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Yorkshire Pudding

A baked batter made with eggs, flour, milk, and roast beef drippings, served with roast beef.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Yorkshire Pudding

Why it works: Milk and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,759 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Yorkshire Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  3. Gradually add the milk, stirring until you have a smooth batter.

Bake

  1. Remove the roast beef from the pan and drain most of the drippings.

  2. Pour the batter into the pan, then place the roast on a rack above the batter.

  3. Bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve in slices with the roast beef.

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 + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

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

  5. Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Eggs
Provide structure and help the batter set and rise as it bakes.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the batter body and a sturdy, hollow structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the batter rise and puff.
Milk
Supplies moisture that turns to steam in the oven, helping the pudding puff.
Drippings from roast beef
Hot fat that sears the batter's edges, giving crispness, browning and beef flavor.

The step that matters

Pour the batter into the hot drippings. The fat must be very hot before the batter goes in. The batter then sears on contact and steam lifts it quickly. In a cool pan the batter absorbs the fat, spreads, and bakes 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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