Yorkshire Pudding
To Americans, the name is confusing, especially as "Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding," considered the national dish of Great Britain.
This recipe should really be called Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding because that's what you eat with Yorkshire Pudding. In fact, it is considered the national dish of Great Britain along with Fish & Chips. But Kitchen Tapestry has already already posted the quintessential roast beef recipe, Roast Prime Ribs of Beef au Jus, so this is specifically the recipe for a most misunderstood dish by the American public, in part because anything called pudding in our country usually has the word "Jell-o" attached to it. To us, pudding is a dessert and why anyone would want to put dessert next to their roast beef entree just doesn't make any sense. And to make matters more confusing, the British generally refer to any dessert as pudding.
But this isn’t pudding. It isn’t dessert. It’s what we would Americans would call a popover. It’s closest French equivalent would be called pâte à choux, a baked pastry used to make eclairs and cream puffs. Origins of the word “pudding” are obscure but it is believed to have originated in northern England in the 18th Century and gained popularity in Yorkshire.
Many years ago I assumed, logically if also incorrectly so, that Yorkshire Pudding, served along side roast beef, must be some sort of a savory custard-like accompaniment. That made perfect sense to me. So, in 1976 when I sat down at a restaurant in Houston Texas operated by a British ex-patriot and ordered Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding, I was surprised that there was no such custard accompaniment on my plate. I took note of what looked like a popover sitting at ten o'clock to my roast beef, but where was my pudding, I wondered. So, I asked. The server looked at me with utter disdain and pointing to the popover on my plate, levied sarcastically in a decidedly British accent, "Sir, that is Yorkshire Pudding."
So here is the time-honored recipe for Yorkshire Pudding that has dressed my table a few times along side a slab of perfectly marbled, medium-rare prime rib. When my Yorkshire Pudding soaked up the au jus, it was a culinary triumph. This dish is as much about technique as it is the ingredients, which as you can see are deceptively simple.
Yorkshire Pudding
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- whole milk, as much in volume as the eggs
- all-purpose flour, as much in volume as the milk
- pinch of sea salt
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 450°F.
- In a 12-count muffin pan, put 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil in each muffin cup.
- Crack the eggs into a glass measuring cup. You'll get close to a cup.
- Carefully measure out exactly the same volume of whole milk in another measuring cup. Do the same with the flour.
- Combine the eggs and milk and using an electric mixer. Blend well for 2 minutes minutes.
- Allow the eggs and milk to sit for ten minutes before sifting the flour into the egg and milk mixture.
- Once the flour is been sifted into the egg and milk mixture, blend again with the electric mixer and add the salt. The batter should be completely lump-free and the consistency of heavy cream.
- Let the batter sit for at least 3 hours. This is to bring the batter to some semblance of room temperature, so it will properly rise when placed in the very hot oven.
- Put the muffin pan into the 450-degree oven and heat it up until the oil just starts to smoke,10-12 minutes.
- Add two tablespoons of water to the batter and mix it in with a fork.
- Remove the muffin pan from the oven, then carefully and quickly pour the batter into each muffin cup until each cup is 1/3 full. If you hear the batter sizzle when you pour it in, that's a good sign that the pan is at the proper temperature.
- Cook for 20 minutes until the pudding rises.
- Serve hot, straight out of the oven.
Notes
- If your mixing bowl doesn't have a spout to make pouring from it easy, move the batter to something that does. It will make the last step in preparation process much easier.
- According to a decree from the British Royal Society of Chemistry, a Yorkshire Pudding isn't Yorkshire Pudding unless it has risen at least 4 inches during the baking process.
- Yorkshire Pudding will keep for a few days in the refrigerator but make sure they're completed cooled before putting them in an air-tight bag. They can be eaten cold or re-heated in an oven at 375°F for 10 minutes. You cannot microwave them.
