What is Toad in the Hole?

Toad in the hole is a British dish of sausages baked in Yorkshire pudding and served with onion gravy. Historically, the dish was described as “meat boiled in a crust.” Earlier versions gave way to meats cooked in a “batter pudding” which may or may not have been classified as Yorkshire Pudding. There are references to a whole roast of sirloin being cooked in a batter, as well as kidneys. The sausage version, which has become the standard today, was known by the mid to late 1700s, although not by any particular name.

One early mention of the sausage version of Toad in the Hole is in the Diary Of Thomas Turner (1754-1765):

I dined on a sausage batter pudding baked (which is this: a little flour and milk beat up into a batter with an egg and some salt and a few sausages cut in pieces and put in it and then baked.)

Yorkshire pudding is a baked pudding made with a batter of eggs, flour, milk or water. Originally, a true Yorkshire pudding would typically be cooked under a spitted roast so that the drippings dripped onto the batter. Today, it is cooked in an oven in oil and served with gravy made from drippings. For Americans, the best way to describe it is as a pancake batter, cooked in the oven with a lot of oil. The batter tends to puff up on the sides but be depressed in the middle. This effect is more pronounced in larger baking dishes.

There are numerous entries concerning similar “batter pudding” dishes in Cassell’s Household Guide (1853). These all start with what seems to be a standard “batter” similar to a modern pancake batter, just as Turner described except subject to revisions depending on what the “housewife” had on hand and what purpose she had in mind for the batter. The book mentions that this is the same batter for pancakes, fritters, and “frying things in.”

Black-cap pudding is described as batter slightly sweetened, with a handful of currants added, then boiled in a basin. Other variations include apples, carrots, and even an American version called Saratoga Pudding, a sweetened baked batter that is quite reminiscent of Southern cobblers, but without the fruit. Toad in the Hole is described in detail after an entry on “Baked Batter Pudding with Sausage or Bacon.”

Toad in the hole is a good lump of fat meat, perhaps with plenty of bone- beef is best, veal second best – laid in the middle of a deep dish, and baked with batter taken out of its hole, laid on a hot dish, and served, accompanied by vegetables, after the hole itself has been eaten. This is also a capital way of getting all that is to be had out of an underdone joint of cold meat, especially if fat enough.

This suggests that baked batter pudding with sausages and Toad in the Hole were once considered separate dishes, with Toad in the Hole being differentiated by the use of a fatty cut of beef. At some point, the concept of the dishes was combined, naturally enough, and the sausage version eventually won out, most likely for its sheer convenience.

Both “batter pudding baked under meat,” and Yorkshire pudding baked under meat are described, but little is said to clarify the difference between the two, except that Yorkshire pudding is “made a little stiffer than usual.” Warnings are given about not flooding the batter with too much fat and having it near enough to the fire to thoroughly cook it. ¹,²,³,