Ingredient

Yorkshire pudding

A Yorkshire pudding is a thin batter blown into a hollow shell by its own steam. Everything about the method serves that single event: get the batter into fat hot enough to set the outside instantly, and do not let the heat out until it has.

How the rise happens

The batter is roughly equal volumes of egg, flour and milk — a very wet mixture. Dropped into smoking fat, the outside sets immediately into a skin. The water inside then turns to steam, has nowhere to escape, and pushes that skin up and outwards, hollowing the middle.

So the rise is not chemical. There is no raising agent in a Yorkshire pudding and adding one makes it worse. Everything depends on the temperature shock at the moment the batter hits the tin.

This is also why opening the oven is fatal. Dropping the temperature stops the steam production and softens the not-yet-set shell, and the pudding sinks and does not come back.

The method

1. Make the batter well ahead — whisk the flour and salt into the eggs first, then let the milk down gradually to avoid lumps.
2. Rest it. At least half an hour, ideally a few hours in the fridge. The flour hydrates and the gluten relaxes, which gives a better rise and a more tender pudding.
3. Get the oven as hot as it goes, 230°C or more, with the tin and a little fat inside.
4. The fat must be visibly shimmering and beginning to smoke. Beef dripping is traditional and best; any high-smoke-point fat works. Butter does not — it burns.
5. Pour the batter in fast, filling each hole a little under half full. It should hiss and spit audibly.
6. Back into the oven immediately, on a high shelf, and shut the door.
7. Do not open it for twenty minutes. Not to look, not to turn the tray. When they are tall and deep brown, they are done.

Why they come out flat

• Fat not hot enough. The single commonest cause. It must be smoking.
• Oven not hot enough, or the door opened. Both drop the temperature at the critical moment.
• Too much batter in each hole. They cannot climb if they are heavy. Under half full.
• Cold batter straight from the fridge into cold tins. Some cooks swear by cold batter; what matters far more is that the tin and fat are hot.
• Too thick a batter. It should be like single cream, not like pancake batter. Let it down with milk or water.
• A tin with deep narrow holes and no space around them — steam needs somewhere to go.

Details that make a difference

Plain flour

Not self-raising. The rise is steam, and chemical leavening makes them cakey.

A splash of water

Replacing some milk with water gives a crisper, taller pudding — more steam, less protein and sugar.

Resting

Genuinely helps, though not as much as the fat temperature. Overnight in the fridge is a real improvement.

Tin material

A heavy metal tin holds heat and gives a better result than a thin one or silicone.

Toad in the hole

Same batter, sausages browned in the fat first. It will not rise as dramatically because the sausages weigh it down and release moisture.

Common questions