English Toad in the Hole: Sausages in Pudding

This dish with the funny name seems to have originated in England in the 1700s to use up leftover meat. The pudding was a way to make the meal more substantial, as this dish seems to have humble origins from poor families, where meat, or at least quality meat, was something of a rarity in their diets. The pudding for this dish is really a recipe for Yorkshire pudding. Many Americans will likely be confused by the term "pudding," as in the U.S., the every day meaning of  "pudding" is for a sweetened powdered mix one buys in a small box at a grocery or supermarket. There are "instant" varieties, where the contents of the box is mixed together with some milk, then refrigerated for a short time, when the "pudding" sets and it is then served as a dessert. There is also a "cooked" type, where the powder is also mixed with milk and cooked briefly in a pan, then emptied into a bowl or individual serving dishes, chilled, and then served as dessert. Typically these puddings come in flavors like vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, banana, butterscotch, and several others. These puddings are also commonly used as the basis for cream pies, like banana cream, strawberry and chocolate. In England, and in Britain in general, this type of flavored powdered mix is usually called "custard powder." 

 

Anyway, in England and Britain, the dish's humble origins seems to have had some elements of society look down on "Toad in the Hole," the name of which seems to come from the idea of the sausages peeking out of a hole, like a toad. Eventually the leftover meat began to be replaced by sausages, thus giving us the "standard" modern day version, and more and more parts of British society came to favor the dish, making "Toad in the Hole" one of the most popular of English and British recipes. As with many popular recipes, there are variations, and some people and restaurants use other meats besides sausages. Traditionally 3 to 5 inch long pork sausages are used, but other sausages are now not uncommon in the dish, and I'm sure Churchill's ghost won't flick cigar ashes onto your meal if you use sausages made of something other than pork. I've made this dish over the years with all kinds of sausages, and when I made it for this article, I used relatively large fresh bratwursts made here in Cleveland. Naturally, you can adjust the recipe to the number and size of the sausages, and for the size of the pan you use. I used a rather shallow pan of about 14 x 9 1/2 inches, and the ingredient amounts in the recipe reflect what I used for that size pan. In England I've read where some use smaller, but deeper pans, as they prefer the "pudding" to be puffed up more.   

  

Serve with mashed potatoes and onion gravy and green salad or peas. When I read over articles about this dish, some mentioned that mustard is served on the side, although the overwhelming number of articles and photos did not mention or show such.

 

Ingredients (serves at least 4): 

 

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour 

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon dried thyme (crushed in the palm of your hand)

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 to 6 fresh sausages

2 tablespoons oil + 1 tablespoon butter (for cooking)

oil for greasing the baking pan/dish

1 tennis ball size onion, peeled and thinly sliced

Mix together the all purpose flour, baking powder, dried thyme and salt; then, add the eggs and 1/2 cup of the milk. Mix and continue to add and mix in small portions of milk until the milk is gone and the batter is smooth. Let the batter sit for about 20 or 25 minutes. (Note: A short time before you will need the oven, heat the oven to 400 F.) In a skillet over medium heat, add the oil and melt the butter. Fry the sausages until browned. Use some oil to grease the baking pan/dish. (Note: I've found that this helps, as one of the biggest complaints about Toad in the Hole is that the pudding sticks.) Pour half of the sausage oil (drippings) from the skillet into your greased baking pan/dish, then place the sausages into the dish. Return the skillet with the other half of the drippings to the stove and saute the onions until softened. Add the remaining drippings and onions from the skillet to the batter a little at a time and mix it in well. Pour the batter over the sausages and onions and bake for about 30 to 40 minutes, until golden. 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Cricket-This is the name of the insect, not the game (it has a different history). "Cricket" is related to "crack," "creak," "crow" and "crane," all from Germanic. While the overall history of "cricket" is good, some of the specifics are tough to research. "Cricket" goes back to Indo European "gereh/gerohn," which meant "to shriek, to cry out in a rasping voice." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "krakonan," meaning, "to give out or give off loud sounds, noises." This gave Frankish, a Germanic language/dialect, a form like "krakon," and perhaps a variant form like "krekon," which gave Dutch the verb "kreken," meaning, "to creak, to screech," which produced Dutch "kriek," meaning "cricket, locust," seemingly a dialectal form in the Gelderland region of what is now the east central part of the Netherlands, with the more prevalent diminutive form "krekel." French borrowed the verb form as "criquer," with the same meaning. French then formed the insect name as "criquet," a diminutive form perhaps patterned after the Dutch form, with the "locust" meaning eventually prevailing, and the word "grillon" being used as the primary word for "cricket" ("grillon" traces back to Latin, then to Greek). English borrowed the word "criquet" initially as "crykette" in the early 1200s.