Welsh cuisine butter was the primary cooking medium and basis for sauces. Salt was an important ingredient in Welsh butter, but also in early Welsh cheeses, which would sit in brine during the cheesemaking process. The Welsh were also early adopters of roasting cheese. An early incarnation of Welsh rarebit was being made in medieval times, and by the middle of the 15th century rarebit was considered a national dish. The acid soil of Wales meant that the milk produced by their cattle created a soft cheese, which was not as good for roasting, so Welsh people would trade for harder cheeses
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend as they had been widely reported and talked about in the New York newspaper world McCay was a part of. "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend" was McCay's longest running comic strip. He made over 300 more "Rarebit Fiend" episodes than he made of the more famous "Little Nemo". The first strip appeared on September 10, 1904, in the "New York Herald", a few months after the first appearance of McCay's "Little Sammy Sneeze". It was McCay's second successful newspaper strip, after "Sammy Sneeze" landed him a position on the cartooning staff of the "Herald". "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend" ran