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Toad-in-the-hole

A baked dish of lamb or beefsteak covered in batter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lamb are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,165 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Toad-in-the-hole

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the egg thoroughly, then add the milk and stir in the flour until the mixture resembles cake batter.

  3. Butter a pudding dish generously.

Bake

  1. Place the lamb chops or beefsteak in the dish and sprinkle with pepper and salt.

  2. Pour the batter over the meat and bake for 1 hour.

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.

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. Pepper + lambtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + lambtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together414 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

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 batter structure that sets around the meat as it bakes.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set and rise as it cooks.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter, helping it turn tender and golden when baked.
Lamb chops or beefsteak
Provides the meat that releases juices into the pan, flavouring the batter below.

The step that matters

Pour the batter over the meat and bake for 1 hour. The batter must be poured in while the dish is hot and the batter should be mixed smoothly first, so it puffs and sets evenly instead of turning dense or soggy. Lumps of flour can stay dry and affect the final texture.

“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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