A poll by UKTV, asking which British food had the greatest contribution to world cuisine, ranked Yorkshire Pudding as
number three, right behind Worcestershire Sauce, and Cheddar Cheese. (The British sure like to name their edibles
after places, don't they?) The earliest citations for the dish seem to be from the middle of the 18th century.
Often cited are a 1737 recipe for Dripping Pudding in The Whole Duty of a Woman, and, in The Art of Cookery Made
Plain and Easy, (1747), by Hannah Glasse, the first use of the name Yorkshire Pudding.
It took a century to take root in the United States. Marion Harland was the first to include it in a cookbook
on this side of the Atlantic. In her Common Sense in the Household from 1878, while listing the dish as
Yorkshire Pudding, she says the cook who introduced the dish to her family called it "Auction Pudding". This recipe
varies from the usual in that it calls for separating the eggs. In The Original Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, from 1896,
Mrs. Farmer published a classic version, reproduced below.
This version is from Fanny Merritt Farmer's The Original Boston Cooking-School Cook Book.
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1 cup milk
1 cup flour
2 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
Mix salt and flour, and add milk gradually to form a smooth paste; then add eggs beaten until
very light. Cover bottom of hot pan with some of beef fat tried out from roast, pour mixture in pan one-half inch
deep. Bake twenty minutes in hot oven, basting after well risen, with some of the fat from the pan in which meat
is roasting. Cut in squares for serving. Bake, if preferred, in greased, hissing hot iron gem pans.
