Sunday roast problem

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Honestly I think it's probably down to temperature.
I'm attaching a photo of my last Yorkshires, you can see that the ones on the lower, cooler rack have not risen so well. I make individual Yorkshires, but in a thick tin with holes about 4" across. It's annoying that the tins are just slightly too big to fit two to a rack.
(You may think it's a little weird to have a photo of them, but I sent it to my daughter to encourage her to get a move on and come over for lunch!)

I am not only impressed with the yorkshire puddings but also your oven is so clean!!

Yes after over forty years I’ve just been converted by Jamie Oliver. Adding the flour to the eggs makes it much easier to mix.

My Sunday roast problem is that it’s only me who likes them 🙄

Puzzling if you normally have a success with them; I’d guess a temp problem. For anybody who doesn’t have success with them usually, I’ve found foolproof yorkies, from ‘Northern Nic’s back kitchen’ - equal measures of plain flour, eggs and milk, into heated oil and a hot oven. You can see her making them online. Never fails. I use stainless steel cup measures for however many I need. The smallest, 1/4 cup takes one egg, and makes sufficient for one person.

I always let a little air out half way through cooking mine, seems to stop soggy bottoms.
Try James Martin's recipe?
It doesn't fail for me. Good luck

Hi Mamma66 ,

I use ready made Colman's mustard and creamed horseradish -about half a teaspoonful each plus some salt .
The liquid is half water half milk .
I don't always add baking powder if I've used a lot of frothy eggs .
If I can - I use beef dripping not oil .
My Yorkshires come out like mini soufflés.

I'm always experimenting with cooking .
I think that I tweak everything - a bit like Nadiya Hussein !

Good luck with your Yorkshires !

And I agree with others, NEVER use SR flour or baking powder, it makes them go cakey and flabby rather than puffed up and crunchy on top. Strong flour is fine, but you might need a different amount of liquid.
My Granny made the best Yorkshires I've ever had and she simply measured with a cup. Sadly none of us know the proportions she used. She also made a lovely parkin using cup measures, but both recipes are now lost in the mists of time.

Honestly I think it's probably down to temperature.
I'm attaching a photo of my last Yorkshires, you can see that the ones on the lower, cooler rack have not risen so well. I make individual Yorkshires, but in a thick tin with holes about 4" across. It's annoying that the tins are just slightly too big to fit two to a rack.
(You may think it's a little weird to have a photo of them, but I sent it to my daughter to encourage her to get a move on and come over for lunch!)

Esmay

Nothing wrong with eating your roast lunch at 12.00 !

I use plain flour with baking powder and not self raising .
I sieve it .

I add a tiny bit of horseradish and English mustard to the eggs , which I've whipped up to a froth I pour the mix into very hot , but not smoking oil .

I don't like Aunt Bessie's .

I will have to try the horseradish, bet that give a nice little extra. I sometimes put whole grain mustard in with toad in the hole, but have never tried English mustard. Do you use the mustard or the powder?

When you cook the frozen puddings, you heat the oil as per normal and cook at 200 degrees for approximately 15 minutes. To get the puddings out of muffin tin when frozen, dip tin briefly in hot water. Work quickly, they melt. If you try it let us know. I keep forgetting.

The key to Yorkshire puddings is to make the batter in the morning and refrigerate it. Then put the batter in the tin when the fat/lard is literally smoking hot. You know it’s hot enough when it bubbles when you pour the mixture in. Top of a hot oven and don’t open the door during the cooking process. Oh, and use fresh, fresh eggs.

The Yorkshire Pudding Club!

Perhaps we could form a support group?

I'm a failure at making Yorkshire puddings. I've tried various recipes.
Are they supposed to be cooked at the top of the oven or in the middle please

Me too, Nannarose. My Mother's Yorkshire Puddings (one, large) had to be fought down with a fork before it could be removed from the oven. Crisp and golden, I can see them now.
After trying everything over the years I now buy Waitrose puddings and heat them for five minutes. Not like my Mother's, but easily 100 % better than anything I can produce.

