Welsh cuisine roasted cheese led to the dish of Welsh rarebit, or Welsh rabbit, seasoned melted cheese poured over toasted bread. The cheese would need to be a harder one, such as cheddar or similar. Referred to as Welsh rabbit as early as 1725, the name is not similar to the Welsh term "caws pobi". Welsh folk rarely ate rabbit due to the cost and as land owners would not allow rabbit hunting, so the term is more likely a slur on the Welsh. The name evolved from rabbit to rarebit, possibly to remove the slur from Welsh cuisine or due to
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend "Daydreams and Nightmares" (Fantagraphics, 1988/2006; editor Richard Marschall), a collection of miscellaneous work by McCay. Checker Books reprinted many of the "Rarebit Fiend" strips over eight volumes of the series "Winsor McCay: Early Works" and in 2006 reprinted 183 of the color Saturday strips in "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend: The Saturdays". The Checker books reprinted all but about 300 of the known "Rarebit Fiend" strips. In July 2007, German art historian Ulrich Merkl self-published a , 464-page volume called "Dream of the Rarebit Fiend", reproducing 369 of the strips in full size. Previous reprintings of the strip reduced the