The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

[Amor de Cosmos]

Ok how do you make one?

I'm generally regarded by them what knows me as a decent cook, maybe even a bit better than that when I'm on my game but my Yorkshire Pud's have consistently failed to achieve lift-off. I've consulted the books and the ancestors and know the tricks: batter into very hot pan etc., but nothing has worked. What to do? I was born in the f**king county after all, its bloody embarrassing. I'm pretty sure it comes down to the flour, in the UK you've got 'Plain' and 'Self-Raising,' in North America its 'All-Purpose,' 'Cake' and 'Bread.' I'm not sure how, or even if, they correspond exactly. Have any North Americans here produced the exquisite "Poem in Batter" successfully?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

James Martin from BBC's Saturday Kitchen says:

Ingredients
225g/8oz plain flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 free-range eggs
600ml/1 pint milk
55g/2oz dripping

Method
1. Place the flour and a little salt and freshly ground black pepper into a bowl. Add the eggs, mixing in with a whisk, then gradually pour in the milk, mixing slowly to prevent lumps forming.
2. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and chill in the fridge overnight.
3. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.
4. Put a little of the dripping in four non-stick Yorkshire pudding tins. Place the tins in the oven until smoking hot.
5. Remove from the oven and quickly fill the moulds with the batter. Return to the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes.
6. Turn the oven down to 190C/375F/Gas 5 and cook for a further 10 minutes to set the bottom of the puddings.
7. Remove from the oven and serve.

Sounds like a complete piece of piss, doesn't it? Must admit I've never cooked them from scratch, though.

[Guest]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

That's about it, although obv I would use butter. Dead easy, honestly.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

It is but it ain't. That recipe includes most of the key steps I've followed in the past (except chilling the batter overnight which my Mum certainly never did.) The flour question is the biggie: Plain flour = All-purpose flour? It doesn't seem to.

[WOM]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

What's that surrounding it? Parsley, asparagus! F**king asparagus with Yorkshire Pudding



YP should always — always — be served alone with gravy prior to the main course. There are no exceptions to this rule.

[EIM]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

The gf reckons they're runner beans. Maybe mange-tout? Though apparently they're not mange-tout. The gf is adamant about this.

[WOM]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

Definitely asparagus and parsely. I also see snow peas or sugarsnap peas, and perhaps some carrots. Certainly not the blackened carrots you get when you roast them in with pot with the meat, but perhaps separately-cooked carrots. But peas for sure.

Alone with gravy before the main course, Amor? You freaked out West coast types amaze me. Woodstock's over man...

[EIM]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

Oh yeah. I see the asparagus now.

[WOM]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

Oh, and for everyone from a unilingual country: that's how every package in Canada looks. French and English together in the least offensive way possible. These folks got lucky with Yorkshire being a word common to both languages, with pouding preceding it and pudding following it.

However, Presiden't Choice and le Choixe du Presidente proved trickier. I can assure you that the decision to put English above French, and the left/right justification were both the subject of endless hours of conference calls and heated debates culminating in someone invoking "national unity" and "separation".

[Anton Gramscescu]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

Fuck, man, can you not say that shit while I'm out of the country? I try to put all that nonsense out of my mind...

PM for you, EIM. It concerns a pound.

[WOM]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

I ate at 'our' restaurant today. It was sublime.

That's my pound you're PM'ing about, innit?

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

I can assure you that the decision to put English above French, and the left/right justification were both the subject of endless hours of conference calls and heated debates culminating in someone invoking "national unity" and "separation".

Ah the memories! Laying out bilingual festival programs when neither language could precede the other, in the document itself nor on the same page. A photo of act 'a' couldn't go on the cover because they were French, while act 'b' was forbidden 'cos they were English.

Yorkshire Pudding is far less complicated:

Alone with gravy before the main course, Amor? You freaked out West coast types amaze me.

More West Riding than West Coast, we never ate it any other way when I was a kid.

[Reed John]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

I'm pretty sure all-purpose flour is plain flour and bread flour is self-rising flour. I recently bought some of the self-rising stuff for some bread I might make at some point. I think it's called self-rising on the package, but I'll check. Its got baking powder or baking soda, whichever is which, in it.

Edit: Yes, it says "self-rising."

[Houdi Elbow]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

Never mind all that recipe nonsense, just make sure that you cook your pudding in a large tin and eat it before the main course.

[Guest]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

But...but...bread flour should be plain and preferably 'strong' (I think this hs more gluten or something.

I'm sure there are breads you can make with self raising but I'd think of that much more as for scones/some cakes/certain biscuits etc

[JtS]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

AdC, it may be something to do with the fat/oil you're using. My missus in doign a Leith's cooking course this week, yesterday they were told that different types of oil/fat have different maximum temperatures.

Butter is very low (like 60degrees or something), Olive oil isn't that great. Vegetable oil has a very high max temp.

Maybe you need to try that?

[JtS]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking_oil

[Hofzinser]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

Is it common to serve the Yorkshire pudding as a separate course before the main? No offence meant to Amor or Houdi but that sounds very strange indeed to me. It goes so well with roast meat and all the other trimmings - why wouldn't you have it all together?

The nicest Yorkshire puddings I've ever had are ones that have been cooked in either goose fat or duck fat, particularly the former so I'd think about using one of them.

[Gangster Octopus]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

Hofzinser wrote:

Is it common to serve the Yorkshire pudding as a separate course before the main?

It is in Yorkshire.

Is this time to post (again, but first time on here) about the time that I had Yorkshire pudding with Fois Gras as a starter at a restaurant in Sheffield once. Excellent it was.

[Houdi Elbow]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

Hof, I think the theory was that you would consume less of the expensive roast beef if you had eaten yorkshire pudding before the main meal.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

AdC, it may be something to do with the fat/oil you're using.

Ah right! I hadn't considered that. Dripping from the meat is traditional of course, but I wouldn't have used that. Nor could I have used butter like Lyra (La signora is lactose intolerant) I probably used canola oil. I need something with a lower "smoke point" don't I?

[Hofzinser]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

Goose fat is the way to go, I tell you.

[Gangster Octopus]

The Yorkshire Pudding spin-off thread

Come on, he's Canadian. They wear goose fat...