PS: realise that I sound a bit obsessed - it is my only continuing culinary failure, which is why I sympathise with EvaDarcy. Will you come back and tell us if any of these work for you?

I have, honestly, tried all of these! Even Brian Turner's and Jane Grigson's (I did know about the 'tai luk'!)
I have tried every proportion of eggs to flour mentioned here, I have used milk / water and half of each.
I have tried SR & plain flour, bread flour & soft flour.
I have put into a hot oven usually, but have also tried the 'cold' method.
I have cooked it round the meat - it tastes lovely, but does not rise.
The only method I haven't tried is Yangtze's untried method. Maybe I'll give it go....

And I don't care what you call it or when you eat it BUT I do come from the "pud'n before the meat" tradition (which makes my failures worse....)

I used plain flour for Yorkshires for many years and they never came up as well as my mother's who I thought also used plain flour. Mentioned this to her one day and she said she'd always used SR flour! I now also use SR flour and they rise really well when I make 'dinner plate' sized ones but cannot get smaller ones in a baking tray to rise well.

My mother was a great maker of flat Yorkshire puddings. It wasn't one of her party pieces and she knew it!

In the matter of Yorkshire Puddings, as with most things culinary, my bible is Jane Grigson's English Food. One may range far and wide but it's always where I come back to eventually. She is typically discursive on the subject, and the best bit is the "Prize-Winning Chinese Yorkshire Pudding" which originally from the Hong Kong-ish proprietor of a Leeds Chinese restaurant (we're talking 1960s here). who won a proper Yorkshire Pudding competition in Yorkshire. The recipe as given by the cook calls for

300 ml milk
4 eggs
just under ½ teaspoon salt
dash of pepper
½ teaspoon tai luk sauce
250 g sifted plain flour

Beat everything except the flour together, let them stand for 15 minutes, then whisk in the flour. Heat a roasting pan with some juices from the meat to 230°C, then pour in the batter and leave for 20 minutes 52.2 seconds.

This is all rather tongue-in-cheek. Forget the tai luk sauce, there's no such thing (it's a joke at the expense of Yorkshire pride) and don't worry too much about the precision of some of the measurements. The real secret seems to be lots of eggs.

This has always worked spectacularly for me.

Not that I make roast dinners any more. I find them much too heavy for myself and I'd rather take friends to a good carvery since they can work with decent-sized joints, as well as sparing me the cleaning-up afterwards. But I don't mind making a Yorkshire pudding without the roast now and then.

I am no help at all. Never cooked a 'Sunday' dinner....

Have you had the fat really hot, not just hot, in the trays for the puddings?

I heard what sounds like a good Yorkshire Pudding hack last week. If you have eggs and/or milk that needs using, make up the batter as normal. Grease muffin tin. Pour batter in tin, about half way up, and freeze. When frozen, pop them out and put in bag to go into freezer. Cook from frozen as and when needed. I haven't tried it yet I don't see why it shouldn't work.

I use Brian Turners method 1:1:1 - equal amounts of flour, eggs and liquid

Brian Turner Cup Method for the Best Yorkshire Pudding Recipe
1 large cup plain flour.
a pinch of salt.
1 large cup eggs.
1 large cup mixed milk and water.
1 tbsp malt vinegar.
120 g beef dripping, for cooking.

What's in a name? Here in the Frozen North it's by no means unusual for people to have their main meal in the middle of the day and call it dinner. Let's not be snobbish about it. When my parents-in-law were alive, the village where they lived was like a tumbleweed ghost town at midday when virtually everyone was sitting down to their dinner. Old habits die hard...

I feel really sorry for Eva Darcy, whose plea for advice re flat Yorkshire puds has morphed into a conversation about the timing of a roast dinner.
What business it of anyone's?
Wish I could help, ED, but I've just chickened out of making toad in the hole for visiting family, including two ravenous boys, as the last time I made it for myself it didn't rise well. No idea why either, as usually get a good rise!