The Humble Yorkshire Pudding — and Paul’s Weekly Batter Duty

There are certain foods that simply belong together.
Fish and chips. Bacon and eggs. Cheese and biscuits.
And, of course, a proper roast dinner and a Yorkshire pudding.
Although, in our house, we tend to call it a Yorkshire pud. It sounds a bit more friendly, and a little less formal which is probably how it should be, Do you agree?

A Sunday roast just wouldn’t be the same without one. You can have the finest piece of topside beef, the crispiest beef dripping soaked and salt crackled roast potatoes and slow cooked beef bone gravy rich enough to write home about, but if there isn’t a Yorkshire pudding on the plate, well tha’s not ‘appy.

They might look fairly simple, made with just flour, eggs and milk, but anyone who has tried to make them will know they can be surprisingly temperamental. Sometimes they rise beautifully. Sometimes they decide to remain firmly attached to the bottom of the tin. And occasionally, they look as though they’ve had a particularly difficult morning.

Here at The Old Bridge Inn, we make ours to go alongside our Sunday roasts, and they’ve become a very important part of the plate.

They were originally a practical item made and named Yorkshire puddings and they helped make the most of what was available, using simple ingredients and the hot beef fat from the roasting tin. Nothing wasted, everything put to good use, which feels like a very Yorkshire way of doing things.
They were traditionally served before the main meal, often with gravy, to fill people up before the meat was brought out. I’m not sure how long that tradition would last in our family, though. Most people coming into the pub these days would happily eat the Yorkshire pudding, the beef, the roast potatoes and everything else all at once.
And then possibly have another pudding afterwards. It’s ok we don’t mind you asking 😘
Yorkshire puddings are taken seriously around these parts. There have even been competitions locally and across Yorkshire over the years, including the Great Yorkshire Pudding Challenge at Dean Clough in Halifax, where professional chefs and members of the public went head-to-head to see who could produce the best one.
There’s also the wonderfully unusual Yorkshire Pudding Throwing Championships at the Borrowby Show in North Yorkshire. Quite how anyone came up with the idea of throwing a perfectly good Yorkshire pudding, I’m not entirely sure, but it is certainly a very Yorkshire sort of competition!!

Thankfully, we keep ours on the plate.
The person responsible for making them week in and week out here at the inn is my husband, Paul.
Every week, Paul gets the batter ready and makes sure there are enough Yorkshire puddings to go around. It’s not just a case of mixing everything together and hoping for the best. The tins need to be hot, the fat needs to be properly heated, and the oven door must not be opened too soon, I’ve been told off for this before.

Paul has made plenty over the years, and he knows when they are ready. Golden around the edges, crisp on the outside, soft in the middle and just the right shape for catching plenty of gravy.
That, to me, is the real joy of a Yorkshire pudding. It is humble, comforting and made from very ordinary ingredients, but when it is done properly, it makes the whole meal feel complete.
We created ours to be part of a proper Sunday lunch, the sort of meal where people settle in, enjoy themselves and don’t feel the need to rush away.
And while The Old Bridge Inn has been standing since 1307, Paul’s weekly Yorkshire pudding duty is a much more recent tradition, but it is one we are very proud to keep going. Cheers to Paul!

So, the next time you join us for Sunday lunch and see a Yorkshire pudding sitting proudly beside your roast, you’ll know there has been a fair bit of care behind it.