Comments on: Yorkshire puddings must rise four inches or higher, rule the chemists

By: tim reeves

tim reeves — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:21:54 +0000

As it’s a year later, I doubt he’ll see this but someone should warn Chris Bishop about the hazards of consuming a glass of pure ethanol while cooking.
Glad someone brought up the Maillard reaction. I learnt of it in ‘On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen’ by Harold McGee, a good book for scientific types who enjoy cooking.

By: mark

mark — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:27:17 +0000

I now swear by the TV cooks recipe (comes from mother of the Northern chappie whose name escapes me) … even more reliable than my mom’s.

Equal VOLUME of eggs, flour, milk – pinch of salt.

Hot fat from a hot oven (I use gas mark 8).

Simples (smuech)

By: Annika Clifton

Annika Clifton — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:24:23 +0000

The reason for the yorkshire puddings not rising as well or as easily in calgary is actually to do with the flour. Canadian flour has more gluten and therefore produces a more ’sticky’ dough.
I used to live further north in Thompon, Manitoba which is not at high altitude and had a similar problem.
By the way this also affects pancake recipes and victoria sponge.

By: Anthony Hardwicke

Anthony Hardwicke — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:40:49 +0000

I presume you mean tristearin C57H110O6, when you mention ‘beef fat’?

By: Carrie Allen

Carrie Allen — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:41:51 +0000

My husband and I recently visited family in England where we went out for a meal to a Pub and had roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. The roast beef came inside a great big Yorkshire pudding, so he had to take a photo and now that we are home he wants me to start making them like the picture. Can you tell me if there is a special tin for them? I’ve tried making them in a cake tin but they just rise in the middle and it doesn’t work. I am from Yorkshire and I have been making Yorkshire puddings for years in bun tins but, I just can’t seem to get them right in a cake tin. If anyone can tell me how to make these big round Yorkshire pudding, I would me most grateful.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:31:13 +0000

With respect Bob, the quality for some ingredients is laid out in the recipe – see “kitchen grade” flour. I suspect weevil-infested flour doesn’t come up to many peoples’ kitchen grade

By: Bob Dunkley

Bob Dunkley — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:48:44 +0000

The only person who can make the perfect Yorkshire pudding is your mother!!My wife and I have stood before our oven countless times with Delia in one hand and a whisk in the other, and still the results were less than perfect. We weighed adjusted the oven temperature, whisked till we were blue in the face, whisked hardly at all, and still we were disappointed with the results.Yet my mother – and I suspect your mothers could produce the absolute perfect Yorkshire with out any measuring etc. As I pointed out to my wife – making Yorskhires perfect is a chemical experiment – the parameters have to be just so!! Go outside the envelope, and disaster beckons.
BTW no one has said anything about the QUALITY of the ingredients, does the freshness of the eggs affect it, or the fact that the oil is on it’s way to rancidity by absorbing oxygen at the double bonds? How about the presence of flour weevils in the flour? (A very common occurance)What about iodine in the salt? After all when performing an experiment in the lab, you would use ingredients that are of analytical standard!!
Regards
Bob

By: Dave Holey

Dave Holey — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:39:52 +0000

Yorkshire is a big county,and just as there are many varieties of wine, I am sure that there are many variants of yorkshire pudding.For my own early experience in Leeds in the 1940’s our mother made Yorkshire pudding in the old Yorkist range oven which was conjoined to the open fire.And this method would have been passed down from her mother.To get a completely consistent product under such conditions would have been difficult.But to go back in time, as one must do to find the truer origins of Yokshire pudding,this needs to be done.I’m a bit surprised that nobody has yet mentioned ‘Yorkshire’spread with jam {butter optional]as a sweet course after a Sunday lunch,-best whilst still warm.It was certainly a favourite with us kids.The gravy option was also being used.Our ‘Yorkshire’ was typically fairly flat with some bubbly features,and made in a big square tin to be cut into squares after cooking.
On ‘bad’ days the upper edges around the perimeter of the tin could be a bit ‘overdone’.I recently experienced the tall fluffy type in a Yorkshire restaurant and was not particularly impressed as it seemed to lack ‘body’as do some wines.Probably a bit of an ego-trip for the chef I’d say!

By: Clive Redfern

Clive Redfern — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:02:52 +0000

Important factors include the initial temperature and therefore the mass and size of the vessel as well as the cooking temperature.

Rapid transfer of mixture to cooking vessel can go some way towards offsetting the mass/size consideration … and explaining variability.
The rate of heat transfer to the mixture is important. It is not difficult to imagine that carbohydrates, proteins and phosholipids split, a host of Amidori and Maillard reactions ensue releasing byproducts (steam and CO2) essential to the foaming process and the taste.
Observe how, where mass and heat transfer is concentrated …at the edges … the crust foams and rises above the centre.
Baked in a fan oven there is a more even distribution of heat and more “rising” is apparent in the middle.
Small puddings (which I can’t really consider a Yorkshire pudding at all after years of weekly arguments with my grandfather over who has the biggest one) rise more per unit mass of batter.
Born into an nth generation Yorkshire family, I had Yorkshire pudding every Sunday until I left home at 18.

My German (biochemist) wife is a superb cook. I am only chemist that plays with food professionally. Uschi had a hard week so I cooked yesterday.

Without reference to this article,I made a successful pudding using 160g of plain flour, a 65g, 3 day fresh egg and 250 cm3 of 0% fat milk. I beat it with a fork, because it saves washing up and I had the time.
I left it to stand for 20 minutes before putting it into a preheated to 183°C 15×25 cm pyrex dish weighing 800g containing 15cm3 Extra Virgin Olive oil, which, at this temperature, was just starting to vapourise with a little pyrolysis. (it was just starting to smoke!). Cooking time 25 minutes. La Chapelle des Fougeretz is about 100M asl and its being in France may have a little influence.

The best gravies include stew (which we had), chicken and turkey but a good, quick substitute can be made from a finely chopped 80g onion fried to caramelisation point in olive oil… just honey brown … then 20g plain flour dispersed in together with an Oxo cube, 5g salt and 400 cm3 boiling water. Stir well whist bringing to the boil and then filter the mixture through a sieve. Adding the flour to the onion mixture stops clumping.

Tradition indicates that Olive oil should not be used. The oil must be fresh.

Traditionally the batter was poured around the still roasting meat in the end phase.

By: James Nelson

James Nelson — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:51:04 +0000

As a Yorshireman born and bread, the success of a Yorkie depends on a skill that my father swore by. In my family my Dad made the best puddings. As a teenage lad, I asked him what his secret was and he said “it’s the way you hold your mouth”. To this day I do not know what he meant.

However, these days my Yorkshire puddings are fine, I suppose it is genetic or an age thing!