Cheese on toast to beat all.

I am particularly fond of cheese on toast -- plain and simple or with a few variations. But I don't make it unless I've got some good crusty bread, brown or white. Also best,I think, with some mature cheddar.

A home alone cheese on toast tea last night went like this.

Lightly toast two fairly hefty slices of granary bread. Lightly. Then, add slices of mature cheddar so that the toast is covered -- but leaving the edges a little free here and there. The point of this, you see, is so that the edges might get a bit charred. And I toast the bread first so that it's firm under the cheese.

Under the grill it goes and, when it comes out, you have to slather it with Worcester sauce and eat immediately. That's it. I had this with a small tumbler of rough red wine and, all things considered, it was a rustic and satisfying tea.

Here's another suggestion. Welsh Rarebit.

Now, this is also known as "Welsh Rabbit". Cymingen! (That's rabbit in Welsh. I'm joking.)I've only see it referred to as rabbit in America -- and a book which I won't name, but which makes me chortle, says that, in England, you have it for high tea, often topped with tomatoes. In Britain, both names seems to be used.I'll come back to that in a moment.

Historically, there are a few variations. The simplest is that you top your cheese on toast with some good English mustard before you cook it, remembering to add a good grinding of pepper. Serve it piping hot. This is the most straightforward in conception and I see it's the one recommended by Mrs Beeton. It's also what we tended to have for a weekend breakfast, sometimes topped with a couple of slices of back bacon, crispy at the edges.

Alternatively, if you wanted to serve a more complicated (and authentic) and really very luxurious version of Welsh rarebit, try this.

30g unsalted butter
1 level tbs plain flour
1 tsp English mustard
4 or 5 drops of Worcester sauce
180 g grated mature cheddar cheese (or, whatever cheddar you have)
5 tbs milk OR, as a variation, make it half and half milk and a decent beer. Or just use beer.
4 slices of lightly toasted bread
salt and pepper to taste, but I don't expect it needs it.

First, you make a roux in a pan with the fat and flour, then add the beer, milk, mustard, Worcester sauce and the cheese.Cook it only a very little, otherwise things begin to separate and look a little greasy rather than tempting. Spoon the mixture onto the toast, spread it gently and cook it immediately under a hot grill. It will be golden and bubbling and, hopefully, you might also have a few charred edges of toast, too.

You could, I see from some of my mother's 1950s cookbooks, serve these as 'savouries'. In this way, cut into small pieces, this amount might do 8. But sod that for a lark: this is best in generous portions for two famished people or possibly four more polite ones -- with mugs of steaming tea. Actually, why not make double? It keeps well for a few days in the fridge if you don't end up using it all at once.

If you top any version of the rarebit with a poached egg, you end up with a Golden Buck (note the rabbit theme) -- which sounds quite racy to me. I've read elsewhere that another variety, known as Yorkshire Rarebit, has slices of ham under the cheese (or cheese preparation)or that it is sometimes chopped up and mixed with the cheese before the whole is grilled.

And the etymology of the word: which came first, the rarebit or the rabbit? You'd think that the rabbit was a corruption of the rarebit -- so a later addition.But I'll bow to the Oxford English Dictionary (complete edition -- I got curious)which says that rabbit came first and lists 1725 as its first recorded usage. (I wonder if someone thought rarebit sounded posher?) The OED also tells us that it included cayenne pepper and makes no mention of milk in the recipe -- only ale.

So why the rabbit? Ah,it's ironic, most likely. While in the England of the 18th century, the poor man's meat tended to be rabbit, in Wales, where folk were even poorer, it was cheese. But there's nothing poor about Welsh 'rabbit': it's my dream tea, so take that hob nobs who could afford to go to the butcher and buy sirloin!

I have one more thought along the same lines. One of my most loved cookery books is Alison Uttley's Recipes from an Old Farmhouse (Faber, 1966). It's a record of the author's childhood memories in the Derbyshire countryside. I loved --and still do-- the cosiness of many of the dishes mentioned: cheese pudding, toad in the hole, herb pudding and --my favourite-- a preparation of cheese. If you need to feel cossetted and full of nostalgia, try and get hold of it. But the simplicity of its recipes are just right for today, too -- so try these, based on this wonderful book.

Scotch Woodcock.

The preparation for this is just like the more authentic of the rarebit (rabbit?) recipes I gave above. In a saucepan, over a low heat, mix together 60g of grated parmesan cheese, 1 tsp of cream, (single or double) and a good pinch of cayenne pepper. Other recipes I have seen for this include eggs and milk, but I like the austerity of mine! To this you add either two tsps of anchovy paste (as in Gentleman's Relish -- with which I am obsessed) or the equivalent of gently mashed up anchovy fillets from a can. Just let it all cohere and melt gently in the pan, spread it on hot toast and eat. Does one greedy person (me) or two more genteel folk.

Here's another. In France or Switzerland, you may have eaten a raclette -- great hunks of melting cheese, scooped toward your mouth with bits of good bread. Here's the Wiltshire version of my childhood, which I based on Alison Uttely's and still love today.I shall just call it Cheese.


Just get two medium sized onions and then either peel and cut up into largeish chunks and boil until softened OR (which I prefer) roast in a hot oven with just a little oil. Thy should begin to caramelise at the edges.When the onion is done, add it, in a pan over a low heat, to about 120g grated mature cheddar and 3 tablespoons of cream. I don't think it needs butter, but some do. You could add 60 g to make it extra rich. Just pile in onto hot toast, jacket potatoes -- or scoop it up from the pan with hunks of bread. You might want a couple of pieces of bacon alongside. I might like some gherkins-- for sharpness-- too.

All of these are very simple, but wouldn't you like to go to someone's house for tea and get any of these (unless anchovies repel you, I suppose)with a hug and a mug of tea, tumbler of beer or carafe of red wine? Thought so. And who is not delighted by really good toast --especially with something delectable on top?