Starter, main or dessert: When do you eat a Yorkshire pudding? (2024)

FAQs

Starter, main or dessert: When do you eat a Yorkshire pudding? ›

As a first course, it can be served with onion gravy. For a main course, it may be served with meat and gravy, and is part of the traditional Sunday roast, but can also be filled with foods such as bangers and mash to make a meal.

Some people serve it as a first course with gravy before a roast dinner, others serve it with the roast dinner. Yorkshire pudding is the base for Toad in the Hole, a meal in itself served with potatoes, vegetables and gravy. You can serve Yorkshire Pudding alongside most casserole/stew dishes.

Some tradditional Yorkshire people do eat it before their main course but most of us have it with our main course. What does Yorkshire pudding taste like? It tastes very much like a popover, except it's usually cooked in meat drippings rather than butter.

Yorkshire pudding is a delicious and versatile accompaniment to many savoury meals. Traditionally, it is eaten on Sunday as part of a meal of roasted meat, roast potatoes, gravy and vegetables.

For many, a Yorkshire pudding is a crucial – and beloved – component of a roast dinner. But at dinner tables up and down the country, people are quietly rebelling, and eating their Yorkshire puddings as a starter.

History. The popover is an American version of Yorkshire pudding and similar batter puddings made in England since the 17th century, The oldest known reference to popovers dates to 1850. The first cookbook to print a recipe for popovers was in 1876.

Yorkshire pudding is traditionally served with gravy as a starter dish followed by the main dish, or alongside roast beef or similar meat for a dinner spread.

While rightfully the centrepiece of a Sunday roast, it has long been held that 'Yorkies' should be served with red meats such as beef but not white meats like chicken – or the Christmas turkey. In a sign of changing tastes, however, the survey of Britain's top festive traditions placed the puddings high on the list.

Yorkshire puddings are similar to Dutch baby pancakes, and to popovers, an American light roll made from an egg batter.

A good Yorkshire pudding batter will work in any size pan. I did most of my testing in large 6-well popover tins, but the batter works equally well in muffin tins, mini muffin tins, and in a preheated cast iron skillet or casserole dish (these large-format methods being the most traditional).

What is the best way to serve Yorkshire pudding? ›

Toad in the hole is by far the favorite way to serve Yorkshire pudding for the family. Just where the name came from no one knows. Originally the dish used sausage meat, so the finished dish probably resembled toads sitting in the batter (the hole).

There is a secret to every Yorkshire pudding recipe when it comes to getting Yorkshire puddings to rise properly. In fact there are two. The first is to let the batter rest once you've mixed and the second is to heat your tin and beef dripping so it's piping hot when you do pour the batter in.

Do you serve Yorkshire pudding hot or cold? The best Yorkshire Pudding is served hot from the oven on the side of freshly roasted beef. Although Yorkshire Pudding can be served cold, the texture is not nearly as satisfying as of those pulled from the oven.

That aside, Yorkshire Pudding is still a staple of the British Sunday lunch and in some cases is eaten as a separate course prior to the main meat dish. This is the traditional way to eat the pudding and is still common in parts of Yorkshire today.

With that in mind, always make sure your Yorkshire puddings have room to rise in the oven. The top shelf is the hottest and therefore the best for cooking them, but you don't want them to get squashed against the oven roof.

The consistency of the batter shouldn't be too thin or too thick. The best way to know whether or not you have the perfect consistency is to dip a spoon into the batter and see if the batter creates a thin layer on the back of the spoon.

The original serving of the Yorkshire pudding was as an appetiser to a main meal, usually with gravy. This was because it would fill you up, meaning you wouldn't eat as much meat, which was expensive. It was originally cooked in northern England over a fire with the meat roasting above it.

As a first course, it can be served with onion gravy. For a main course, it may be served with meat and gravy, and is part of the traditional Sunday roast, but can also be filled with foods such as bangers and mash to make a meal. Sausages can be added to make toad in the hole.

If you are a strict traditionalist, then technically you should steer clear. It's unlikely that Yorkshire puddings were included in the first traditional Christmas dinners because they had not yet been invented.

This bacon-wrapped Yorkshire pudding with an egg on top is a complete, and completely delicious, breakfast.