Toad in the hole (2024)

FAQs

What do Americans call toad in the hole? ›

Egg in a Basket features an egg fried in the hole of a buttery slice of bread. The dish goes by several other names as well; Americans sometimes call it Toad in the Hole, but that title more properly refers to the traditional English dish of Yorkshire pudding with sausage and onion gravy.

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". Toad in the hole was originally created as a way to stretch out meat in poor households. Chefs therefore suggested using the cheapest meats in this dish.

Toad in the Hole is traditionally served with vegetables such as peas, carrots, and green beans.

It has been suggested the pudding was given the name “Yorkshire” due to the region's association with coal and the high temperatures this produced that helped to make crispy batter.

'Toad in the hole' is just a quaint little nickname given to sausages in batter - or Yorkshire pudding, as we proudly call it in the U.K. The origins of the name are shrouded in mystery, but seem to date from the 18th century, when you can find references to 'pigeons in a hole' in old recipe books.

Toad in the hole is traditionally served with onion gravy. Starting with sautéed onion goes a long way to make the gravy tastier when you don't have a pan of roast meat drippings or a homemade beef stock! Beef drippings or butter – Beef drippings will give your gravy the best flavour but butter makes a fine substitute.

Sweet, ripe cabernet and cab-shiraz blends would be ideal, as would quaffable Chilean merlot or carmenère, for example.

However it is most likely that the batter isn't quite cooking properly due to the dish. Stoneware tends to heat up very slowly and doesn't give the instant hit of heat that the batter needs to help it to rise properly.

Get a flexible silicone pan (loaf or shallow square both fine) and your toad in the hole will never stick. They're pretty cheap, and very much worth it. You should also be able to use less oil this way, just shake the sausages around to coat the insides before the batter goes in.

How long can you keep Toad in the Hole in the fridge? Once you've put it out, ideally you should eat it within 4 hours. If you allow any leftovers to cool, make sure to refrigerate in a container with a lid and chill. You can keep leftovers of Toad in the Hole in the fridge for approximately 3 days or so.

Why does my toad in the hole sink? ›

Make sure the the fat is really hot before you add the batter. Really, really hot oil. It has to be smoking as you pour the batter in. Don't, under any circ*mstances open the oven door during cooking or they will sink.

There are many names for the dish, including bullseye eggs, eggs in a frame, egg in a hole, eggs in a nest, gashouse eggs, gashouse special, gasthaus eggs, hole in one, one-eyed Jack, one-eyed Pete, one-eyed Sam, pirate's eye, and popeye.

toad in American English

(toud) noun. 1. any of various tailless amphibians that are close relatives of the frogs in the order Anura and that typically have dry, warty skin and are terrestrial or semiterrestrial in habit. Compare frog1 (sense 1)

Sausages were made with cheap ingredients and high levels of water, which meant that they had a tendency to explode during cooking as the water turned to steam. 'Bangers' today are far less likely to explode. 'Mash' of course, refers to mashed potatoes.

Etymology. From Middle English tode, toode, tadde, tade, from Old English *tāde, a shortened variant of Old English tādie, tādiġe (“toad”).