Having unknowingly, inadvertently "reinvented" a foppish Toad in the Hole — with fancy sausage and prunes — I had to find out for myself what the real thing was like.I thought I had already tried Toad in the Hole at that foolish Renaissance Pleasure Faire, but it was always just a bit of flaky pastry wrapped around a boudin blanc — more of a pig in a blanket; something you could hold in your hand amidst the jesting and the jousting.
I Googled some images of Toad in the Hole to see what to aim for. Yikes. They looked like the photo above: sausages baking in Yorkshire Pudding batter. Nothing more, nothing less. A little frightening in its meatiness.
And what kind of sausages were they? Cranky suspected "bangers," but what's a banger? I thought it was just a cute nickname for sausage in general.
The other day Cranky was searching for English food items at Safeway (they don't carry Marmite in San Rafael, Sixy!), and decided to look for bangers. OMG, voila.
Now, these are not an artisan product, but they are local. We had to try them.
They were good. We ate half the Toad in the Hole last night for supper.
And we ate the other half in bed this morning.
If I turn totally Brit, will I have to have a new name? Seems like all English last names are hyphenated.
I'm thinking Fuchsia Guy-Ritchie.
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34 comments:
Sounds like perfect for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! It's pig in a bed this one then, eh? ;)
Oh yeah, I love toad in the hole! Being a filthy vegetarian its a veggie sausage I use though.
this is freaky deaky. Check out my tweets from about 19 hours ago!
E Club: Well, there was a bed, and a blanket. So, yes, we were the pigs! Yummy.
Jennywenny: Veggie sausage is probably great. These bangers were stuffed with breadcrumbs, so "meat" seems not to be the point.
Sam: Wow. I don't peek at your tweets because it feels like spying, but... Wow. Toulouse? Gah. Too fab.
love, Fuchsia
(Is this what the "onion sauce" is for?)
you can spy on me - I am not saying anything I wouldn't want anyone to hear. Spying would be if your saw the stuff I am not tweeting! My toad wasn't the best yesterday.. yours looks way better! I need dripping. I served it with onion 'sauce' but despite the creating moniker the Frenchman didn't like it anyway.
Sam: You ate yours last night too? I'm larfing!!
We didn't have any gravy on ours. I'm sure that's just wrong, but we loved it anyway. We used butter instead of drippings.
And I had a hunch the Frenchman wasn't going to like it.
You can come over and eat with us.
How about The Viscountess Esmerelda Portia Biscuit-Remnants-Smythe?
Looks good enough to eat in Toad Hall.
not convinced
Next you need to try bangers and mash! and then bubble and squeek! Yum, yum pigs bum!
I am a total yank, and therefore have no idea why they are called "bangers", but have always wondered...
I've also never had a chance to try this dish, but I want to. Seems like there is nothing not to like. Yorkshire pudding? Yum. Giant weiner? YUM.
Fuschia: I can't believe Safeway had bangers. No kidding. They do look tasty. I would love to know how they got that name - I've always wondered.
CC,
Now you have to try bangers and mash and steak & Guinness pie.
I worked in a number of British pubs run by real genuine BRITS too! Bangers'n'Mash were always on the godforsaken menus. As for their bangers, well, they ranged from breakfast sausage (shudder) to garden variety pork sausage. It was less than impressive.
Oh, and if I live the rest of my life without hearing some jackass say, "BANGER? I barely even KNOW HER!" that would be okay.
I'll only call you Fuchsia if I can call your other half "StJohn Arthur Worcester-Hamhock" and the four-legged one "Westly, Lord Dander"
If you want to find out why they're called bangers, try baking them without pricking holes in them first . . . Ever forgotten to poke holes in potatoes before baking them? :D
If they're not the proper sausages in one long tube, twisted to make individual sausages, this probably won't happen.
Peter: Shame! That's LADY Esme to you.
Zoomie: I love that book so much.
Cook: Har har! I believe you. :D
Morgan: But I will draw the line at spotted dick. (We are planning a champ dish very soon, however.)
Brittany: Hee. I think they're called bangers because they resemble those little party favors you pull apart on New Year's Eve and get a little pop and a prize inside.
Italian: See above. Surprisingly tasty, and I loved the fact that breadcrumbs were part of the recipe.
Kevin: I believe I've done the steak and Guinness pie. Bangers and mash -- not very complicated! But yum.
Tina: Oy, what a bad joke!
Anita: I'm scared to death you're going to pronounce it "sinjin." As for little Dander, no. He's hypoallergenic.
Anonymous: Exploding meat products! Fun.
Hey, what's wrong with pigs in a blanket?
Sorry, bangers are not called bangers because they resemble party favors or the Banger Sisters or anything else. When I spent a year in England as a kid in '54 and '55 I was amused to learn that the English called firecrackers bangers and sausages bangers. Something to do with explosive force, but I don't know which came first.
Hotdog those look good!
Heather: NOTHING wrong with pigs in a blanket. Pigs in puff pastry, that's classy.
Cranky: Is that a fart joke?
Greg: Tube steak. Can you beat it? (Oops.)
Bangers. Mash. Pints. You're all European right now. As afar as your new name goes, please please for the love of God and bangers go here: http://personal-space.com/script/script.php
Esme is MY other name. I played her in a one-act (as in .."with Love and Squalor") in college. But you can use it if you're nice to me. Salinger would approve.
Yes. Bhut Jolokia as a condiment!
Man, I do love me some British meat pastry. I one time made the Cordon Bleu version of Yorkshire pudding, cooked in meat drippings, and it was so good it almost required batteries. I might give this a shot this weekend. I've been wanting to dick around with popover batter anyway, and am not allowed to buy the popover pan since I've been forbidden to buy any more of the crap on my registry. Po' me!
Nikki: My Sarah Palin name is "Flag"!! Can't beat that with a stick; can't set it on fire.
Kudzu: OK, you stick with Esme. I'll be Zooey.
Chilebrown: I bet your bottom's mad at you for those peppers. :P
Spitey: Don't buy crap on your registry!!! You're about to get that stuff for free!!
This looks really good!
Sara: It's like a way of getting Yorkshire pudding out of Christmas season! Do it.
Yeah. In MAY! So...what? I just don't get any popovers for the next 7 months? That's the problem with registries. You make a list after browsing over awesome kitchen stuff to decide what you want. Then zero gratification for a whole year. That's just not me. I bet when I decide I want kids I'll gestate for, at max, 6 weeks.
Spitey: Oh dear, not till May? Then you'd better allow yourself some exceptions.
And rewrite your registry.
You're a kind and lovely woman, Cookie. Although I would expect a strongly worded letter from my fiance to come your way once I blame it on you.
Spitey: I used to be married to a physician. I'm not scared of him.
:D
so is this just kind of like yorkshire pudding batter, just baked around sausages? Did you use a particular recipe? (I noticed Elise has one) Inquiring minds want to know! xoxo
Alice: Yes, it is exactly like Yorkshire pudding batter. We used the trusty, reliable Yorkie recipe from Joy of Cooking. And you can pick the sausages of your choice; Sam at Becks & Posh used Toulouse. (A bit of overkill, say I; bangers were quite yummy.)
Apparently you're supposed to pour onion gravy over this. We didn't.
Technique: We briefly panfried the sausages, then finished them in the (raw) batter in the oven. Just lay them in there.
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