarebit often during my life very much as the other url suggested, I just had to try it, exactly as described at the site.
All was well until I poured the melted cheese over the small rabbit. Firstly, the whole mess just stuck to its fur, and secondly, the rabbit didn't stay around long enough for me to get any idea of what it tasted like.
Maybe one of you other food freaks can tell me where I (or the recipe) went wrong?

Rod

That's a well-known misprint in Mrs Beeton. She said first case your rabbit, i.e. skin it. No problems with sticking to fur then.

I don't know how the word "rarebit" comes about, or in what sense it was ever supposed to "correct" the original joke in "Welsh rabbit".

And all these years,I thought Mrs. Beeton said "First catch your rabbit."

And Rod Ward, creator of the genre "shaggy family motto" is now the creator of a shaggy recipe.

Friday, Dec 8, in Wordplay, I posted a recipe for Welsh rabbit in a similar thread ... then we all got our knuckles rapped for promoting a Food Thread. That's why I ain't postin' it here! No way! No How! No Sir! No Ma'am! Y'all go find it for you'selfs!

Dear wow: this started out as an inquiry about the origin and appropriateness of the name, and erroneous etymology "Wesh Rarebit".

Ah, a rarebit fiend rears its head!