Toad in the hole

Toad in the hole is a traditional English dish consisting of sausages in Yorkshire puddingbatter, usually served with vegetables and onion gravy. The origin of the name "Toad-in-the-Hole" is often disputed. Many suggestions are that the dish's resemblance to a toad sticking its head out of a hole provides the dish with its somewhat unusual name. It is rumoured to have been called "Frogin-the-Hole", at one time, although little if any evidence corroborates this assertion. It can also be referred to, less popularly, as "sausage toad". An 1861 recipe by Charles Elme Francatelli does not mention sausages, instead including as an ingredient "6d. or 1s. worth of bits and pieces of any kind of meat, which are to be had cheapest at night when the day's sale is over." 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 of the nineteenth century, L'Artusi 1891), in which the meat was nothing but left-over stewed meat cooked again in batter. During the 1940s, a wartime variation on the original used pieces of Spam in place of sausages. An earlier recipe with a similar style is found in Hannah Glasse's 1747 The Art of Cookery, where she presents a recipe for "Pigeons in a Hole", essentiallypigeons cooked in a Yorkshire pudding batter.

Ingredients
FOR THE BATTER 100g plain flour 1 egg 300ml equal mixture milk and water

FOR THE TOAD 8 rashers streaky bacon 8 good-quality pork sausages 1 onion , thinly sliced 1 tbsp vegetable oil

FOR THE GRAVY 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 onion , thinly sliced 2 tsp plain flour 2 tsp ready-made English mustard 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce 600 ml chicken or vegetable stock

Method
1. Preheat the oven to fan 200C/conventional 220C/ gas 7. Sift the flour and a make a well in the centre and crack in the egg. Beat lightly,then gradually pour in half the milk and water, beating all the time to form a smooth,thick batter. Continue for 2 minutes,then stir in the remaining liquid. (The batter can be made several hours ahead of time, although contrary to popular opinion it is not improved by standing.) 2. Wrap a bacon rasher around each sausage then put them, spaced apart, in a large roasting tin (preferably metal). Scatter over the onion and drizzle with oil. Bake for 15-20 minutes until the bacon and sausages are starting to colour and the onion is tinged brown at the edges. 3. Remove from the oven and quickly pour the batter over the sausages. Return to the oven for a further 35-40 minutes until the batter is crisp and well risen. 4. Meanwhile,make the gravy. Heat the vegetable oil in a small pan, add the onion and fry gently for 5 minutes until softened and lightly coloured. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Add the mustard, Worcestershire or soy sauce and stock and bring to the boil, stirring. Simmer for 15 minutes, then taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Serve the toad with cabbage or broccoli and lashings of gravy.

The recipe itself is rather simple but requires some skill to cook perfectly. A pan is placed in the oven and heated for about 15 minutes while the batter is prepared. The sausages and batter are added and cooked for half an hour. With frozen sausages, the meat is placed in the dish while heated. It is normally accompanied by gravy (often onion gravy), vegetables and potatoes, often mashed.