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Yorkshire Pudding

A baked batter of flour, eggs, milk, and salt, cooked in fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Yorkshire Pudding

Why it works: Flour and milk 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 (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the flour and salt.

  2. In another bowl, whisk the eggs with a little milk.

  3. Gradually add the egg mixture to the flour, mixing in enough milk or water to create a thick batter.

  4. Beat the batter for ten minutes.

Bake

  1. Heat a little fat in a baking pan.

  2. Pour the batter into the pan and bake at 400°F (200°C).

  3. For best results, bake under a joint of meat; if not possible, add a little fat on top of the batter.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Flour and milk 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 of the batter that puffs and sets as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and provide lift and structure as they set in the hot oven.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.

The step that matters

Heat the fat before pouring the batter. The batter must hit very hot fat so it sizzles on contact and begins to steam and rise quickly. A cold pan lets the batter spread and bake flat instead of puffing.

“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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