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
