Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding for Sunday
A fine piece of beef roasted in the oven, its golden crust, served with those little puffed cups of batter cooked in fat — the Yorkshire pudding — and meat juices (gravy). The unifying Sunday dish of England.
A fine piece of beef roasted in the oven, its golden crust, served with those little puffed cups of batter cooked in fat — the Yorkshire pudding — and meat juices (gravy). The unifying Sunday dish of England.
Come now, my boy! Here is the real food of a working man — not your laboratory fuss. At Trinity, on Sunday, we attacked the joint as we attack a problem: straight on, without hesitation! The secret is to let the fat become quite hot before pouring in the pudding batter — it then swells like a balloon, jolly good! And the juices, we never waste them: everything goes into the sauce. Eat, and you will reason better afterwards, trust a New Zealander!
- •Piece of beef for roasting (rib or sirloin) — a fine piece for the table (central meat)
- •Beef suet or dripping — a good spoonful (cooking, pudding base)
- •Wheat flour — according to the batter (Yorkshire pudding)
- •Eggs — a few (pudding batter)
- •Milk — as needed (pudding batter)
- •Salt, pepper, English mustard — to taste (seasoning)
Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding for Sunday
A fine piece of beef roasted in the oven, its golden crust, served with those little puffed cups of batter cooked in fat — the Yorkshire pudding — and meat juices (gravy). The unifying Sunday dish of England.
Why this dish? Rutherford regularly ate at the Trinity College dining hall, where the Sunday roast beef was the quintessential culinary institution of Cambridge university life. It was the convivial table dish he enjoyed throughout the week.
Come now, my boy! Here is the real food of a working man — not your laboratory fuss. At Trinity, on Sunday, we attacked the joint as we attack a problem: straight on, without hesitation! The secret is to let the fat become quite hot before pouring in the pudding batter — it then swells like a balloon, jolly good! And the juices, we never waste them: everything goes into the sauce. Eat, and you will reason better afterwards, trust a New Zealander!
Ingredients (period version)
- Piece of beef for roasting (rib or sirloin) — a fine piece for the table (central meat)
- Beef suet or dripping — a good spoonful (cooking, pudding base)
- Wheat flour — according to the batter (Yorkshire pudding)
- Eggs — a few (pudding batter)
- Milk — as needed (pudding batter)
- Salt, pepper, English mustard — to taste (seasoning)
Ingredients
- Roast beef (prime rib or sirloin) — 1.2 kg (central meat)
- All-purpose flour — 120 g (Yorkshire pudding)
- Eggs — 3 (pudding batter)
- Whole milk — 175 ml (pudding batter)
- Beef dripping or neutral oil — 4 tbsp (cooking the puddings)
- Salt, pepper, 1 tsp English mustard — to taste (seasoning)
Method
- Remove beef from fridge 1 hour before cooking, season with salt and pepper. Sear all sides in a hot casserole.
- Roast at 220°C for 20 min, then 180°C for about 15 min per 500g for medium-rare. Rest 15 min under foil.
- Prepare pudding batter: whisk flour, eggs, milk, pinch of salt; let rest 30 min.
- Pour a little fat into each cup of a muffin tin, heat in oven at 230°C until smoking.
- Pour batter into the hot fat and bake 20-25 min WITHOUT opening the oven: puddings should rise and turn golden.
- Deglaze the beef roasting juices with a little stock for gravy. Slice the meat and serve with puddings and gravy.
How it was made : In the 19th century, Yorkshire pudding was originally cooked in a large pan placed UNDER the spit, catching the fat that dripped from the meat rotating before the hearth. It was eaten before the meat, with gravy, to "fill up" stomachs before the costly piece of beef.
The contemporary twist : Serve an individual Yorkshire pudding topped with a thin slice of roast and a dollop of horseradish: an "atom of Sunday roast" in a bite, a nod to the discoverer of the nucleus.
Sources : Isabella Beeton, Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, 1861 · Eliza Acton, Modern Cookery for Private Families, 1845
Ernest Rutherford · Charactorium