French Recipes

Welsh complet

A Hauts-de-France brasserie favourite made with toasted country bread and ham under a hot Cheddar, beer and Dijon mustard sauce, briefly grilled and finished with a fried egg — the defining addition that makes the plate a welsh complet.

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Welsh complet — served in a bowl
Prep 15 minutes
Cook 25 minutes
Total 40 minutes
Yield 4 individual gratin dishes, about 300 g each
Ingredients ↓
Introduction and overview

Welsh complet — northern French Cheddar-beer toast with ham and egg

Welsh complet is part of the everyday brasserie and estaminet repertoire of northern France, particularly Nord and Pas-de-Calais. Its ancestry reaches back to British and Welsh cheese-on-toast traditions, but the northern French plate has developed a clear identity of its own: thick bread, cooked ham, Cheddar melted with beer and mustard, then an egg on top. In local usage, that egg is what marks the serving as “complet”. Removing the egg leaves a simpler welsh and changes the named form.

The central technical job is not the grill; it is the cheese sauce. Mature Cheddar must be melted gradually with a measured amount of beer over low heat. If the pan boils hard, fat can separate and the cheese can tighten into an oily, elastic mass. When the sauce is ready it should be glossy, smooth and thick enough to coat the spatula, yet loose enough to flow over the ham and toast. A short blast under the upper grill then reheats the assembled dish and gives the top a few golden spots.

Four stable individual gratin dishes suit the brasserie-style service and keep the molten cheese contained better than one large pan. The eggs are pasteurized because the selected service keeps the yolk soft while the white is fully set. If pasteurized shell eggs are not available, the safe alternative is to cook the egg centre to 71 °C, accepting a firmer yolk. The distinction is explicit so the appealing soft-yolk presentation never depends on an undercooked unpasteurized egg.

Beer is a flavouring and a liquid in the sauce, not a guarantee of an alcohol-free dish after cooking. The stovetop melt and brief grill are too short to assume complete alcohol removal. The finished welsh therefore remains an alcohol-containing dish, and the bread and beer contribute gluten while the selected Dijon mustard contributes both mustard allergen and sulphites.

Success points

Success points

  • Toast the bread before assembly so the hot sauce does not immediately soak through it.
  • Melt mature Cheddar slowly and add it in stages; a hard boil is the fastest route to a split, oily sauce.
  • Grill only long enough to bubble and spot the top with colour, then add the egg and serve at once.
  • Use pasteurized eggs for the chosen soft-yolk service; otherwise cook the egg centre to 71 °C.
Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 240 g country bread, 4 thick slices of about 60 g each
  • 200 g cooked ham, 4 slices of about 50 g each, chilled
  • 400 g mature Cheddar, coarsely grated and chilled
  • 160 ml blonde or amber beer, about 5% ABV
  • 30 g Dijon mustard containing sulphites
  • 240 g pasteurized large shell eggs, 4 eggs of about 60 g each, chilled
  • 10 g unsalted butter, for frying the eggs
  • 1 g ground black pepper
Method

Method

Directions

  1. Heat the grill and set up the dishes. Preheat the oven's upper grill/broiler on high for about 3 minutes. Put four stable 16–18 cm heatproof gratin dishes on a rimmed tray and keep the ham, Cheddar and eggs refrigerated until needed. The grill is fully hot and the individual dishes sit flat and stable on the tray.

  2. Toast and assemble the base. Toast the four 60 g bread slices for about 2 minutes, until lightly coloured, then set one slice in each heatproof dish and top each with 50 g cooked ham. The bread is lightly toasted and firm enough to support the ham and sauce without collapsing immediately.

  3. Make the Cheddar-beer sauce. Warm the 160 ml beer in a heavy saucepan over low to medium-low heat. Add the 400 g grated Cheddar in four additions over about 8 minutes, stirring continuously and allowing each addition to melt before the next. Stir in the 30 g Dijon mustard and 1 g black pepper. The sauce is smooth, glossy and thick enough to coat the spatula, with no puddles of separated oil.

