May Recipe: Yorkshire Puddings, Albeit Tainted by American Hands (Patreon)

Yorkshire Puddings, Tainted by These Lowly American Hands

Makes about 6 

2 large eggs

1 cup (230 grams) whole milk

1 cup (125 grams) cake flour (us American kittens can replace 1 tbsp of all-purpose flour with cornstarch)

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp white pepper, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp curry powder

Dash brown sugar

1-2 tsp fat per pudding—beef drippings, goose/duck/chicken fat, lard, neutral oil or butter

A significant whack of time

A popover pan or cupcake pan—popover pan will make deeper, puffier puddings, but isn’t strictly necessary.

Yorkshire Puddings are amazing. You can’t really get them very many places in America, they’re just not a thing here, and if you ask a waiter in a restaurant, you’re likely to get a weird look as he tries to imagine some kind of sweet Yorkshire-flavored goop, and what flavor a Yorkshire even is. Ever since I posted my first try at these, everyone I know has asked me to make them for them. I’ve flown my popover pan all over the country at this point. It’s worth it. And though I am but a vulgar, degenerate American, I humbly submit that I've gotten pretty good at these, and Genuinely English Folk in my home have said mine were the best they ever had, I swear. 

Like a lot of the most delicious food, Yorkshire puds are what poor people scraped together when the rich folks were done—cooks threw flour and milk and eggs in the drippings pan underneath a roast and hoped for the best. 

This is the best. 

Here’s the thing about Yorkshire puddings though—you need some time. Once you do the mixing, the batter needs to sit for AT LEAST an hour, preferably an hour and fifteen. There’s no leavening agent in these guys, so it needs time to aerate and bubble, or you won’t get the height you want. 

As to flavoring—you can put anything you want in as far as spices go. I listed my favorite mix. You can even throw in some cheese, though that will dampen the height and make them doughier and less crispy on the outside. Fresh thyme is amazing if you have it. Treat it like any bread. Beyond spices, any additional ingredients add to the proving time and change the chemistry so the texture won’t be the same. Not bad! Just different. Like I was as a kid. 

Every time I make these, I’m so certain the science of it won’t work. I fret and hop around the kitchen peeking through the oven door, as in the picture above, totally convinced that this time, the puddings, like the creek, won’t rise. But they do. Again, since there’s no leavening agent, the idea is that the steam created by the hot fat will puff the batter up like a carbohydrate balloon. But for the first ten minutes or so, it sort of looks like a wet carbohydrate sock in there. DO NOT FEAR, SCIENCE WORKS. I SWEAR.

The last thing to remember is to get the fat super hot, smoking hot, before you spoon the goo in. You need that steam, son. I usually make a goose or a duck at some point during the year and save the fat, so I just scoop some out into each cup in the pan and melt/heat it in the oven, usually about 9-12 minutes until it’s very, very hot. But any fat will do, preferably animal fat, a neutral tasting oil if you’re not into that sort of thing. The idea is to use fat from whatever you’re making for dinner to go with, but we’re not always making a giant roast, so use whatever you like. 

After all that, it’s actually pretty easy. 

Whisk eggs and milk together in a large bowl. Add flour and spices. Stir together, but loosely, and stop when it’s just combined. You want lumpy bits. It’s all about the little lumpy bits. Cover with plastic, let sit for an hour to an hour and a half. Do other stuff. Preheat oven to 375.

Heat fat in popover or cupcake pan until super crazy hot. Remove from oven, quickly use 1/4 cup measure to split batter evenly among 6 or 7 cupcake/popover depressions before the fat cools. Return to oven. Set timer for 25 minutes. DO NOT OPEN OVEN TO CHECK for 20 minutes or your carb balloons will deflate. 

Best served immediately with meat and gravy. They don’t reheat terribly well so you’ll be forced to consume them all at one sitting, I’m terribly sorry. I’m told by British folk that it’s not done to serve with mushy peas but…the thing is…they’re really damn good with mushy peas.