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Toad in the Hole

A baked mutton dish covered in a batter of flour, milk, eggs, and baking powder.

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

Toad in the Hole

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Cut the neck of mutton into pieces, one with a bone and one without.

  2. In a bowl, mix flour and salt, then gradually add milk to make a smooth paste.

  3. Beat the batter briskly until smooth, then add the rest of the milk and beaten eggs.

  4. Let the batter rest for 1-2 hours, then beat in baking powder just before using.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease a shallow dish and heat it in the oven.

  2. Place the mutton pieces in the dish and pour the batter over them.

  3. Bake in a well-heated oven until golden brown.

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

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

  4. Milk + muttontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together814 recipes

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

  5. Egg + muttontop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,648 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, setting as it bakes into a light crust.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set and rise in the oven.
Milk
Makes the batter smooth and loose, adding moisture that turns to steam while baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping it rise and become lighter as it bakes.
Neck of mutton
Provides the meat and fat that flavour the dish and drip into the batter.

The step that matters

Heat the dish before adding the batter. Batter poured into a hot, greased dish begins cooking at once, creating a crisp, risen base. A cold dish lets the batter soak in grease slowly and bake dense and pale.

“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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