Yorkshire puddings are a food that we just don’t think of enough. This may not be 100% accurate, but it seems that most Americans who know (and therefore love) these puddings spent a lot of time in Great Britain or have close family there. And that just won’t do.

So, we’re bringing you a discussion on how to make Yorkshire puddings, and how to make them well. Temperature matters, of course, and we’ll talk about how to get your temps just right for this delicious dish. Read on and get hungry.

What are Yorkshire puddings?

And why are we asking what “they are” instead of what “it is”? From an American linguistic standpoint, it seems odd to have ‘puddings’ as a plural. After all, you’d almost never say there will be chocolate puddings after dinner. But this is a native British food, and they have a different (though original) definition of pudding there. What Americans think of as “pudding” is better defined as the narrower category “milk pudding.” It’s milk, sweetened, flavored, and thickened, usually with cornstarch or, sometimes, with eggs (which really makes it a custard). Pudding in the British sense can mean a whole score of things, none of which match our conception of it.

In this case, the name refers to individual-sized little puddings (hence the plural) that belong to the category of “batter puddings”, and within that category is a special case of “dripping puddings.” (Yorkshire pudding can be served as one large piece cut into slices, but we’re not making it that way today.) It is a thin batter made of milk, eggs, and flour that is cooked at high temperatures to create steam inside the batter that poofs it up. It is differentiated from popovers (and Dutch babies) by the fact that it is cooked with drippings from a roast or melted beef fat.

The supposed original idea behind Yorkshire puddings was that one would serve them with gravy before the meat was served during dinner. This would dull the keen edge of the appetite, making the more expensive roast (of beef, mutton, lamb) go further.

The science of Yorkshire pudding: heat matters

The best Yorkshire puddings are crisp on the exterior, tall, and deliciously browned. Being a member of the popover clan, they need to, well, pop up above the edge of the pan. For that to happen, we need hydration and heat.

Steam is the key operator here, and a batter in which the flour is well hydrated will have a better oven spring than one that has flour which has only been introduced to liquid, but not had time to soak it up. That’s why J. Kenji López-Alt recommends letting the batter sit in the fridge overnight before baking them. (We cooked one batch immediately and let another batch sit overnight, and the difference was unmistakable.)

Once your batter is fully hydrated, you need a hot oven—and a preheated hot pan—to cook them. How hot an oven? 450°F (232°C)! And for this cook, it’s important to be sure that that temperature is actually reached. Checking oven temp is important, especially at high temps, because we don’t usually use our ovens at very high temps and they are often inaccurate when cranked that high. We recommend using Square DOT^® for its oven-temp averaging feature to learn how far your oven is from its set temperature.

Check your oven

To do that, preheat your oven with the included air probe set up on a rack in the center of the oven. Set the target temp—in this case, 450°F (232°C)—as the alarm temperature for channel 2, then turn on the averaging function using the button on the back. When that alarm sounds, it means the oven has reached the target temperature. Let the thermometer work for 15 minutes and look at the average. If it says 475°F, you know to reduce the set temperature by 25°F. If it says 403°F, you know to increase the set temp by 47°F.

Preheat your pan

With your oven properly set, you can preheat the muffin pan, with its beef fat, before you add the aged batter. The beef fat should be just starting to smoke when you remove the pan from the oven and add the batter. That spitting-hot fat will start generating steam immediately, and it will also coat the puddings as they rise up in the pan, helping the edges to crisp and brown beautifully.

No roast needed: the case for puddings alone

Once you try these out, you’ll be wanting them all the time. But that doesn’t mean you need to be cooking a prime rib roast every weekend! On the contrary, these inexpensive, delicious puddings are standouts as a main course. They are rich, fun, and can be dressed up with savory gravy or sweet homemade jam. And as a weeknight dinner goes, they’re super easy to make, as long as you mix the batter up the night before.

Give them a try, with or without a roast, soon, and we think you’ll be converted. Make sure you hydrate the batter and use your Square DOT to set your oven to the right actual temperature to cook, and you’ll be enjoying a certified British classic in your own home. Happy cooking!