In praise of Yorkshire puddings
 

As a result of some friends staying, and considering that I was roasting beef anyway, they asked if I could make Yorkshire Puddings. Well I can, but until now, I haven't been that good.

So instead of using my regular recipe (Delia How to Cook) which I never found that satisfactory, I went for one off the internet....

And they were amazing. They rose so much we had to rescue them from the top shelf of the oven where they were bouncing off the roof, and were wonderfully light and fluffy. I was left wondering why I don't make them more often (apart from how terribly unhealthy they are - although I ended up using olive oil and semi-skimmed milk).

So there isn't really a point to this thread, except that I was so proud of how good my Yorkshire puddings are. And to put some context to this, I lived in Yorkshire for 12 years, and I know how good a good Yorkshire pudding can be :)

Woo hoo, you can't beat a good yorkie! I make them to go with pretty much every roast, not just beef, and they seem to go down very well with most people. I use Nigella's recipe for them, but the key I find is to make sure the oil is really really hot, preheated in the oven before you whisk it out to pour in the cold batter. I find the smoking point on olive oil is too low to get the oil as hot as I like, so I use a vegetable/sunflower blend.

I've never understood the bad rap that English food typically receives.

Yorkshire pudding is but one example of delicious, classic, English food.

Yup! I have to say, any of the 'traditional' British foods I make go down really well with the Canadians to whom I serve them up.

Sunday roasts, Cottage pie, scones with clotted cream, fruit crumbles, fish and chips, toad-in-the-hole, scotch eggs, cornish pasties, good strong cheeses, trifle, full English, sponge puddings (rolypoly, spotted dick) with custard - in fact, anything with thick custard! I can't even criticize our dinner ladies, as they got most of it right (fresh veggies were not their strong suit, but the puds were always brilliant!) Oh, and Bakewell tart, I make a mean bakewell tart!

I did actually use olive oil, and it seemed to work well.

And I resolutely left the door closed for 15 minutes, just peeking at them through the glass!

I'm currently making a Scottish peasant dish called stovies with the left over roast - it's akin to corned beef hash. British food tends towards the heavier end and is more akin to peasant food - hale and hearty, but when done well, it is very good. I think the problem is that for a while we weren't doing it well - and some of it is hard to present well in a restaurant. I think we've got both more and less precious about food - we're not so ashamed of our native dishes, but we know we need to cook them to a high standard and use good ingredients.

Jenbel, how about a link?

I thought a condition of us islanders posting here was that we didn't admit we weren't American? Or did I just imagine that.

Yorkshire puddings are notoriously difficult to do, so well done, Jenbel!

My mother's a fan and she's had all kinds of problems with flat puddings based on the type of oven, available flour, etc.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9...shire-puddings

I ended up adapting to 35 g of flour to one egg to 50 ml of milk to make 2 puddings per person (I had a 6 hole muffin baking tray) which meant something like 105 g of plain flour, 3 medium eggs and 150 ml of milk.

I cooked them in a very hot oven while the meat was resting so there wasn't any conflict between meat needing a cooler oven. The batter had been sitting for a while since I made it when I started doing the prep for everything else, but I hadn't chilled it.

Type of oven for yorkies is a factor, I find that they aren't too keen on any convection, so I use mine on a straight 'bake' setting, with heat from both above and below (electric). They also seem fine in regular gas ovens.

Flour over here I just use a regular white all purpose.

Olive oil, thinking about it, I think regular olive oil has a higher smoking point than EVOO - I only have EVIO so would have used that (when I have discovered I am out of other oil just as I am ready to cook!) cue smoke alarms going off all over the house!!!

Goose fat and an aga works best. Let the batter stand. Make pancakes for breakfast and yorkshires with same mix for supper.

Doing the traditional bake in a tray is much easier as well. Take meat out of roasting tin. Drain juices for gravy. Leave fat in. Tip in batter and put back into oven while meat stands.

My top tip for Yorkshire puddings, toad in the hole or any recipe using batter is this; pass your mixture through a sieve before you use it. This rids it of any lumps.

I use groundnut oil. Very high smoking point and tasteless.

For traditionalists, of course, Yorkshire pudding should be served before the main course and not with it.
Although as a conversation starter I sometimes break with convention and serve the roast beef dinner IN a giant Yorkshire pudding.
Serving Yorkshire pudding also allows me to repeat my favourite joke about the notoriously curmudgeonly inhabitants of that Northern county.
Yorkshire people are very much like the Scots but with all the goodwill squeezed out of them.:D

This is how my great-aunt does it, served with cucumbers and onions in vinegar.

Sacrilege !
Yorkshires should be served with nowt but gravy.

Yorkshire pudding and popovers are the same things made in muffin tins and usually served with roasted beef and gravy. These are usually made at homes and never seen at restaurants in America.