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Yorkshire Pudding

A baked batter made from milk, eggs, flour, 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: Milk and flour 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 hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Combine the flour and salt in a bowl, making a well in the center.

  2. Break in the eggs and gradually stir in the flour from the sides.

  3. Slowly add the milk until a thick, smooth batter forms.

  4. Beat the batter well for about 10 minutes.

  5. Add the remaining milk.

  6. Cover the bowl and let the batter rest for at least 1 hour.

Heat and bake

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

  2. Cover the bottom of a pudding tin with a thin layer of dripping.

  3. Place the tin in the oven to heat the dripping thoroughly.

  4. Beat the batter again before pouring it into the hot tin.

  5. Pour the batter into the hot tin.

  6. Bake for about 10 minutes to partially cook the bottom.

  7. Continue cooking until set and well browned, about 40 minutes total.

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 + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 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 + 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).

Milk and flour 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 that sets the batter and lets the pudding rise into a crisp shell.
Eggs
Bind the batter and provide structure as they set in the oven.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and creates the liquid that turns to steam, helping the pudding rise.
Dripping
Hot fat in the tin fries the batter edges, promoting rising and a crisp, browned crust.

The step that matters

Heat the dripping in the tin before pouring the batter. The batter must hit a very hot, fat-coated tin so it sizzles immediately; this starts the rise and sets a crisp base. A cold tin or cool fat lets the batter spread and turn dense 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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