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Yorkshire Pudding
2 eggs 1 cup milk 1 cup sifted flour 1/4 teaspoon salt Mix dry ingredients, add milk gradually to make smooth paste, then add eggs very lightly and fluffily beaten. About half hour before meat is done, pour the batter into the dripping pan below the rack, allowing the meat juices to drip over the batter. Cut in small squares and serve piled on platter around meat.
A batter pudding cooked in the fat and juices dripping from a roast, in the manner that gave the dish its name. Everything hinges on heat: the batter must hit hot fat in a hot oven or it will steam into a pancake rather than rise.
- Oven heatThe recipe gives no temperature; cooked in the pan beneath the meat, the batter takes whatever heat the roast is at. Modern practice for a well-risen pudding is a hot oven, around 425-450F, so you may want to raise the heat when the batter goes in, or bake the pudding separately in a preheated pan of drippings while the meat rests.
- The dripping panThis is the shallow roasting pan sitting under the meat rack, not a covered dish. A modern rimmed sheet pan or metal roasting pan works; glass and ceramic heat more slowly and are likelier to give a limp result.
- Half an hourThirty minutes, as the recipe says, suits a thin layer of batter in a wide pan. It is commonly advised not to open the oven early, though with the batter sitting beneath the meat some disturbance is unavoidable.
- Rest the batterThe recipe does not say so, but letting the mixed batter stand 30 minutes to an hour hydrates the flour and gives a better rise. Beat the eggs in lightly, as directed, and do not overwork after that.
- Flour and milkOne cup of sifted flour to one cup of milk and two eggs gives a batter in the usual range for the dish, on the thick side of a pouring consistency. If it looks like heavy cream rather than thin cream, add a spoonful or two more milk.
- Enough fatLean modern roasts, especially turkey, may not throw off much fat. There should be a film of hot drippings across the pan bottom before the batter goes in; supplement with beef fat or oil if the pan looks dry.
- YieldThe recipe gives no pan size or yield. The quantity would make a thin layer in a pan of roughly 9x13 inches, cut into a dozen or so small squares -- enough as a side dish for six to eight.