Originally published on Photoblog by Gethin Thomas SEPTEMBER. 05, 2020
There are quite a few British Classics in the kitchen and some have traditional old names lost in the mists of time, like this one. Another famous one that comes to mind is Spotted Dick, but I will save that for another time.
I have often cooked Toad in the Hole with varying results but this was my best ever. I had recently made a couple of flat puddingy ones which while edible were not really right.
There are two critical elements, well really only two elements at all. The sausage, and the batter pudding mix sometimes called the Yorkshire Pudding.
As far as sausages go it is a matter of taste and having moved we have been trying out all the local butchers to find the right sausage. It's just one of those chores in life, finding the right sausage. We had another butcher to try this week and while I queued in the fish shop my other half went to the butcher to get the latest trial sausages. We normally get six. So I was surprised when I put them in the fridge later how heavy the packet was.
Yesterday I took them out to make the Toad. Imagine my shock to find they were twice the size of a normal sausage. They were huge. Don't ask why my other half thought it would be appropriate to still buy six when they were double the size. So I froze two and made do with four instead.
Now the batter had been defeating me lately so I Googled some recipes to find that it was suggested to use three eggs instead of two, also I had been having trouble with the new oven which only went up to 200 C which isn't really hot enough. The other day I discovered the oven had numerous settings and on Fan it had a maximum of 200C but if I set it to conventional oven it went up much higher. Why? No idea. Anyway I set it to 250C, used three eggs and Hey Presto! I nearly had to lever it out of the oven it rose so high.
Oh! and the sausages? We have now found them. Old English. We just need to buy fewer each time.
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