Think On It

The popover

April 2nd, 2008

Poor Amanda, who is expecting something quintessentially American is faced with something all British. A popover is simple a Yorkshire pudding made small and without meat.

I was having a problem with them for a while. I asked British food groups how they made theirs. I tried all the things they said. I still intermittently had problems. So, I dragged out my two really old American cookbooks and checked their recipes side by side. One, the one I had been using, said to mix the ingredients and beat them for 2 minutes. The other said to beat them only until they were smooth and that overbeating them would reduce volume.

Lightbulb. I did it the easy way and the above is what I got.

Popovers

1 cup flour
1 pinch salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 450°F or 220°C with the baking dishes inside.

Mix together and beat with a beater just until smooth. Allow to rest a few minutes then ladle into heated forms already in the oven with a generous amount of fat melted in them. What you see is individual soufflé dishes. Popovers are usually cooked to the point you see here, then stabbed to the very heart and left in the oven with the heat turned off to dry out a bit. I am far too impatient for that.

When I make a big one for Yorkshire pudding I use an iron frying pan preheated and with quite a lot of fat melted into it. It will puff, puff, slip and slide while you watch… what fun! The pudd is eaten as soon as it is big and brown.

Entry Filed under: bread, cookery

12 Comments Add your own

1. amanda | April 3rd, 2008 at 1:38 pm

Well, if you\’d called it a Yorkshire pud in the first place I\’d have known what it was, \
2. amanda | April 3rd, 2008 at 1:43 pm

Opps, half my comment just disappeared. What I said was.

Well, if you’d called it a Yorkshire pud in the first place I’d have know what it was. ‘Popover, Schmopover!’ Try calling it that in Yorkshire.

Actually, as you may have guessed, I am rather fond of these. Now I must go back and check out your Spring Lunch again. A little egg heavy perhaps?;)
3. admin | April 3rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm

Perhaps, but it didn’t feel that way at the time, and besides, this is when the hens are making them! Later they become quite desultory and laggardly.
4. amanda | April 3rd, 2008 at 8:48 pm

I know the feeling.
5. Bellini Valli | April 4th, 2008 at 8:52 pm

I always have had trouble with my Yorkshire puddings as well. I will give it one more try:D
6. admin | April 5th, 2008 at 9:35 pm

The only thing I changed to get those crunchy golden puffs was beating the batter only until smooth.

I cook YP until it is puffy and crunchy topped, but Popover recipes usually want them cooked quite a lot longer. I’m not sure I agree, because breakfast is a great time to treat someone to these, and why wait 40 minutes in the morning when 25 will often get you to that picture?

Making popovers for his breakfast is the thing I did for my father that he appreciated the most.
7. Ann | April 8th, 2008 at 2:12 am

These look heavenly - warm, fluffy, flaky - *poufy*. Wow. I may have to try these this weekend. What do you recommend serving them with? Divine. Thank you. Ann
8. admin | April 8th, 2008 at 10:51 am

You can treat them like any hot bread, or you can use the empty center to hold things, like meats or seafood in cream sauces, scrambled eggs with adornments, or I love chicken, shrimp or ham salad in them. Best of all is to take one hot from the oven break it open and slther butter and jam in it as if there were no tomorrow.
9. Lorna | April 11th, 2008 at 11:42 am

You said that a popover was basically a Yorkshire Pudding without meat.
Being British and hailing from Yorkshire I can tell all of you that a Yorkshire Pudding (whether individual ones or a giant one) is ALWAYS made without meat - but often served with meat.
A typical Yorkshire Sunday roast lunch would be a perfect joint of roast beef, mashed or roast potatoes, fresh vegetables, Yorkshire Puddings and onion or red wine gravy.
Some British pubs serve giant Yorkshire puds with mashed potatoes, sausages and gray inside the pud but never ever have I seen Yorkshire puds served with seafood !!!! Yorkshire people use their puds like an Italian uses grilled polenta - as an extra or as an alternative to potatoes - never for breakfast !
10. Judith in Umbria | April 11th, 2008 at 1:28 pm

Lorna, my Yorkshire pals tell me it is best cooked in dripping, ergo a meat by product.

When we USians put various things in them, they are popovers. When we have them for breakfast, they are popovers. When we eat them with roast beef they are Yorkshire puddings.
11. Lorna | April 14th, 2008 at 8:38 am

Dear Judith,

Yeah, once upon a time dripping would have been used when absolutely nothing in the kitchen was wasted or thrown out - followed then by lard. Nowadays for health reasons most people tend to use vegetable oil, sunflower oil etc ….. especially vegetarians who wouldn\’t eat Yorkshire puddings that had been cooked in lard.
However they are cooked I have to say that I much prefer Yorkshire Puddings to polenta :)
12. admin | April 14th, 2008 at 10:04 am

Ah well, you have never had my polenta with braised goose.