Edd Kimber's Yorkshire Pudding

As an American southerner, I definitely don’t know popovers! (Talk to me about buttermilk biscuits and my great grandma’s cornbread, y’all!) But I love the bake off and was inspired to find a recipe for Yorkshire Pudding and try it out. My family majorly approves! They were so easy to make and deliciously eggy. I’ll make them again!

As a New Englander, I have made pop overs my whole life. I think they are the same thing, but use butter rather than lard or grease for the pans, and are always made as individual servings. I would NEVER suggest this is something to always have on your counter, nor to eat cold the next day. They are best straight out of the oven with more butter. I suppose you could add jam if it was breakfast, but we normally had these with dinner. We never had leftovers. Rather than a muffin tin, I always made them in pyrex glass custard cups. The glass conducts the heat really well. So, helps them to "pop."

My mom would make this Yorkshire pudding with roast beef several times a year. She used a recipe given to her by a Connecticut friend. She made it in a 9x12 baking pan, and used the drippings from the roast, and it was wonderful. Years later a friend’s mother, from England, gave us a new twist: if she wasn’t making a roast, she used reserved bacon fat. And instead of a baking pan, she filled the muffin tins as in this recipe. The wonderful part is that it eliminated with the often tricky bit of slicing the pudding into individual servings. And I always have bacon fat on hand, and rarely make roast beef, so….it’s much more likely I’ll make it with the bacon fat!
Thanks for the article and memories. One question remains: what is the difference between this - and popovers!?

I’ve always wanted to make Yorkshire pudding…sounds like such a comfort food. The recipe calls for 1 cup of eggs….not sure how to measure that? Do I break eggs into a liquid measuring cup until it reaches the one cup mark? I’ve only ever heard recipes call for a quantity of eggs not a specific measure.

This triggers a very deep food memory. Dad made these about once a week to go with Sunday "Roast Beast" beef roast. the recipe was 1, 1 &2: 1 cup each flour and milk--we only ever had non-fat milk, so I am pretty sure that is what he used. WE would have had a typical British fry-up breakfast for Saturday breakfast. The bacon fat was saved for Sunday Yorkshires. A knob of fat the size of he end of his thumb went into each muffin cup--the pan was quite gnarly, had been around for decades--aluminum and long before non-stick. The oven was cranked up to 400 after the roast was done and the pan with the bacon knobs went into the oven. While the fat was getting hot, he beat the two eggs , added the milk, they added the flour in a few tablespoons at a time. He only ever used a hand egg beater. He did this in a big 4 cup measuring cup. He would check the fat with a drop of water flicked from his fingers. If it spit, the fat was hot enough, if not, back into the oven for a few more minutes to finish heating. Then he poured the batter into the fat until about 1/2 full. For some reason the last one was always a little shorter than the rest! Even as he was pouring in the batter the first ones would begin to cook in the hot fat. They went into the oven when the roast came out. And NO ONE was allowed to open the oven door OR jump around so they wouldn't fall. Dad made gravy and got the meal set on the table for serving. The roast resting made delicious "dish gravy". What he called the juices that drained off the roast while resting. When carving the meat, Mom would serve the other parts of the meal: par-boiled potatoes that were roasted with the beast. Roasted onions as well, and green beans or asparagus or carrots. Then the meat and a golden Yorkshire was added to the plate, and over that Yorkshire was drizzled some dish gravy. The plate was passed, youngest first with the mushroom gravy tea had made. We all got to put our own raven over our meal. Then that first bite of Yorkshire. Still remember. And I remember the last time he ever made that meal. The weekend after my Mom died, and he was not able to make the Yorkshire....it was just too hard. I have never been able to duplicate his Yorkshire--or his roast beast for that matter. I do OK, and am generally an excellent home cook...but there was something about that Yorkshire and roast beast........Thanks for the food memory.

As a teen, mom gave me the job of making these as mine always came out puffy big n perfect. Then as an adult, when I tried they didn't puff. Very disappointing. What was I doing wrong {without knowing}? Thanks ♥