back to article Royal Society of Chemistry defines perfect Yorkshire pud

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has ordained that a Yorkshire pudding is not in fact a Yorkshire pudding if it's less than four inches tall, and has issued the definitive recipe for the traditional pud so aficionados can bake 'em up just like granny used to. The judgement came in response to an SOS from Brit expat Ian …

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  1. Mad as a Bat
    Flame

    I beg to differ...

    ...as a Yorkshireman I take exception with the rather pathetic quantities of pudding offered by the Royal Chemistry Society's recipe.

    Here's a recipe that gives 6 good servings of pudding:

    6oz plain flour

    1/2 pint milk

    3 eggs + 1 egg white

    salt to taste

    Blitz the lot with a hand blender. Leave to stand 30 minutes.

    Heat a tablespoon of goose fat* in a full-sized roasting tin in a hot oven. At least 220C for a fan oven and as hot as it will go for a conventional oven. The oven needs to be up to temperature before adding the roasting tin. Get the roasting tin good and hot before adding the mixture. Give the mixture a final blitz then pour into the roasting tin and shove into the oven for 15 minutes and DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!

    Cut up and serve slices with gravy as a starter. I usually hold back a little of the mix to thicken the gravy.

    *goose fat has a higher smoking point than beef or pork fat but you can use beef/pork fat if you want a kitchen full of smoke.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    From a true yorkshireman....

    Add an extra egg, it always comes out better!

  3. andy gibson
    Happy

    Yum

    Can't beat a traditional Yorkshire Sunday dinner - with Yorkshire Pudding as the starter, with the main course, and as a dessert!

  4. Mark

    I made 'em just fine

    And I'm from SOUTH wales.

    Wasn't soggy (except on some batter I had left over and put in the fridge for the next day). I used Clover in the bottom of a small lasagne pan, put it in the oven long enough to melt the "butter" and then poured maybe 2/3 inch of batter in it. Left it in there cooking until there was only a little water/fat left in the centre of the pud.

    Worked fine. The very edges a little crispy with a softer batter in the middle (under the surface) and (I think I used a little too much fat) a slightly glazed underneath, meaning the pud came out easily. Though the glazed surface may have helped stop the gravy soaking into the pud while just sitting in the gravy.

  5. Simon Miles

    Hmmm

    Not the most detailed recipe i.ve ever seen, how much milk/water?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    As a Yorkshireman I have one thing to say.

    Cock.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pah....

    What does some la-di-da RSC bod know about anything

    Method:

    Call aunty. Inform beloved relation of need for sustanance.

    Sit back and wait.

    It's also advisable not to have eaten for three days and to plan for not being able to move for a further three days as quality will only be surpassed by quantity.

  8. Matt Thornton
    IT Angle

    RSC

    So first they're saying they want to create an ending to the Italian Job (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/30/italian_job_ending_solution_contest/) and now they're coming up with the perfect Yorkshire pudding.

    Do these "scientists" ever actually do any real work?

  9. Simon
    Flame

    Quantities

    What sort of a ridiculous recipe is this....

    How can you state specific amounts of egg, flour and salt, when the half water, half milk has no quantity. By this definition I could use 1 gallon of water and 1 galloon of milk mixed with 1 egg, a tablespoon and a half of flour (is that plain or self-raising?) and half a teaspoon of salt and make the 'perfect' pud....I think not.

    Either the RSC, or your hack, should be ashamed of themselves!!!

    I also seem to remember that Yorkshire Pudding originates in Nottinghamshire...

  10. Nick Ryan Silver badge
    IT Angle

    Alternatively...

    Alternatively, here's the easy way without messing around with this making wells in centre of bowls of flour nonsense..

    Measure the milk and water into a blender (no need for a separate measuring container as the blender will have a scale on it). Dump all the other ingredients in afterwards. Blend until until it's all mixed smoothly. Leave for few minutes and pour into the hot dish as normal.

    For the final act of laziness, rinse the blender and half fill with water with a little washing up liquid. Run the blender and it'll clean itself.

    Done.

    And the tech angle? using tech to make life easier - as it should be.

  11. JonP

    RSC?!

    Wasn't it the RSC with that thing about the Italian job ending?

