An Early Christmas Dinner Celebration

WOW!!!! What a busy weekend of fun holiday celebrations. On Friday, my friend Karen flew in from California for our annual ornament exchange party. This was her first experience with our ornament exchange parties. I thought it would be fun to have an early Christmas dinner in her honor. We had a small Christmas dinner celebration with Karen, Mike, Lauren and Larry and I. I cooked a traditional Christmas dinner that included smoked turkey and smoked prime rib with homemade horseradish sauce Merry Christmas – 2022, courtesy of Larry and his smoker; scalloped potatoes; roasted vegetables; Yorkshire pudding and a chocolate mint cake for dessert.

Everything came out delicious. I think this was Larry’s best meat smoking effort yet. Both the turkey and the prime rib were just perfect. They were so moist and tender and just full of flavor.

I wanted to make Yorkshire pudding because Karen is British, originally being from England. And I’m 1/2 Aussie, so I thought it would be very fitting. But I confess, as much as I’ve heard about Yorkshire pudding, I never really knew what it was; until now. It’s really just popovers topped with beef gravy or beef drippings. We had both. Karen brought her special English gravy mix and made that and I had the drippings from the beef. I have been making popovers for decades, without really knowing I was making traditional Yorkshire pudding, though I prefer butter to gravy on mine.

Yorkshire pudding originated in northern England in the 18th century as a “dripping pudding,” a savory dish made by cooking a batter in the fat that dripped from a spit-roast meat. It was an economical way to make use of every part of the roast. The first recipe for this dish, published under the name “Dripping Pudding,” appeared around 1737. The dish gained widespread recognition when the first recipe for “Yorkshire pudding” was published in Hannah Glasse’s 1747 cookbook The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. The “Yorkshire” name likely came from the region’s association with coal fires, which produced the high heat needed for a crispy batter. Over time, the dish became a staple, no longer exclusively tied to the meat drippings, and evolved into the modern version served today, often alongside a roast dinner. In America, Yorkshire puddings are called popovers. While they share a similar batter, the key difference is that popovers are traditionally made with butter, while Yorkshire puddings use meat drippings like beef fat. The American version is often made with butter and cooked in deep-sided muffin tins.  A fun fact about Yorkshire pudding – The largest Yorkshire pudding ever made measured 46.46 square meters and was cooked in Skipton, North Yorkshire in 1996. That’s the equivalent of more than 10 double decker busses – just think about the amount of gravy you could put in that!

Yorkshire Pudding

We followed Jamie Oliver’s way of making the Yorkshire pudding this time, by putting the canola oil in the muffin tins first then pouring the batter directly into the hot oil. This was a new way of making it for me. 🙂

Heat the oven to 450*F or 230*C.

4 eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp salt

2 TBSP melted butter (for popovers) or canola oil for Yorkshire pudding

Mix the batter together and let rest for at least 30 minutes, at room temperature. If you can make your batter the day before you plan to make them, even better. Refrigerate the batter over night.

Pour about 1 centimeter of oil into each of the muffin tins, and place in the oven for about 10 minutes to get very hot.

Once the oil is very hot, evenly pour the batter directly into the hot oil. Fill the tins between 1/2 and 3/4 of the way full. Place in the oven and DO NOT open until the batter is golden brown and quadrupled in size, and popping over, or for about 15-20 minutes.

Serve immediately with the beef drippings, gravy, or in my case, butter. You are never too old to learn new things and new ideas. I learned a few new things by making these. 🙂

Merry Christmas and safe and Happy Holidays to all. ‘Til next time.