Traditional English dish
Toad in the hole
is a traditional English
[1]
dish consisting of
sausages
in
Yorkshire pudding
batter
, usually served with
onion gravy
and vegetables.
[2]
Historically, the dish has also been prepared using other meats, such as
rump steak
and lamb's kidney. In the 21st century, vegetarian and vegan versions have appeared.
History
[
edit
]
18th century origins
[
edit
]
Batter puddings became popular in the early 18th century.
[3]
Cookery writer Jennifer Stead has drawn attention to a description of a recipe identical to toad in the hole from the middle of the century.
[4]
Dishes like toad in the hole appeared in print as early as 1762, when it was described as a "vulgar" name for a "small piece of beef baked in a large pudding".
[5]
Toad in the hole was originally created as a way to stretch out meat in poor households.
[6]
Chefs therefore suggested using the cheapest meats in this dish. In 1747, for example,
Hannah Glasse
's
The Art of Cookery
listed a recipe for "pigeon in a hole", calling for
pigeon
rather than sausages.
[7]
19th century
[
edit
]
In 1861,
Isabella Beeton
listed a similar recipe using
rump steak
and
lamb's kidney
, while
Charles Elme Francatelli
's 1852 recipe mentions "6
d
.
or 1
s
.
" worth of any kind of cheap meat.
[8]
This recipe was described as "English cooked-again stewed meat" (
lesso rifatto all'inglese
) or "toad in the Hole", in the first book of modern Italian cuisine,
[9]
which stressed that meat was to be left over from stews and re-cooked in batter.
20th century
[
edit
]
During World War I, school children were often fed toad in the hole for the midday meal.
[10]
21st century
[
edit
]
In 2017, a marketing survey found that 23% of British people had never tried toad in the hole.
[11]
In the 21st century, vegetarian and vegan versions of toad in the hole appeared. These included vegan versions made with
Linda McCartney Food
's vegan sausages
[12]
[13]
and a vegetarian version published by
Ravinder Bhogal
that combined toad in the hole with
cauliflower cheese
.
[14]
Name
[
edit
]
The dish with left over meat was originally not called toad in the hole. In the 1787 book
A Provincial Glossary
by
Francis Grose
, for example, "toad in a hole" was referred to as "meat boiled in a crust", though a 28 September 1765 passage in The Newcastle Chronicle reads, "No, you shall lay on the common side of the world; like a toad in a hole that is bak'd for the Devil's dinner". The first appearance of the word "hole" in the dish's name, not counting
Pigeons in a Hole
found in the cookbook by Hannah Glasse, appeared in the 1900 publication
Notes & Queries
, which described the dish as a "batter-pudding with a hole in the middle containing meat".
[6]
Despite popular belief, there is no record of the dish ever being made with toad.
[6]
The origin of the name is unclear, but it may refer to the way toads wait for their prey in their burrows, with their heads poking out, just as sausages peep through the batter.
[6]
[15]
It may also derive from the "
living entombed animal
" phenomenon of live frogs or toads supposedly being found encased in stone, which was a popular hoax / false belief of the late 18th century.
[16]
The term is sometimes used for "
egg in the basket
" (an egg fried in a hole of a slice of bread).
[17]
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
External links
[
edit
]
Wikibooks
Cookbook
has a recipe/module on
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Roman times
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Middle Ages
to 15th century
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16th century
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17th century
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18th century
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19th century
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20th century
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21st century
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Related
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