    Do they actually ever do any chemistry or do they just sit around watching films and troughing yorkshire puds? Anyone know if they've got any jobs going?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Strangely Enough

    When I was in the States (In Denver, then strangely enough in Boulder also!) I had exactly the same problem. For years I've ued Delia's recipe with absolute success... but over there they failed. Without fail. Might be down to the differences in flour or the fact that they are a so high up there (altitude wise), but they never turned out right :( Back in the UK, no problems at all......... :)

  13. Paul Saleh
    Thumb Down

    Flamin' Chemists.

    Tablespoons? Teaspoons? Scientific? And how much water/milk? This recipe won't get past the peer review stage I fear.

  14. It wasnt me
    Thumb Down

    Morons

    Thats the mark of someone who spent too long at university and consequently has no view of the real world.

    Boulder CO is at an altitude of 1 mile give or take. The recipe needs altering as it does for all recipes that rely on air / gas spaces expanding.

    No wonder people are pulling funding for UK science if these are the numpties we pay for.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    bad science

    "Half milk, half water to make a thin batter. " Half what? cup, pint or (god forbid) litre?

  16. DrPoppers

    Science, my ....

    The RSC is publishing this? From my years studying chemistry I would expect an exact recipe. How much in weight is 1 1/2 table spoons? What volume of milk/water? Full fat milk or semi skimmed? What exact viscosity of batter is required? My old chemistry lecturer would have slapped my hands for such a wishy washy write up of an experiment, I want exact details.

  17. Sweep
    Flame

    I love puds

    1 cup milk

    1 cup flour

    2/3 eggs

    pinch salt

    dash worcestershire sauce

    mix, leave to stand 30 minutes

    heat oven to Really Fucking Hot

    put roasting tin or pud tin in oven with fat or oil in the bottom. Heat till smoking. Add batter. cook 15-20 minutes. Eat.

  18. Luther Blissett

    Not just chemistry, then

    > "It's in the blood and instinct of people born and raised there."

    The RSC (not to be confused with the other RSC) recognises the element of voodoo.

    God help us. Shouldn't this RSC be doing some real chemistry that badly needs doing well - like researching the effects of combinations of NICE's drugs? It even seems to have forgotten that Yorkshire Puds are CALORIES. And calories = fat people according to the prevailing Gospel. Which suggests some more real chemistry they could do - research in full the metabolic pathways, which HMcGuv wants us to believe are known, but are not. God help us.

  19. Eddie Edwards
    IT Angle

    n00b question

    How is that supposed to rise without using bicarb or self-raising flour?

  20. Nick
    Coat

    Surely not....

    A Yorkshire man insisting he knows better and insisting he has the last word?

    Surely not.

    /mine's the one with the Hale and Pace Yorkshire Airways sketch in the pocket

  21. Simon Round
    Paris Hilton

    Pyrex!

    "He explained: "I use batter mix that I pick up on my trips back to Blighty and my mum's old Pyrex dish. Perhaps the secret is to make them as she, as a true Yorkshirewoman, did. I try to follow in her steps."

    Pyrex! Bloody Pyrex! Lad's got to be a bloody southerner.

    What you need my lad is a good old fashioned metal Yorkshire Pudding Tin with a coating of carbon on it and bits of the last yorkshire pudding you made. Never wash the tin.

    Put a good dollop of beef dripping or fat in the bottom and let it get very hot and smoking before you put in't mixture.

    Bloody Pyrex!

    I remember when all this were fields.

    And Yes. I am a Yorkshire Lad born a and Bred. Bloody Pyrex!

    Paris - because she knows you have to put it in hot.

  22. Keith Williams
    Thumb Up

    Something else too

    My Gran was a Yorkshire lass, and my mum learned from her, and my mum insisted that the milk and egg had to be warm, not fresh from the fridge, before using.

    And it is high time that the Register addressed these pressing issues from the world around us.

  23. Hollerith

    And adjust for altitude

    In the Rocky Mountains, you have to adjust cooking times etc., as altitude really does make a difference. I was always wrecking hard-boiled eggs when I came to the UK, until I did them for less time.

  24. Sam

    This one always rises matron

    Multiply as needed....

    3 oz plain flour

    3 floz Milk

    2 floz water

    egg

    pepper

    salt

    2 Tablespoons of animal grease.

    Bung all ingredients except the animal grease in a hand cranked blender as early as possible.

