Recipe: Gourmet’s Classic Yorkshire Pudding

Gourmet’s Classic Yorkshire Pudding

Sift together into a bowl 2 cups sifted flour and 1 teaspoon salt. Slowly stir in 2 cups milk or 1 cup light cream and 1 cup milk, beating vigorously until smooth. Add 4 eggs, one at a time, beating for a minute with a rotary beater after each addition to make a creamy batter. Cover the bowl with a dry towel and chill the batter for at least 2 hours.

About a ½ hour before the roast is done, spoon 8 tablespoons fat drippings from the roast into a shallow pan and put it in the oven until the drippings are sizzling hot. Beat the chilled batter vigorously a few times and pour it about ½ inch deep into the hot pan. Bake the pudding in a very hot oven (450 degrees) for about 15 minutes. When the pudding has risen, reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake it for 10 to 15 minutes longer, or until it is light, crisp and brown. Cut the pudding into squares and put them on a hot platter or around the roast.

My adaptation: The roast dries out if you raise the oven temp to 450 degrees for fifteen minutes. Instead, remove the roast and pour off the drippings, when the internal temperature reaches 150 degrees (rare). Cover the roast lightly in foil, wrap in a towel and put it in an insulated picnic cooler. The roast continues to cook a bit while it rests and it’s also easier to carve. While the roast rests, raise oven temperature, add the drippings to the pudding pan, add pudding batter and cook in the oven as above. You can also use an electric mixer on medium to beat the pudding, instead of the hand-powered rotary beater.