  4. Grill the assembled welsh. Divide all the sauce among the four dishes, covering the ham and most of the bread. Grill on high for about 5 minutes. The sauce bubbles around the edges and has light golden spots on top while remaining fluid in the centre. Move the tray only with dry oven gloves because both the dishes and molten cheese are extremely hot.

  5. Fry the eggs. While the welsh grills, melt the 10 g butter in a large non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat. Fry the four pasteurized eggs for about 4 minutes. The egg whites are opaque and fully set, and the pasteurized yolks are warm and still softly yielding. If the eggs are not pasteurized, continue cooking and verify that the centre reaches 71 °C before serving.

  6. Complete and serve. Set one fried egg on each grilled welsh and take it straight to the table on a heatproof underplate. Each serving has one egg centred over the bubbling Cheddar-covered ham and toast. Warn diners that the cheese and dish rims remain hot enough to burn.

Serving

Practical

Serving

Serve each welsh in its own gratin dish as soon as the egg is added. The sauce is at its best while fluid and glossy, and the toast should still retain some structure under the ham. Fries are common with welsh in northern French brasseries, but they are not included in this recipe or its nutrition calculation.

Storage and reheating

Welsh complet is markedly better fresh. If there are leftovers, refrigerate them within 2 hours at 4 °C or below and use within 3–4 days. Reheat in an oven-safe dish until the centre reaches 74 °C. Expect the egg yolk to become firm and the cheese sauce to release some fat. Freezing is not recommended because the toast, egg and sauce all lose quality after thawing.

Make-ahead

Grate the Cheddar, portion the ham and measure the beer and mustard up to 1 day ahead, keeping the perishables refrigerated. Avoid making the cheese sauce in advance: cooling and reheating it increases the chance of splitting. The assembled dishes should go under the grill as soon as the sauce is poured, and the eggs should be cooked while the welsh is grilling.

Substitutions

If pasteurized shell eggs are unavailable, use ordinary fresh eggs but cook each egg to 71 °C; the yolk will be firmer, but the dish remains a welsh complet. A less mature Cheddar can be used, though it gives a milder sauce and may melt a little less smoothly. Do not compensate with extra salt because the ham and cheese already contribute substantial sodium.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

  • The cheese sauce looks oily and split.The Cheddar was overheated or added too quickly. Take the pan off the heat and stir gently. For the next batch, use lower heat and add the cheese in stages before the beer-cheese mixture can boil.
  • The bread turns soggy immediately.It was not toasted enough or the assembled dishes stood too long before grilling. Toast until the surface is dry, assemble only when the sauce is ready and grill straight away.
  • The sauce is too thin.Too much beer was used, or the Cheddar was not fully melted before assembly. Keep the fixed 160 ml beer to 400 g Cheddar ratio and do not pour until the sauce coats the spatula.
Nutrition per serving

Nutrition per serving

  • Serving size1 of 4 individual welsh complet dishes, about 300 g
  • Calories739 kcal
  • Carbohydrate34 g
  • Protein48 g
  • Fat45 g
  • Fibre2 g
  • Sodium1593 mg
Allergens and food safety

Allergens and food safety

Contains egg, milk, gluten from wheat and barley, mustard and sulphites. Keep ham, Cheddar and eggs refrigerated until needed. The chosen soft-yolk service requires pasteurized eggs; if the eggs are not pasteurized, cook the centre to 71 °C. The brief stovetop and grill heating do not guarantee complete alcohol removal, so residual alcohol from the beer may remain. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours, keep them at 4 °C or below, use within 3–4 days and reheat to 74 °C. Molten cheese, the upper grill/broiler, alcohol steam and the individual gratin dishes are all burn hazards.

Closing

Closing

  • Result: A hot individual plate of toast and ham under a glossy Cheddar-beer sauce, finished with the egg that defines the northern French complet service.
  • Decisive technique: Melt the Cheddar gradually below a hard boil, then use a short grill finish rather than prolonged high heat.
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