British Yorkshire Pudding Day, Slow Sunday and My Grandma's Traditional Yorkshire Pudding Recipe - Lavender and Lovage (2024)

British Yorkshire Pudding Day

Slow Sunday and My Grandma’s Traditional Yorkshire Pudding Recipe

Today, Sunday the 5th February, is British Yorkshire Pudding Day! This special day is the brain child of Florence Sandeman of recipes4us.co.uk and I endorse it wholeheartedly. Today is also the start of my second weekend Blog Hop, my Slow Sunday event…….a time to share your slow Sunday recipes and/or blog posts, and your entries can be anything from a beef casserole to a vegetarian curry or stew, or home-made bread and marmalade – anything that you have cooked, baked or made for Sunday is acceptable, and the slower it is cooked the better. To return to British Yorkshire Pudding day again, here is what Florence of recipes4us says about this special British festival of batter puddings:

Over the years, I have come across numerous National food day celebrations, most of which appear to originate in the USA.Americans seem to have a high regard for their favourite or traditional foods which they simply translate into celebratory days, and far from being nationalistic, these are merely opportunities taken to highlight much-loved foods or dishes, often in a fun and light-hearted way.I decided it was about time us British did likewise and in the same tone, so designated February 2008 to mark the launch of British Yorkshire Pudding Day.

Why Yorkshires?

To me, Yorkshire Pudding is one of the most iconic of British dishes, famous not only in the UK but also abroad. It is a treasured dish which most Britons (and many visitors to our country) will have eaten at least once, and many who live in theUK consume it on a regular basis – once or twice a month, frequently more.It is also a recipe which has stood the test of time, with its present form boasting a history dating back to the 1700s and its predecessor,Batter Pudding, having been eaten perhaps centuries before that throughout Great Britain. In fact, it’s probably safe to say that as long as meat has been spit roasted, some form of Yorkshire Pudding has been made, though no-one really knows when it was first eaten.More importantly, it is a recipe of the people – no matter what their background or where they live, millions have enjoyed it, so what better British dish to honour than Yorkshire Pudding.

Why the 1st Sunday in February?

Although the idea was fully formulated some months before, in order to give everyone enough time to identify with the concept and ‘get on board’, I decided to delay the actual day. February seemed a good month, not only because the weather, being rather chilly in the UK, is conducive to eating comfort food, but it’s also long enough after Christmas that everyone will have forgotten any feelings of guilt they may have been harbouring for having over indulged.As Sunday Roast Dinners are probably still the most popular time when people make and eat Yorkshires, it seemed logical that British Yorkshire Pudding Day should be on a Sunday . . . . but which Sunday?

At the time of its inception, many Britons still follow the tradition of adhering to Lent, a 40 day period of abstention from eating certain foods, starting in February and ending at Easter. Although today those who observe Lent often just give up something they like, such as chocolate, traditionally the eating of rich foods was prohibited during this period, so people would make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday to use up any eggs, milk and fats they may have.I felt that it was therefore only fitting that whilst attempting to celebrate and preserve one part of our heritage, the opportunity to join in shouldn’t exclude those who stillcelebrate and preserve another British tradition. The first Sunday in February was therefore the natural choice, taking all of the above into account.

As intimated above, British Yorkshire Pudding Day is not meant to be some sort of serious nationalistic statement with sinister undertones. It is merely a day set aside when everyone, be they British or not, can remember, enjoy and celebrate the joys of an age-old recipe.2011 saw the launch of “Yorkshire Pudding Week” by a British manufacturer of Yorkshire puddings. Whilst I encourage people to eat Yorkies as often as possible, don’t be sucked into this blatant rip-off on the back of British Yorkshire Pudding Day which has obviously been conjured up to increase their sales. Keep the faith: Keep British Yorkshire Pudding Day!

Happy British Yorkshire Pudding Day !

Back to my Yorkshire Pudding recipe. As the title says, this is my grandma’s traditional English Yorkshire pudding recipe and it is so easy. The great thing about this recipe is that it works on equal measures of volume and therefore there is no weighing or measuring as such. So, if there are only two of you, use a very small cup – if there’s a crowd, use a big cup, jug or a mug! Easy. One tip – ALWAYS make sure the oil/fat is SIZZLING hot before you pour in your batter; preheat your tins with the oil/fat before pouring in your batter……that’s about it really. NOTE: I have suggested that the yield is between 8-16 individual Yorkshire puddings, depending on the size cup you use. A tip – 4 beaten eggs will make about 8 to 10Yorkshires. That’s it for today, I will back back tomorrow, and the blog hop instructions for Slow Sunday are below, Karen.

BLOG HOP

1.If you make anycomfortrecipe on Sunday, please add your recipe/blog post link here. The recipe can be vegetarian or non-vegetarian.

2.This a Blog Hop, so you can see and share all of your comfort recipes/blog posts as well as discover other recipes and other blog posts too, it’s a great way of meeting new people and discovering new recipes!

3.To add your recipe to the blog hop,you need to link to meand add theSlow Sunday badgesomewhereon your post page. To link to me, the URL: https://www.lavenderandlovage.com/2012/02/british-yorkshire-pudding-day-slow-sunday-and-my-grandmas-traditional-yorkshire-pudding-recipe.htmlneeds to be added in your post at least once, as a link.

4.You can enter as many times throughout the month;this Blog Hop will close on the 29th Februaryand a new one will start on the nextSaturdayin March.

5.The Slow Sunday badge can be grabbed from my side-barand you can also display the badge on your blog if you wish.

6. Have fun and don’t forget you can add and enter as many times as you want.