What is a yorkshire pudding?

First I am going to cover how they think the Yorkshire pudding came about. I had never had one of these till I had moved to England and I thought it was a type of desert, for some reason we never touched English food when I was taking cooking classes in school. So I have decided that I want to write this as I like learning about different foods and wanted to share. I will also share a recipe so you can try to make them yourself. So now on to how it came about and what it is.
Apparently they are not sure of the origins of the Yorkshire pudding, but the first recipe according to about.com was "The first ever recorded recipe appears in a book, The Whole Duty of a Woman in 1737 and listed as A Dripping Pudding - the dripping coming from spit-roast meat." (1) So the yorkshire pudding has been around for over 200 years, so it is a very old and very popular side dish for roast dinners. I would compare it to america when we have biscuits with roast meats for dinner. A recipe by England's most famous food writer Mrs. Beeton left out an important part of her recipe which is to use the hottest oven possible, "The recipe was further wrong by stating to cook the pudding in advance before placing it under the meat an hour before needed. Yorkshire folk blame her error on her southern origins." (1) So Mrs. Beeton's recipe may not be the best one to follow if you want to get it right but it is from the 19th century.


Mrs Beeton's Recipe - 1866
# 1½ pints milk
# 6 large tbsp flour
# 3 eggs
# 1 saltspoon salt
Put the flour into a basin with the salt and gradually stir in enough milk to make it a stiff batter. When it is perfectly smooth and all the lumps are well rubbed down, add the remaining milk and the eggs, which should be well beaten. Beat the mixture for a few minutes. Pour into a shallow baking tin, which has been previously well rubbed with beef dripping. Put the pudding into the oven. Bake it for an hour. Then, for another 30 minutes, place it under the meat, to catch a little of the gravy that flows from it. Cut the pudding into small square pieces, put them on a hot dish and serve. If the meat is baked, the pudding may at once be placed under it, resting the former on a small three cornered stand. Time: 1½ hour. Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons. Seasonable at any time. (1)

The yorkshire pudding is still very popular across the country and is served at restaurants and they even have frozen precooked yorkshire puddings. The frozen ones are not my favorite as they don't really get that nice buttery taste, they tend to taste processed which is because they are frozen. The most popular brand and best tasting frozen yorkshire pudding is from Aunt Bessie's range of frozen foods which started producing the puddings in 1995 making them the first to commercially produce them. Yorkshire puddings are eaten all across the world from Canada to Australia.


RECIPE:

ingredients:

* 2 extra large eggs
* 100 mls of milk
* 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
* A pinch of sea salt
* 12 tsp of Drippings, vegetable oil OR lard
* Special equipment: 12 cup muffin tin

Preparation:

1. Combine the eggs, milk and a pinch of salt in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until combined.
2. Sift the flour into the milk/egg mixture and beat until smooth. Let the batter rest for 20-30 minutes in a cool place but do not refrigerate.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 400F (200C).
4. Place 1 teaspoon of drippings, vegetable oil or lard into each muffin tin cup. Place muffin tin in the oven and heat oil until it just starts to smoke but not burn - keep an eye on it while it heats up.
5. Carefully remove tin from oven and pour about 1/4 cup of the batter into each muffin cup. Place tin back in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until puffed up and golden. Remove from oven and serve with roast beef and gravy.(2)

Reference: (1) http://britishfood.about.com/od/england/f/yorkpudds.htm
(2)http://australianfood.about.com/od/sidedishes/r/YorkshirePuddin.htm

Barratt's Dip Dab

SO I as I was sitting at the computer I thought hey I should write my blog like I said I would. I noticed I had candy at my desk this candy is called Dip dab, I think that is a strange name but oh well. So I would like to say this is similar to the american sweet fun dip but that would only be partly true. I ts different because instead of that strange white stick I had come to love from fun dip I am given a lolly pop, which I must say makes me sad. Why? I usually am more focused on the tasty different flavored candy powders over the nommy lollypop.
I think the loppypop is much tastier than the candy powder. This may be caused by the fact that the powder goes a bit fizzy when I eat it. Perhaps I am not a fan of lemon sherbet, or it could be that the lemon dip doesn't go well with the strawberry lolly. I don't think I'll get it again, but then I don't go insane for sugary sweets anyway.

Sorry about the short post wasn't feeling very inspired today but I really wanted to post a blog.
(image found via google images)

Hi all. New food blog tonight/tomorrow

Sorry I have been MIA, you see my laptop broke and is having its motherboard replaced so I have pretty much lost everything. The bad part of that is I have not been doing a blog :(. So tonight I shall post one, I have no idea what I will post it on but darn it there will be a post. Oh I know I will review starbursts. I know they have them in the U.S but they do not have the Blackcurrant flavour which is what I shall review. Still Can't figure out how the hell to post a picture on here or I would review an awesome pub me and a friend found if anyone knows or reads this let me know :/

Instant coffee-NESCAFÉ Double Choca Mocha

So I have lived in England for little over a year and noticed something strange, these people like their instant coffee. I grew up in America where instant coffee is disgusting and only used if you cannot afford the real stuff. So when I moved to England and saw that no one really bothered owning a coffee machine and everyone owned a kettle I thought it was a bit odd.
At first I was a bit wary of trying this instant coffee but eventually in my desperation for more caffeine than a cup of tea could offer I bought some. The one I decided on was a higher end one as it was on offer and I like coffee I figured why not go for one that I have a chance to like, I got the nescafe brand of coffee. I must say it taste nice at first but like the problem with most coffee you get that funky bitter after taste after you finish the cup. It taste a bit of chocolate but for me to make it drinkable I add a bit of milk and a pinch of extra sugar, I like coffee but I like it sweet. The one thing I can say on it is that fact that so I don't get the gross powder lumps when I drink it (you know the ones when you are drinking a nice cup of coco and you get that horrible burst of chalky powder in your mouth.) I add a bit of milk and make the powder into a bit of a slurry problem solved and makes it tastier. So it was pretty good to me I mean I its not my favorite drink I really only drink it when I wanna stay awake.
So I would take a picture for all to see of the cup of coffee but my camera has decided to hate me and kill every battery we have. So I will just tell you and give you a link to the website till I sort out the camera. I will say this when you make the coffee it froths up a bit to much to make you look like you are getting a decent amount of coffee when you are actually getting a lot less than you think. I just don't like the fact that they over do what ever they put in the coffee to make it that frothy its insane.
Alright guys and gals(if your there XD) that is all for now hopefully I will post again.
Website: NESCAFÉ Double Choca Mocha
(picture found Via google images)