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Yorkshire Pudding

A baked batter of milk, egg, flour, pepper, salt, and dripping, served with roast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Yorkshire Pudding

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Yorkshire Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Sift the flour into a bowl with pepper and salt.

  2. Make a well in the center, add the egg and 2 tablespoons of milk.

  3. Using a wooden spoon, beat the mixture, gradually incorporating the dry flour.

  4. As the mixture thickens, add more milk until all flour is combined, keeping a smooth batter.

  5. Beat until the batter is smooth and covered with air bubbles.

  6. Cover the bowl and let it rest for several hours.

Bake and serve

  1. About 35 minutes before serving, add 2 tablespoons of dripping to a Yorkshire pudding tin.

  2. Stir the batter and pour it into the tin.

  3. Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) until well risen and brown.

  4. Cut into squares and serve on a separate dish from the roast.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure that sets the batter and lets the pudding rise and hold its shape.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set and rise during baking.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and provides moisture, so steam helps the pudding puff.
Dripping
Heats in the tin and sears the batter, promoting rising and browning and adding flavor.

The step that matters

Heating the fat before pouring the batter. The tin and dripping must be very hot when the batter goes in. The sudden heat turns the batter's moisture to steam and sets the outside quickly, which lets the pudding rise high instead of sinking.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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