February tends to be a bleak month, dragging out the darkness of winter even as the snowdrops (or ‘Candlemas bells’) appear, signalling the onset of Spring. Since 2007, Britons have had more reason to look forward to the shortest month of the year with the creation of National Yorkshire Pudding Day. In Britain, we celebrate this event on the first Sunday in February. This year, 2022, the day falls on Sunday 6 February. Although the USA also celebrates National Yorkshire Pudding Day, Americans will have to wait until Thursday 13 October to whip up some commemorative batter.
The origins of the Yorkshire Pudding are vague. It is believed that the first reference to the recipe for what was described as ‘Dripping Pudding’ was of a 1737 text in London published by T. Reed : The whole duty of a woman, or, An infallible guide to the fair sex: containing rules, directions, and observations, for their conduct and behavior through all ages and circumstances of life, as virgins, wives, or widows: with … rules and receipts in every kind of cookery.
The recipe (pages 468-9) instructs:
MAKE a good Batter as for Pancakes, put it in a
hot Toss-pan over the Fire with a Bit of Butter to
fry the Bottom a little, then put the Pan and Batter under
a Shoulder of Mutton instead of a Dripping-pan, keeping
frequently shaking it by the Handle and it will be light and
savoury, and fit to take up when your Mutton is enough;
then turn it in a Dish, and serve it hot.
In 1747, Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy was published. This contains the first example of the term ‘Yorkshire Pudding’. Her recipe is as follows:
Take a quart of milk, four eggs, and a little
salt, make it up to a thick batter with flour, like
pancake batter. You must have a good piece
of meat at the fire; take a stew-pan and puts some
dripping in, set it on the fire; when it boils, pour
in your pudding; let it bake on the fire till you
think it is nigh enough, then turn a plate upside
down in a dripping-pan, that the dripping may
not be blacked; set your stew-pan on it under
your meat, and let the dripping drop on the pud-
ding, and the heat of the fire come to it, to make
it of a fine brown. When your meat is done and
sent to the table, drain all the fat from your pudding,
and set it on the fire again to dry a little; then
slide it as dry as you can into a dish; melt some
butter, and pour it into a cup, and set it in the
middle of the pudding. It is an excellent good
pudding; the gravy of the meat eats well with it.
Our Library Collection holds a copy of John Farley’s 1807 The London Art of Cookery and Domestic Housekeeper’s Complete Assistant Uniting the Principles of Elegance, Taste, and Economy: and Adapted to the Use of Servants, and Families of Every Description (reprint of 1807 vol.; Lewes Southover Press, 1977) from the Newington-Irving Collection. Page 182 has a recipe for Yorkshire Pudding that differs from earlier examples by including butter and the process of browning both sides by turning over.
Like the other version, Farley’s involves making the Yorkshire pudding in one large tin, rather than the smaller, individual puddings that are more common today. Separate puddings were sometimes later known as ‘Yorkshire Puffs’. There are examples of this in newspapers from the 1930s.
Farley’s example also mentions beef, mutton, and veal. For much of the twentieth century, the puddings tend to have been associated with beef. We can see from the earliest recipe that this was served with mutton. Today, though, Yorkshire puddings are regularly served with all kinds of roast meats – even with a traditional Christmas turkey – as well as vegetarian alternatives.
Sources
- John Farley, The London Art of Cookery and Domestic Housekeeper’s Complete Assistant Uniting the Principles of Elegance, Taste, and Economy: and Adapted to the Use of Servants, and Families of Every Description (reprint of 1807 vol.; Lewes Southover Press, 1977) from the Newington-Irving Collection in the Society of Genealogists’ Library; Reference only; Textbook shelves; Call Number TB/SH 156; Item ID 109742.
- Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747)
- The whole duty of a woman, or, An infallible guide to the fair sex : containing rules, directions, and observations, for their conduct and behavior through all ages and circumstances of life, as virgins, wives, or widows : with … rules and receipts in every kind of cookery (T. Reed, 1737)
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