“We could have some beer, if you like,” he said, “though you look much too elegant for anything so low..”
“I’ll have just what you have,” I said happily.
“How sweet you are! Would you even have sausage toad if I ordered it?”
“I daresay,” I said doubtfully. “I know what it is.”
“She knows what it is!” he laughed. “But the roast veal will probably be better.”
- A Glass of Blessings, Barbara Pym
Sausage Toad, Toad-in-a-Hole, Toad-in-the-Hole, whatever you like to call it; is there anything more British? A quintessential feel-good food that permeates the house with the luscious smells of sausage and pudding batter. Toad-in-a-hole was known in London circles as early as the 1760’s, but the dish didn’t refer solely to sausage; virtually any left-over bit of cut could do.
In 1861, Mrs. Beeton in her famous book on household management described it as “a homely but savoury dish” noting that it could cheaply serve 4-5 people. Although disdained by some as the dish of the lower class, toad stuck and become part of the British gastronomical lexicon. Various suggestions have been made as to how the dish got its name, although none have emerged victorious. My theory is that in 1733, two men claimed to have found a living frog entombed in rock. Thus, toad in the hole- sausages, “toads” entombed inside Yorkshire pudding batter.
Courtesy David Bressan
The story caught the public imagination, and tales abounded of amphibians who could survive inside rocks for many years (it was rumored there was a stone that could actually “croak” due to the frog stuck within). Thus, toad in the hole- sausages, “toads” entombed inside Yorkshire pudding batter.
Courtesy David Bressan
Toad-In-The-Hole
Courtesy of Julian Oxborough
Ingredients:
2/3 cup flour
2 eggs
1 cup milk
½ teaspoon salt
Bacon fat
½ pounds sausages
Mix together the flour, eggs, milk, and salt. Set aside. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Melt bacon fat in bottom of 8×8 pan. Add the sausages to the pan and allow them to brown lightly in the oven. Pour batter over sausages, return pan to oven, and cook for about 20-30 minutes, or until the batter has risen and set and the sausages are well-brown.
(Online Resources: BONDESON, J. (06.2007): Toad in the Hole. (Accessed 01.25.2013)
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I totally adore Toad in the Hole, although I’m sure it’s pretty unhealthy! And for some reason, I’ve never been very successful when making it.
My husband and myself have enjoyed Sausage Toad for as long as we have been together. For as far back as I remember growng up it was one of my favourites.
I love toad in the hole, the problem I find is so many think it’s OK to make shortcuts with it, like using cheap poor quality sausages and gravy from a packet. A good toad in the hole needs free range eggs for the batter, good meaty sausages and home made onion gravy. Nothing else will do for me. It is a classic dish, and the best British dishes come out of hardship or ‘making do’. Cottage pie, Fish pie, Cullen skink, Welsh cawl, corned beef, all came from being clever about what little we had. Something that seems to have been largely forgotten today.