Update on the superb easy Yorkshire pudding recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Vegetables and Sides | 7 comments
Yorkshire puddings
I was waiting in a check out queue at Tesco yesterday when I spotted that the check out lady looked familiar. I was 95% certain that this was the person that had shared her foolproof Yorkshire pudding with me. I was impatient to get to the top of my queue, not to check out my shopping quickly and motor home but rather to thank her for the recipe and find out her name.
“Were you the generous lady that shared your Yorkshire Pudding recipe with me?”
She was initially a bit evaisive.
“It could have been me.”
“The fabulous recipe with the same volume for each ingredient. Eggs, flour and milk?”
“That probably was me.”
“Well I’m so pleased to link up and find out your name as they were the best Yorkshire puddings that I have ever eaten.”
And then she smiled.
As she checked out my shopping trolley she added a few more tips.
“Don’t put the batter in the fridge. Make it about an hour before it has to go into the oven. It needs to be room temperature.”
Bleep, bleep ping.
My food was forming a road block on the packing area as I hastily crammed it into my shopping bags.
“The fat has to be smoking. Try lard or goose fat as they get far hotter than other fats.”
Ping, bleep.
“If you add a little golden syrup to left over Yorkshire puds when they are still warm, the syrup soaks into the batter they make a great dessert topped with ice cream.”
Bleep.
“Oh yum!”
Bleep.
“Would you like the luggage vouchers?”
“No thanks.”
“What did your hubby think of the Yorkshire puds?”
“He has fallen in love with the mystery lady who shared her recipe.”
“Why not send him to do the shopping next time?” She beamed.
We tried these extra tips this evening. The goose fat was not smoking when I poured the batter in. The puds rose higher than before but they took longer to cook – 26 mins at 200c(fan) and they were not quite as crisp as last week’s Yorkshire puds.
Next Sunday we are going to let the batter chill in the fridge for an hour and use goose fat and lard. Watch this space for the ultimate tried and tested Yorkshire pud recipe. I made 12 so that we could have some cold tomorrow – sadly there is just one left.
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Recipe very similar to my own developed to cook with nonstandard weight turkey eggs from the then numberous Twydale farms in our part of the world. I weigh the egg/s, use the same weight of flour with the same weight of skimmed-milk of the eggs AND flour combined.
Over the years we changed from using whole fat milk to semi-skimmed. The puds are lighter & crisper now, but not so nutritious for growing children. The flavours & textures are also just a little different.
I don’t even bother to muck up my food processor any more for the small quantity I now cook usually for just 2 Seniors. I weigh everything into 1 Pyrex jug sat on the scales, when the batter is mixed and rested (at cool room temp.) I use a 2nd jug to aerate the batter by pouring it from one jug to another; gradually widening the gap so the greatest height/distance Is achieved between the 2 jugs. I pour a thin slow stream to incorporate plenty of air. This is reminiscent the way Tea/Coffee sellers work all over the world.
My ultimate comfort food. Lamb chops cooked in yorkshire batter. Add a bit of mint sauce if you like it.
Hi Fiona
The biggest and most common mistake non-Yorkshirepersons make with YPs is not getting the fat smoking hot before pouring the batter in. Result: soggy bottoms, and they don’t rise properly. They do work really well with goose or duck fat.
You don’t need to chill the batter, but S’s mum, whose YPs are the best I have ever eaten, lets her batter stand for an hour or so at room temperature. She never measures anything. She just adds milk and water till it looks right. And yes, we eat the left overs with maple syrup and cream!
Loved this post with your grocery store story! Thanks for reminding me, it’s been too long since I’ve made Yorkshire pudding. I, too, make the individual ones rather than one big one.
I did mine with some beef fat (dripping?) that I had plucked from the freezer. They were fabulous and very tasty.
We used to have Yorkshires EVERY Sunday whatever meat was roast, a large square pudding. My grandad would insist on having his served on its own, as a first course; he also insisted it was poured into the roasting tin and cooked in the meat fat and bits, while the joint rested – this was how, as a boy, he had cooked the villagers’ puddings in his mum’s gorcery shop bake-house oven. Each joint and tin had been provided with a jug of batter for him to pour in at the correct time.
Wasn’t that a great way to cook – a big communal oven roasting the Sunday dinners?!
Celia
xx
PS Goose fat is definitely the best 😉
Oh Fiona, thanks a million for the update on this recipe. I always trust your recipes because you are so thorough in your research & testing. I know that you & Danny cook with the tools & ingredients that most of us either have or can afford to buy. The only time I ‘play’ with your recipes is when they contain something I really dislike or I haven’t got in my cupboards at the time. Mind you sometimes your recipes trigger memories of food I have relished in the past & I cook my version of that instead.
You are an inspiration to get out in the kitchen & start cooking…..I say this as I am getting over a nasty virus at the moment which left me both dizzy & aching all over. I had my first real meal yesterday since last Tuesday…..I could only drink chicken soup with rice (luckily I had plenty I’d cooked previously in the freezer). Now ,thanks to your article I am going to have a Barnsley lamb chop,a few Yorkshire puds, & fresh asparagus with a sauce made of cherry tomatoes & garlic for lunch. You can tell from this I have regained my appetite! 🙂
Thank you once again.