I'm sure that your puds taste good, Edchef, but The Bero book is closest to the real thing with one egg. This idea of dumping a farmyard full of eggs is in there is a modern trend, and misses the point and the origin of the pudding, which was to spin out a small piece of meat to feed a whole family. Only the man of the house would get meat, because a joint for the whole family would be unaffordable and since he did the hard manual labour in the pit or the mill, he was the one who needed the protein most. This was roasted on the oven rack or trivet. A pan of pudding batter was placed underneath to catch the drips and take on the beef's flavour, and this is what the wife and kids got to eat. Nobody could afford to fritter 10 eggs on one meal.
As per tjwaines' recipe. Add the milk a bit at a time and beat the mixture with a spoon. You're looking for a consistency like pouring cream. Get your pudding tin, with enough beef fat in the bottom to just cover it (1-2mm depth), and preheat it 'til it's smoking hot in the oven. Then tip
almost all of your batter in and get it straight back in the oven. Do not be tempted to open the oven door to peek, 'cos this will make our pud collapse.
The gravy is made by deglazing your beef roasting pan with water and/or stock to get the tasty bits of juices out, so you end up with a watery brown liquid. I like to add a dash of worcestershire sauce. If you reserved a bit of your pudding batter in the bottom of your mixing bowl, you can now make use of this by tipping some of your beef stock into the bowl, stirring, then returning the lot back to the gravy to thicken it.
CaptDavid, can i just say how pleased I am to see others taking an interest in the culinary habits of such a fine county. I Came across this recently, which I think says it all...
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