ottotheboar

My wife is from CT but lived in the UK for a good while and loved Yorkshire Puddings.
She had a fair amount of success but never felt she had quite perfected them.
Recently we had a duck at Thanksgiving and she used the fat from that and they were great. Over Christmas we had beef and the fat from the beef was not as good.
We had duck again the other day and they rose to perfection both individual and the large ones.
She kept the mix in the fridge to keep it cool right up to the point they went into the oven.

BubbleChog

I just use regular Lard and they always come out perfect

Lx

paddingtongreen

The funny thing about it is that when cooked under the beef roasting on the spit, it didn't rise, but it did have some of the gravy to make it taste like the beef.

I haven't seen lard or duck fat in the supermarket, and it looks expensive on line.

Weeze

Lard we get by the bucketful in our Mexican super market chain. Duck fat I've seen a lot near thanksgiving and in Wholefoods pretty much all the time.

I use regular cooking oil. Mr Weeze uses lard he collects off our roasting joints and stores in the fridge.

Ours are always perfect. I think it's more the temp of the fat than the fat itself.

Edit: oh, and I'd never chill the mix. I just let it rest a while before it goes in the very hot fat.

bugman

if you cannot get fresh lard (without preservatives/hydrogenated like that stuff on the room temp shelf) you can make your own really easily. Get pig fat from the butcher, mince it and slowly cook it down over a couple of hours until you are left with tiny browning remains of the fat cells/tissue, by the time its almost stopped bubbling you have got rid of most of the water, pass through a fine sieve and put in fridge. 3lb of fat makes about 2 lb of lard.

Jerseygirl

Mum always used dripping made from beef/pork/bacon fat to grease the Yorkshire pudding tins. She also put the batter in a 4 pudding tray...the puds were about 5" wide...much nicer than the smaller ones. Don't know whether it was the dripping...or the size but they were delicious. She sometimes added grated onion and sage...they were especially good.

kodokan

Foolproof but devastatingly easy Yorkie recipe: take mug. Fill with eggs (I find 5 works for Yorkie for a family of 4, all good eaters; I use a British size tea mug). Tip in blender. Fill same cup with milk. Tip in blender. Fill cup with flour. Tip in blender. Add a pinch of salt. Blend.

Put any old fat in a pan (at least, any that's designed to take a high temp, like veg or peanut, not olive), and put in the oven at a 'take your eyebrows off' temp of at least 450. When it's smoking hot, pour in mix. Cook until done (depends on size; I use two round tins of about 9" and it takes about 20 mins. Eat. Field compliments.

Trixie_b

The oil has to be smoking hot, and the batter needs to be room temp... if it's cold they don't rise well.

Vegetable oil, or bacon fat are what are normally hanging around my house. so that's what I use.

Jerseygirl

Veg oil...or any other type of oil...gag. . The fat has to be "Blue" as my old mum used to say...before adding the batter and don't even think of opening the oven door until they are fully cooked.

Mr Weeze

You would approve of my dripping pot

Jerseygirl

lizzyq

UK meat is so trimmed of fat these days it is nigh on impossible to make proper dripping Do I take it that US joints of meat still generate enough fat for dripping?

Pica

One can buy pork fat here in Italy. It's sold finely sliced in polystyrene packages alongside the prosciutto and salame and costs the same-crazy. There are some little dark bits on it that could be herbs or on the other hand maybe dead flies-i don't know.

Pica

They take that fat and put it in Gregg's pasties and sausage rolls and any left overs go towards making their paper bags-hear me Nutek?

Mr Weeze

Roast rib of beef - I didn't have a problem getting a nice bit in Aberdeen up to 2010 either mind. Guess it depends where you are.