This hearty English recipe is made by adding pork sausages to Yorkshire pudding batter, and it is especially good served with mashed potatoes and vegetables, along with onion gravy or your favourite brown gravy. It is believed the name comes from the dish’s resemblance to toads poking their heads out of holes. Another name for it is ‘sausage toad’ but that is rarely heard any more. A toad in the hole recipe dating back to 1861 calls for ‘any kind of cheap meat purchased in the evening when it is cheaper than during the day’ rather than sausages. Other historical recipes call for battered leftover stew meat or even whole pigeons!

We like to make this with big, fat, juicy, herbed pork sausages, either putting them directly into the Yorkshire pudding batter or replacing their skins with wafer-thin slices of prosciutto, Parma ham, Serrano ham or streaky bacon instead. Yorkshire pudding is made with flour, eggs and milk or water, along with optional mustard, and it is often served with beef and gravy, as part of the typical Sunday roast dinner. Some people even have Yorkshire pudding as a dessert with syrup or honey.

Historically, Yorkshire pudding was smothered in thick gravy and eaten as a starter recipe, or appetizer, to fill the belly with cheap ingredients so people would not eat so much costly meat during the next course. You will find our toad in the hole recipe simple to follow, and it makes a tasty, filling meal for cold autumn or winter evenings. The kids will love this as much as the grownups, and served with a pile of steaming mashed potatoes and some vegetables, everyone can expect to leave the dinner table perfectly full and happy. Continue reading →