In 1935, Land O’Lakes tucked this Welsh Rarebit recipe into one of its earliest cookbooks. Nearly a century later, I found myself in my own kitchen, whisking together the same dish that might have greeted a family during the lean years of the Great Depression. It struck me that this is what comfort looked like when comfort had to be cheap and clever.
Welsh Rabbit first surfaced in Britain sometime in the eighteenth century, a humble plate of toasted bread blanketed in savory cheese sauce. Despite the name, it contains no rabbit. The term was likely meant humorously, suggesting that melted cheese on toast served as a poor household’s substitute for meat.
As time went by, Welsh Rabbit became Welsh Rarebit, and the recipe made its way across the Atlantic and found its way onto American tables. By the early 1900s, it was a regular on restaurant menus and community cookbooks, especially in dairy-rich places like Minnesota where cheese was practical and plentiful.
The recipe itself comes together quickly: a bubbling cheese sauce poured over toast and finished with a scattering of sliced olives. That last step gave me pause. Standing at my stove, nearly a hundred years on from when the recipe was written, I found the olives odd and out of place—like a tiny edible relic from another time.
I almost left them off, but that little bit of strangeness is part of the story. Today, we might reach for a silkier cheese, a fancy mustard, and leave the olives behind, but in 1935, you made do with what you had.
And what Minnesota had, in abundance, was dairy.
Founded in Saint Paul in 1921 as the Minnesota Cooperative Creameries Association, Land O’Lakes was created by hundreds of dairy cooperatives trying to improve butter quality and strengthen the market position of small farmers. Butter quality at the time varied wildly from creamery to creamery, and the cooperative introduced grading and inspection standards that gave consumers something new. Consistency they could trust.
The cooperative renamed itself Land O’Lakes in 1924, tying the brand directly to Minnesota’s identity and selling an image of northern abundance with its clean water, rich farmland, and dependable dairy from healthy Midwestern farmers.
By 1935, Land O’Lakes had moved beyond simply selling butter. Like many food companies of the time, it was shaping the way Americans cooked, sending out recipes that wove their products into the fabric of daily meals. This cookbook was part of that effort. Welsh Rarebit, rich with cheese and butter, was just the sort of dish they hoped would land on family’s tables across the Upper Midwest.
Those families needed every bit of comfort they could find. Across Minnesota, the Great Depression pressed hard on farming communities already fighting to keep their land. Meals had to stretch, comfort, and make the most of what the local industry could offer. Cheese sauce on toast, crowned with a few stuffed olives for a punch of flavor, managed all of that. It filled bellies, cost little, and relied on ingredients that were either plentiful or that lasted.
Underneath the simple ingredients, there’s something intensely familiar. Melted cheese on hot toast is still the kind of comfort that draws us in. The olives have mostly disappeared, and the cheese might be a little more upscale now, but the longing for a warm, uncomplicated meal is as constant as ever.
That’s why I keep coming back to old recipes like this. They hold onto more than just flavor. They retain the habits, limitations, and small comforts that shaped daily life in the Upper Midwest. This is what 1935 tasted like, and honestly, it’s not too bad.
Welsh Rarebit
Ingredients
- 2 cups American cheese, grated
- 1 Tbsp. butter
- ¼ cup evaporated milk
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tsp. flour
- ½ tsp. mustard
- ½ tsp. salt
- ⅛ tsp. paprika
- dash pepper
- pimento stuffed olives, sliced
- 6 slices buttered toast or crackers
Instructions
- Mix together evaporated milk and water.
- Melt butter and add flour. Add milk mixture slowly, stirring constantly.
- Add grated cheese over medium-low heat until cheese is melted.
- Add salt, paprika, pepper, and mustard. Stir together well.
- Serve hot over toast or crackers. Garnish top with sliced olives.
