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Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding

A roast beef served with Yorkshire pudding made from eggs, milk, flour, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Roast the beef

  1. Dredge the roast beef lightly with flour, rubbing in coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  2. Cook for 20 minutes per pound in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) to brown quickly.

  3. Decrease the heat to moderate (350°F / 175°C) and bake steadily, adding water if necessary, ensuring there are good drippings.

  4. When the meat is done, pour some drippings into a hot dripping pan.

Make and bake the pudding

  1. For the pudding, beat the eggs separately, then mix with milk, flour, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Pour the pudding mixture into the hot drippings and bake.

Serve

  1. Cut the pudding into squares and arrange around the roast on a platter.

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

Eggs
Beaten eggs give the batter structure and help it rise and set as it bakes.
Flour
Provides the starch that sets the batter into a sturdy, sliceable pudding.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, helping the batter bake up tender.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, lifting the batter so the pudding puffs.
Drippings from roast
Hot fat in the pan gives the batter a crisp, browned base and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Pour the batter into hot drippings. Hot fat sears the batter's base as it hits the pan, producing the lift and crisp edges. Cold or insufficient fat makes the pudding flat and greasy.

“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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