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Yorkshire Pudding

A baked batter made from flour, eggs, milk, salt, and dripping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Mix flour and salt in a bowl, then make a well in the center.

  2. Break the egg into a separate bowl and add it to the flour.

  3. Gradually add half of the milk while stirring until smooth. Beat well.

  4. Add the remaining milk gradually.

  5. Let the batter rest for an hour if possible.

Bake

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

  2. Cover the bottom of a baking tin with hot fat from the meat.

  3. Pour the batter into the tin.

  4. Bake for about 30 minutes until golden.

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).

  4. Milk + meattop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,703 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Egg + meattop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 as the starch and protein set in the oven.
Eggs
Provide structure and help the pudding rise and set as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture that turns to steam, helping the pudding puff and giving a tender texture.
Dripping
Heats in the tin so the batter sizzles on contact, helping it rise and brown.

The step that matters

Preheat the fat until smoking hot before adding the batter. The batter must hit very hot fat so it sets quickly and steam lifts it. If the fat or oven is not hot enough, the pudding will be flat and dense.

“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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