Look this dish up, and you’ll be given all sorts of waffle about how it came about, where the name came from and all sorts of other boring chit chat about it’s origins.  As the son of a Yorkshire man, the English county where Yorkshire pudding and Toad in the Hole are said to originate, I’m happy with the explanation I was given when I was knee high to a grasshopper, passed down from father to son over the generations.

Toad in the Hole was a dish used by poorer folk to help leftovers go down slightly more palatably.  The name originates from the fact that the left over meat, or perhaps sausages if you were a little better off, resembled toads poking their heads out of some murky mud hole when the dish was cooked, particularly if covered in onion gravy as tradition dictates.

Despite this somewhat yucky description, Toad in the Hole is a great and easy to prepare alternative to a Sunday roast.  Best served with mashed potatoes, peas and other vegetables of your choice and a good, rich and thick gravy (onions optional), this dish is a delight to eat and sure to remain a huge favourite for many, many years to come.

Ingredients to serve four:

8 thick pork sausages

(I actually prefer to buy sausage meat and make it into toad shapes for the children, but if you’re not quite that adventurous, sausages of your choice are perfectly acceptable).

6oz plain flour

1 pint of semi-skimmed milk

2 medium eggs

A pinch of salt to taste

Method:

Peal and cut your potatoes and have your vegetables ready to cook at the appropriate time while the dish is in the oven.  You should find that vegetable cooking coincides perfectly with the 25-30 minutes that the dish will take to cook.

Pre-heat your oven to 425oF, 210oC, Gas mark 10.

Break your eggs into a large jug or mixing bowl and add half of the milk.  Beat the eggs into the milk.

Add a pinch of salt and add in the flour gently, mixing all the time.  When all of the flour is added, continue to add milk, beating the mixture until it is smooth and pourable, not quite as runny as English pancake mixture is ideal.  If you don’t quite use the full pint of milk, that’s fine.

This is a good time to put the potatoes on to boil.

Place sausages (do not prick them) or meat into a 12” baking tray, preferably non-stick, and put them in the top of the oven for around 10 minutes until they are ever so slightly browned, but only just (turning as necessary).   Note that when the batter is added, it will rise considerably above the baking tray whilst cooking, so make sure there is at least 5 inches clearance at the top of the oven.

Drain any excess fat, but leave enough in the pan to coat it.  Arrange the sausages in four sets of two and place the tray back in the oven for a couple of minutes until the fat is sizzling again.

Now pour the batter around the sausages or meat and put the tray back in the top of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until the batter is well risen and golden brown.  Adjust cooking time accordingly for fan assisted ovens.

At the appropriate time while the dish is cooking, you can put your vegetables on and prepare your gravy.

Cut the dish into four and serve with piping hot potatoes, vegetables and gravy to your ravenous diners and let them enjoy this traditional and hearty meal.

A tasty addition to this recipe is to add onions, mushrooms and half a teaspoon of paprika to the batter.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe.  If you’d like to see more of my work, you can find me at:

https://www.triond.com/users/Aldrin+A+Wilding+West

Thanks for reading.