England: Toad in the Hole (Sausages Baked in Batter)

No one is sure where the name "Toad in the Hole" comes from ("Toad in a Hole" is also used).

For the "hole", or batter:

• 4 oz plain white flour

• 2 small eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 10 fluid ounces milk

For the "toad" or sausage component:

• 4 100% pork sausages

Essentially, this dish is Yorkshire pudding with sausages in it.

Preheat the oven to 450F. Saute the sausages briefly in a pan to draw off excess fat (or you might grill them if you prefer). Save the fat. Cut the sausages into chunks.

Put the fat in a small roasting pan (a metal 9-inch by 9-inch cake pan is perfect): add a little oil, if necessary, to bring the amount of fat up to about 4 tablespoons.

Heat the fat, either in a hot oven or on the stove, until smoking hot. Meanwhile, prepare the batter mixture. When the pan and fat are very hot, pour in the batter mixture, scatter the sausage chunks onto it, and put the whole business into the hot oven.

Bake for about 5-10 minutes at 450F / 225C, then reduce to
400F / 200C and bake until the Yorkshire pudding around the sausages has puffed up nicely and is a deep golden brown. This may take as long as 30 minutes or as little as 20: keep an eye on it.

Serve immediately when done. Warning: the pudding will deflate if kept waiting.

Variants on this dish can be made with chunks of leftover roast beef, or almost any kind of meat, just so that you alter the cooking time to take into account whether the meat being used has already been cooked adequately when it goes into the pudding.

Also: some people like to add a little beer to the pudding mixture.

(Adapted from the description of Toad in the Hole in Jane Grigson's Observer Guide to British Cookery)

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