You must eat no cheese .... it breeds melancholy.

- B. Jonson.

Art thou come? Why my cheese, my digestion!

- Troilus and Cressida.

Cheese is probably the most popular article served from the chafing-dish. What possessor of a chafing-dish has not concocted a rarebit - and the best one ever made ? Were you ever present when the process of evolving a rarebit was in progress and half the guests were not disappointed in the seasoning ? For perfection in this toothsome dish, mustard is demanded by some; by others the use of this biting condiment is considered a lapse in culinary taste. The consensus of opinion, however, is in favor of paprica; and, theoretically, Mattieu Williams considers bicarbonate of soda to be demanded, not for the sake of seasoning, but as an aid to digestion.

As regards the digestibility of cheese, and, consequently, its adaptability to midnight suppers, opinions differ widely. Dr. Hoy, an excellent authority on diet, calls cheese a concentrated meat, a tissue builder, - but not itself a tissue, and so without waste elements, - a condensed, compact food product, and indigestible on account of its very compactness. Still, when the caseine, or curd, is softened and broken up by the addition of liquid and gentle heat, it is rendered more digestible; and cheese so prepared may be for some, if taken with no other nitrogenous food, an acceptable and easily digested article of diet.

Welsh Rarebit

Ingredients

1 tablespoonful of butter. 1/2 a pound of cheese, cut fine or grated.

1/4 a teaspoonful of salt. A dash of paprica. 1/2 a cup of cream.

The beaten yolks of 2 eggs.

Method

Melt the butter, add the cheese and seasonings, and stir until melted; then add the eggs, diluted with the cream, and stir until smooth and slightly thickened. Do not allow the mixture to boil at any time in the cooking; if necessary, cook over hot water. Serve on thin crackers, hot shredded-wheat or granose biscuit, or on bread toasted on but one side, placing the rarebit on the untoasted side.

Welsh Rarebit, No. 2

Ingredients

1 tablespoonful of butter. 1/2 a teaspoonful of cornstarch. 1/2 a cup of thin cream.

1/2 a pound of mild cheese. 1/4 a teaspoonful of salt. 1/2 a saltspoonful of mustard.

A few grains of cayenne.

Method

Melt the butter; add to it the cream in which the cornstarch has been stirred. Let cook two minutes, and add the cheese broken into bits. Stir until the cheese is melted and the mixture perfectly smooth. Add the salt, mustard and pap-rica, and serve at once as above.

Welsh Rarebit With Ale

Ingredients

1 tablespoonful of butter. Generous 1/2 a pound of soft American cheese, broken into bits.

1/3 a teaspoonful of salt. 1 teaspoonful of mustard. A few grains of cayenne. 1/2 a cup of ale.

1 egg.

Method

Put the butter into the chafing-dish (using the bath); when melted, add the cheese and ale. Mix the salt, mustard and cayenne, add the egg, and beat thoroughly. When the cheese is melted, add the egg mixture and let cook until it thickens. Serve as before.