    Blend.

    Every time you go to check din din, blend again (ensures air entraining and long chain molecular malarkey).

    Hot oven 220C, smoky fat (like the goose fat tip!), 20 mins while beef is resting.

    Eat and drink far too much, watch MotoGP/F1/Superbikes/Cricket/whatever.

    Break wind.

  25. Charles Tsang
    Thumb Down

    salt to taste?

    Does that mean u have to taste the raw batter to determine the saltiness?

    Eewwww...!

    I guess you could remember for next time though.

  26. Dave Gregory
    Thumb Up

    I was going to say that.

    The secret of a proper Yorkshire is, as Mad as a Bat states:- get it hot, and keep the door shut.

    Also, it's a long, long time since I heard of anyone else using pudding batter to thicken the gravy, something my grandmother used to do. Ahhh, nostalgia...

  27. David Willis
    Unhappy

    Simple solution

    1 cup of flour

    1 cup of eggs

    1 cup of milk (milk/water mix if you want)

    1 cup = easy to remember!

    1 teaspoon of salt.

    beat eggs first, add four and milk, beat. Allow to stand for 10 mins.

    Cooker temp about 200 C, get the oil/fat to smoking stage and add mixture. DO NOT OPEN OVEN DOOR UNTIL COOKED.

    Could I add the definition (to clarify for the chemists) - Yorkshire nann bread - like Yorkshire pudding but less than 1 inch tall..

  28. Edward Clarke

    Your recipes aren't going to work...

    Baking in Boulder is a pain in the arse. You're over a mile ( 1655 meters ) up from sea level. See if you can dig up "Pie In The Sky - Baking at High Altitudes" by Susan Purdy (ISBN 0-06-052258-5). The techniques in there may help you with your pudding.

  29. Eric Sisson
    Unhappy

    Altitude affects cooking

    One factor that Ian Lyness and the RSC should consider is the effects of altitude on cooking. Many recipes require modification for altitudes above 3,500 feet. According to Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulder,_Colorado the elevation of Boulder is 5,430 feet or 1,655 meters.

  30. IR
    Happy

    High altitude

    Boulder is about a mile above sea level. You have to change the cooking instructions for everything up there, I think usually you add a little extra self raising flour for cakes but I have no idea about Yorkie Pud. Bisquick used to have a good Yorkshire Pudding recipe on the British boxes, but they stopped putting it on there for some reason.

  31. Alistair
    Happy

    Marmalade

    Serve left-over Yorkshire Pudding with marmalade.

    Can we now have the perfect recipe for that delicious orange-based preserve?

  32. Andrew Moore
    Flame

    I've never had any problems...

    but then it takes a Lancastrian to do the job properly anyway.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    A title is required

    Friend of mine (a southerner) makes the best yorkies I've ever tasted, using almost exactly that recipe. The exception is that she's a veggie, so she doesn't use beef dripping as oil. She replaces it with olive oil, in which she melts a lump of butter (about 1/4 the volume).

    I'd try it myself, but I'm such a bad cook, I can burn water. And even when I don't, it comes out lumpy.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So nice to see that someone knows how to serve them...

    I've only ever had them served properly once. That was in Bradford.

    (And the family were surprised that I knew how it was supposed to be served. Little did they know that the Southerer had a Northern parent...)

  35. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    @ Mad as a bat

    A table spoon and a half of flour???

    Half milk, half water???

    Half a teaspoon of salt?????

    Where the fek is the exact science in that????

    TY Mad aza bat for the more precise measures! :-) Now - if it was not for the fox that ate my chickens last night I would have some bloody eggs to try it with....

  36. Keith
    Coat

    And for people who have things to do in life

    Aunt Bessy makes yorkshire puddings.

    She even makes ready cooked ones that just need heated.

    (mine's the one with the couple of quid in the pocket to go buy some frozen ones)

  37. Nemo Metis
    Thumb Up

    @ Sam

    one word my son, Perfick!

    And if you want it done the best me ducks, then only in the proper home of the Yorkie pud can you get it: Nottingham.

  38. Paul Schofield
    Alert

    Theres yer problem....

