To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Yorkshire Pudding Day Sparks Debate Over What You Eat Them With

Yorkshire Pudding Day Sparks Debate Over What You Eat Them With

Many restaurants will only serve Yorkshire puddings with the beef - often to the disappointment of the unknowing masses

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

There are many components crucial to making a roast dinner a successful one. Some say it all hangs in the gravy, others think it's down to top quality meat, while carb-lovers are all about the roast potatoes.

Those who are even more serious about spuds will insist mashed potato to go with the roasties, too, taking stodge into an even greater dimension.

But if there's one thing we can all surely agree on, it's that the Yorkshire pudding is the best bit. You always save a mouthful of that - all doused in gravy - for your last forkful, don't you?

The only thing is, some people reckon Yorkshire puddings only belong with roast beef.

Responding to a LADbible poll that asked if people agreed whether or not Yorkshire puddings should only be served with beef, one Twitter user commented: "Who is voting no? Sick people."

However, someone else argued: "Why pigeon hole them to just beef? They are awesome."

Another said diplomatically: "It is the 'tradition' but I would have them with every meal if I could."

Many restaurants will only serve Yorkshire puddings with the beef - often to the disappointment of the unknowing masses.

No Yorkies with these roast dinners, unless you're getting beef.
The Gallimaufry in Bristol; Drapers Arms in London; Kensington Arms in Bristol

It's such a contentious topic that, back in 2014, students at Oxford University even had a debate about whether or not Yorkshires had a rightful place without roast beef, asking if British traditions should be 'treasured, upheld and preserved'.

Ultimately, however, no vote was cast to conclude the debate... meaning they left us at square one.

But it's something that seems to stem from tradition, and could well relate to how Yorkshire puddings were traditionally cooked: with beef dripping.

An early written recipe for a 'Dripping Pudding' came from Hannah Glasse's The Whole Duty of a Woman in 1937, where she urged cooks to season the batter with grated nutmeg and ginger and cook it under a joint of 'beef, mutton or a loin of veal' as it spit-roasts on the fire.

In her later recipe (published 10 years later in The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy) the name shifted to 'Yorkshire Pudding', where Glasse explained: "You must have a good piece of meat at the fire, take a stew-pan and put some dripping in, set it on the fire, when it boils, pour in your pudding, let it bake on the fire till you think it is high enough, then turn a plate upside-down in the dripping-pan, that the dripping may not be blacked.

"Set your stew-pan on it under your meat, and let the dripping drop on the pudding, and the heat of the fire come to it, to make it of a fine brown."

The puds were originally known as 'dripping puddings'.
PA

While mutton and veal aren't quite so prevalent these days, it seems Brits may have clung onto tradition through the use of beef, which remains a beloved staple of the Sunday lunch table.

Delia Smith also reckons Yorkies require beef dripping, calling for two tablespoons of the stuff with hers (along with 175g plain flour, two eggs, 15ml milk, 110ml water and salt and pepper, in case you wondered).

Recently, people were discussing whether or not you should have a Yorkshire pudding with you Christmas dinner.

While national treasure Mary Berry pinned her colours to the mast as she shared her recipe for the perfect Yorkshire pudding over Christmas, according to BBC America's Anglophenia, the British Christmas dinner should never involve the services of the Yorkie.

Mind you, some people don't have their Yorkshire puddings with meat at all. Jamie Oliver sometimes serves his with smoked salmon and horseradish, while others prefer to go sweet and slather them in jam and sugar.

But perhaps that's another debate for another day....

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Food, UK