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Toad-in-the-hole

A British dish of meat baked in a batter of flour, egg, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Toad-in-the-hole

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.

Prepare

  1. Slice the meat and place it in a greased pie dish, sprinkling the salt and pepper over it.

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour with a pinch of salt.

  3. Break the egg into a cup and add it to a well in the center of the flour.

Make the batter

  1. Gradually stir in half the milk, beating well with a wooden spoon until smooth.

  2. Ensure the batter is free from lumps before adding the remaining milk.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter over the meat and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about one hour.

  2. Turn it out onto a hot dish.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. 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

Beef or mutton scraps
Provide the savory meat base that the batter bakes around and over.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the batter as it sets in the oven.
Egg
Helps bind the batter and adds richness and structure as it bakes.
Skim milk
Hydrates the flour to form a smooth batter that bakes into a light, set crust.

The step that matters

Beating the batter smooth before adding the remaining milk. Stirring the flour, egg and first portion of milk into a smooth paste before thinning it prevents lumps. Lumps of dry flour stay raw during baking, so the batter bakes unevenly.

“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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