    I see 2 fundamental problems in his approach....and they are both summed up in his first sentence:

    "I use batter mix that I pick up on my trips back to Blighty and my mum's old Pyrex dish"

    As previously noted - Bloody Pyrex!!!! you cook yorkshires in a nice thin tin that is reserved only for making that food of the gods of Yorkshire......

    Secondly (and I am suprised no other bloody minded yorkshire git has picked up on this) Effing Batter Effing Mix???? Who uses mix to make a dish that is Eggs, Flour, Salt and Milk??? Come On.......

    Yorkshire pudding batter is gut feeling.... a Yorkshireman KNOWS when it is right.... get the fat hot, keep the door closed....and never will a floppy pudding appear again....

    Bringing a little piece of Yorkshire to Canada....and never have a problem getting my puds up.......

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Aunt Bessy's

    In the freezer! Always work perfectly for me, but then again I am a lancastrian so I guess the Yorkshie lot would not expect any better!

    AC and flames because.......

  40. Frank
    Happy

    @andy gibson re. yum

    ...and for dessert as well ?!?!

    oh....maybe with sugar in the batter mix....and some jam spread on top.........I'll try it :)

    P.S. try spreading a little bit of strawberry jam on a slice of fried bread, mmmmmmmmmmmm.

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @And for people who have things to do in life

    They are NOT Yorkshire puddings. If you believe they are then you have never had proper ones.

    Paris 'cos she'll know how to make 'em rise.

  42. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    *Shakes head*

    I'm a Midlander living down south and I've never had problems with my Yorkshire puddings. Use a tin, get the oven hot and get the oil in the tin hot. And keep the oven door shut! This makes a huge difference in the quality of the final pudding.

    Of course, if cookery was taught to a decent level in education these days there would be no need for the RSC to do something like this.

  43. Rob
    Alien

    People from yorkshire

    are they related to people from ireland, they both seem to go on about being from a particular place, yet they never seem to be in that place, if it's so good, shut up and go back, otherwise just accept that you're just another earthling like everyone else

  44. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Recipes

    Thanks for the extra recipes. The RSC one is a bit daft as it doesn't state how many it serves and some of the quantities.

    The last time I tried to make home Yorkshires, they came out like flat pancakes. Quite stodgy too. Think too much flour.

    Anyway - will try some of the above next time.

    Peter

  45. Paul Rhodes
    Black Helicopters

    Too Thick == RSC == Not Risen

    West Yorkshire recipe works fine on the shores of Lake Ontario - no altitude adjustment needed here. I find that Canadian oven doors are too big and the house fills with smoke too easily, if the Smoke Alarm doesn't go off, the oven's not hot enough!

    Put a fork in the mixture, remove it and hold level, and the mixture should run smoothly down the tines if it's thin enough.

  46. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    @David willis

    "1 cup = easy to remember!"

    easy to remember, but not exactly an acurate measurement. Using a coffee cup will give slightly different results to using an egg cup.

    Perhaps America has some strange conspiracy between cup manufacturers to keep them all the same size.

  47. Martin
    Unhappy

    what??????

    And for people who have never had a proper yorkshire pudding

    By Keith Posted Thursday 13th November 2008 15:16 GMT

    Aunt Bessy makes yorkshire puddings.

    She even makes ready cooked ones that just need heated.

    (mine's the one with the couple of quid in the pocket to go buy some frozen ones)

    corrected for you

  48. Edward Rose

    I can't believe it!

    "I use batter mix that I pick up on my trips back to Blighty "

    Am I the only person here to be deeply disturbed by this comment. It's flour!

    Then, he goes on to say he try's to make them like his mum did (or something like that).

    Definitely use a metal / enamled tin.

    Can also make sure stuff stays hot by shoving t' hob on, then putting tin on t' hob (especially if you are putting sausages in, or better still, bacon pieces).

  49. Random Noise
    Stop

    Good with BRANDX mustard

    Colemans mustard eh?

    Colour me cynical here but just how much of a bung did RSC get from Coleman's PR company for this?

    Excellent explanation of this practice can be found on Bad Science.

    http://www.badscience.net/

  50. Senor Beavis
    IT Angle

    @Mad as a Bat

    I'm now copying and pasting the recipe using a "Peeee Ceeeee", thereby providing the heretofore absent IT angle

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