Cheese on toast or grilled with the cheese), brown sauce or ketchup. Pickled cucumber, Branston pickle, fried tomatoes, fried eggs, Worcestershire sauce and baked beans are also common. Another common variation is to add something to the toast before applying the cheese, such as tomato, or a thin layer of spread Marmite, Vegemite (in Australia), cream spread, mustard or tomato ketchup. Recipe books and internet articles tend to elaborate on the basics, adding ingredients and specifying accompaniments to make more interesting reading. Consequently, published recipes seldom deal with the most basic form of the dish and frequently refer to the similar dish of
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend dish. The character awakens in the closing panel and regrets having eaten the rarebit. The dreams often reveal unflattering sides of the dreamers' psyches—their phobias, hypocrisies, discomforts, and dark fantasies. This was in great contrast to the colorful fantasy dreams in McCay's signature strip "Little Nemo", which he began in 1905. Whereas children were "Nemo"s target audience, McCay aimed "Rarebit Fiend" at adults. The popularity of "Rarebit Fiend" and "Nemo" led to McCay gaining a contract in 1911 with William Randolph Hearst's chain of newspapers with a star's salary. His editor there thought McCay's highly skilled cartooning "serious, not funny",