Yorkshire pudding is a batter pudding that in England is served with meat—most usually roast beef.   I love it; but my mother never makes it, at least not on its own, and hence not with roast beef.   However, it is also the foundation for toad-in-the-hole, which she used to make fairly often.   Even today, she can sometimes be persuaded to make it for Friday dinner, which I usually eat with her.
        Toad-in-the-hole is made by adding meat to the pudding, baked inside the batter (though the top of the meat peeks out above the crusty, puffed up surface of the “hole”).   Traditionally, sausages are used:   these are commonly the smaller pork breakfast sausages, though they may be the larger type.   I'm not fond of sausages—I'm a notorious fusspot about food!—but I enjoy toad-in-the-hole made with lamb chops.   One or two little loin chops per person is quite sufficient.   The eggs in the “hole” make this a very nourishing meal.
        In my opinion, the English are fortunate:   they can buy Yorkshire pudding mix.   I know my sister assures me that the recipe is really simple and quick to make from scratch; but she still hasn't got me convinced.   On the other hand, I can at least buy frozen popovers.   This is the proper name for Yorkshire pudding when it is made in individual portions in a muffin tin.   Loblaws calls them “individual Yorkshire puddings”; but well...a pud by any other name, right?   Mind you, I actually prefer the large pudding:   the proportion of crisp edge to batter favours the batter more.   A minor matter—except that you need to make the full-sized batter pudding in order to make a toad.   And toad is one of England's great culinary inventions.

Ingredients

4 oz (¾ cup) flour
½ tsp salt
1-2 eggs
1 cup milk
cooking oil


For Toad-in-the-Hole:
per person:
    2-3 sausages
          or
    1-2 loin lamb chops

Directions

Making the Batter

Baking a Yorkshire Pudding
In a 500°F oven, heat cooking oil in a shallow 8" x 10" pyrex dish.   When the fat is very hot, remove the dish from the oven.   Pour in the batter, and cook the pudding in the oven for about ten minutes.   Then turn the heat down to 425°F, and cook for a further thirty minutes, or until the batter is completely cooked.   The surface of the pudding should be golden brown all over, the pudding should be puffed up, and the inside should be firm.

Baking a Toad in the Hole
Place sausages or lamb chops in a shallow 8" x 10" pyrex dish, and bake in a 475°F oven for twenty minutes.   Remove the dish from the oven, and drain off most of the fat.   Arrange the sausages or chops back in the dish asymmetrically.   (This arrangement helps the pudding rise properly in the empty areas of the dish.)
        Pour the batter into the pan.   It is okay to pour the batter over the sausages or chops:   most of it will drain off the “toads” back into the “hole”.
        Put the dish back in the oven.   Bake for a quarter of an hour at 475°F, and then turn the oven down to 350°F.   Bake for another quarter of an hour, approximately, until the toad is puffed up and golden brown.

Baking as Popovers
Oil each cup of a twelve-cup muffin pan, and heat in a 500°F oven until the oil is hot.   Remove from the oven, and pour in the batter.   Only half fill the cups.   Bake in the oven for fifteen to twenty minutes, until the popovers are puffed up and golden.

Makes twelve popovers or one large pudding.