A couple of weeks ago I roasted a duck. This week, I roasted one of our bovine friends.
It was done very simply. I put a 2-kilo choice rib roast into a pan and stuck a thermometer in it after dusting it with salt, pepper, and rosemary. I made the Yorkshire pudding (my first time for that) and waited for the roast to… erm, roast. When the corpse was cooked I drained off the grease and set it aside to “rest”. Then I put a couple tablespoons of fat into a pan and poured in the pud batter. Maybe the pud was a little brown on the bottom, but only a little and it tasted good.
I cooked the meat until the thermometer read 140°, which should have given me rare roast beef. I should have taken it out at 130°, as it was actually medium-rare in the middle.
I ate it with horseradish that I mixed with a little sour cream. (The horseradish was pretty enemic, BTW and I had to add more to the mix.) I had a large slab-o-deadcow, I sliced off another one for a neighbour to try (the guinae pig wasn’t home though) and I put three more sizeable slices and the rest of the pud into a Tupperware container for later.
Gosh, if I’d sussed out making some veggies ([Neil] and if I had more plates) (and if I had a table [/Neil]) I could have had friends over for dinner. ([Neil] if I had any friends. I mean, you all pretend to be my friends… Well, you don’t even do that. You all hate me… [/Neil]
[sub]Sorry for the intrusion of The Young Ones’ “Neil Pye”. I just couldn’t resist. [/sub]
Fascist? No, delicious! Johnny, I’ve got two questions for you. Did you have custard for dessert and can I come over for dinner next time? I’ll bring the table.
No, no dessert. This exercise was just to see if I could make Yorkshire pudding. I liked it; but I’m a bachelour, and bachelours will eat anything. I need to see how the neighbour liked it before I know if it’s any good. I’ve never tried to make a custard.
If you come over, maybe you could bring the custard?
You should taste my Thanksgiving turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes and home-made white gravy.
[Making circles in the dirt with my toe.] Aw, shucks! :o
When we’d go out to eat, my dad would tell the waitress, “My appologies to the chef, but well done please.” But as for me, make mine medium rare!
After eating a hefty slab-o-flesh and giving the biggest piece to the neighbour, I still have three huge-ish slabs left. Think Fred Flintstone ribs. So I went and made another pan of Yorkshire pudding. I hope it still tastes good after deflating (which happens immediately after you cut into it) and being in the fridge.
I’ll be spending Christmas with a friend, but one of these days I’d sure like to get a Prime grade rib roast – with ribs. About the best meat around nowadays is only Choice, and the only ones I’ve been able to find with ribs are “Select” (used to be “Good” – how’s that for marketing?) grade. Nothing like using the leftover ribs for BBQ prime ribs, eh?
Oh no you don’t, Scotticher, I was here first, and besides, I’ll bring custard! Actually, let’s settle this fairly. Johnny, which side of the Atlantic are you on? Or are you actually in the Pacific?
Mmmmm. Prime rib roast from a cow which died happy! I’ll have pleasant dreams tonight!
Sorry, baby…I got the edge! Not only is he on the Pacific Coast (as am I) but I live where he WANTS to live! Furthermore, I can make custard too. So there!
[sub]Besides, I am the only person in YEARS who could make him dance. What was it, Johnny hon, ten years? Or was it twenty? (What we need here is an “evil grin” smiley)[/sub]
How can you have roast beef without Yorkshire pudding? Did you at least have pop-overs? Picky eater that I am, I think I could take a trip to England and not starve to death while there:p
Johnny, we take our beef pretty serious out here. Can’t help you with Prime grade, but I can hook you up with Choice Black Angus rib roasts… with ribs:) They are like velvet.
… You find milk and I’ll find flour
And we’ll have pudding in half an hour.
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs (or 1 egg – I used 2)
2 tbsp. beef drippings
Mix the salt and flour. Mix in the egg(s). Gradually stir in the milk until you have a nice batter. You can make this in advance. When the beef is done, you should let it “rest” for about 30 minutes. Take two tablespoons of the drippings and put it into a pan. (I’ve heard you should use a 13"x9" pan, but I’m a guy. I used the rectangular pan from my slow cooker.) Pour the batter into the pan and pop it into a hot (450°F) oven for 15-18 minutes, until lightly browned on top. Don’t peek while it’s cooking! It will have puffed up quite a bit in the baking, but it will deflate when you take it out of the oven and cut it.
It’s so simple to make, I’m surprised I hadn’t tried it before!
It tastes like egg bread. I’ve had it with gravy and it’s good that way, but I didn’t have enough drippings to make gravy. There was some au jus in my carving plate* though, and it’s good with that. In my search for a recipe I saw that one person was a child during WWII and was offered a choice of having his (or her – I don’t remember) pudding with the meat, or for dessert with jam. I’ve always had it with the meat though.
But anyway, it tastes like egg bread.
[sub]* Well it’s not actually a carving plate. It’s just a normal dinner plate on which I carved the roast.[/sub]
When I hear of “pudding” I think of runny, dessert type pudding, rather than something resembling bread. I think that’s why I’ve never done Brit type puddings, because of the mental image. Plus, what few English dishes I’ve tried, besides fish and chips, have left me wondering if there are a lot of brits who starved themselves to death rather than a more painful demise of eating dinner. Your judgement is never wrong though, so this is definitely a must-try for me. Thanks:)
These days it’s more common to use a bunch of small, round, individual baking dishes so everybody gets their own Yorkshire rather than cutting up a big rectangular one. You can also get them as a snack in pubs with onion gravy poured over.
I’ll ignore your insult about us starving to death rather than eating our traditional dishes, but the word pudding doesn’t necessarily imply a sweet dish (although it’s most commonly used for desserts). Believe it or not our desserts are generally made with fruit, sugar, cream, chocolate etc. just like anyone else’s.
Actually, I’m on the east coast of the US, though I was born in England. I’m told the traditional way to make Yorkshire Pudding is to grease the pan with the fat from the roast so that it tastes a bit like the roast itself.
Now for the question which is one of my parents’ great marital disputes. How did you make the Yorkshire Pudding? In individual muffin cups or in a casserole? Also, the next iteration of Yorkshire Pudding, and my next salvo in my battle with Scotticher for you is Toad-In-The-Whole – sausages baked in Yorkshire Pudding.
[/sub]
