FOOD HISTORY: Yorkshire Pudding

Yorkshire pudding is a steamy, chewy, puffed batter pudding baked with a layer of very hot beef drippings usually prepared as an accompaniment to Roast Beef. It is almost required for a British Sunday dinner but is enjoyed in many other countries. The first puddings made by ancient cooks probably referred to foods similar to sausages, The word pudding comes from the Latin word, "botellus" meaning small intestine (sausage), to "boudin" in Old French, to "pudding" in Middle English. These  types of puddings were certainly invented by the British that developed from the sausages brought to England by the Romans. eg. White pudding; a sausage made mostly with oatmeal but with other ingredients, as well and Black Pudding, similar to White but with the addition of pigs blood. These "puddings" are still part of the culinary traditions in British and Irish culture. In 17th century England, puddings were either meat based or sweet but by the second half of the 18th century, traditional English puddings no longer contained meat. This coincided with wheat flour coming into common use in England and some cooks in Northern England devised the idea of using the fat in the meat juice drippings from a roast to cook a flour batter pudding while the meat roasted. This was an economic use of the meat fat, which used to be discarded, and a means to derive the nutritional benefit from the fat. Thus, the "dripping pudding" was born. Another significant purpose that evolved was to serve the dripping pudding, with gravy, as a first course rather than with the roast  Since meat was so expensive, the pudding satisfied hunger enough that less meat would be eaten. In poorer homes, where meat was even limited further, children were served only the pudding and gravy while the adults had pudding with gravy and small amounts of meat.  In 1737, a recipe for dripping pudding was published in an anonymous book, "The Whole Duty of a Woman" and dripping pudding became very popular for the reasons cited above. Why this pudding became known as "Yorkshire" pudding is not clear but it is associated with the North of England. The first use of the prefix, "Yorkshire" with this type of pudding was used  in Hannah Glasse's  cookbook, "The Art of Cooking Made Plain and Simple" published in 1747. Her recipe distinguishes her pudding from those in other areas of England by its light and airy nature. Traditional Yorkshire puddings were always made in rectangular dripping pans and cut into square4s when it was served. The current round puddings which are now "classic" were introduced as a way to save space as cooks just dropped spoonsful of batter into the hot fat around the roasting meat. Yorkshire pudding is still so popular in great Britain that in 2008 they launched a "Yorkshire Pudding Day" to take place every year on the first Sunday in February. When the early British colonists came to the US, they obviously brought with them a love of Yorkshire pudding and introduced it into American culture  since in the US, national "Yorkshire Pudding Day" is celebrated on October 1st.