Sep 242 min read

Stan Laurel's Yorkshire Pudding

Laurel & Hardy expert Rick Greene joined us to celebrate these comedy legends.

Stan Laurel was born in Lancashire, England in 1890. He was a writer, director and actor who began his career in the English music halls. His film career began in 1917 and teamed with Oliver Hardy in 1927. Laurel and Hardy became one of the most enduring comedy duos in film history. They starred in over 100 films including the comedy classics Putting Pants on Philip, Wrong Again, Bacon Grabbers, Big Business, The Music Box and many more! Their films are still shown at film festivals and in revival houses and they are still making audiences laugh.

Recipe

This recipe is from the book "Famous Recipes by Famous People" from 1933.

The recipe didn't list an oven temperature and 30 to 35 minutes seemed like a long time for these. I consulted the recipe from Dolly Parton's new cookbook AND a video of British chef Jamie Oliver. I decided to use a muffin tin instead of a flat pie pan and I skipped the roast beef. Below is the recipe I used.

Ingredients

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup whole milk

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions

I put about one teaspoon of vegetable oil into each part of the muffin pan and put it in the oven to heat at 425 degrees.

Then I combined all of the ingredients in a bowl and got the extremely hot muffin tin out of the oven. I filled each muffin cup about 3/4 full of batter. Given how hot the oil was at the time, they immediately started to sizzle and cook. I put them in the oven for 18 minutes at 425 degrees. I heard these are similar to the Dorothy McKaill popovers we've made in the past. The key is also to let them cook and not open the oven too soon or they will deflate. The outside should be cripsy and the inside should be soft and chewy. It is best if they are served fresh and hot.

Special Guest

Rick Greene is a film history collector and also co-authored the book "Harry Brandon: King of the Boogeymen" with Bill Cassara. You can find Rick on Facebook and he runs the group Greene's Pop Culture Sugar Blast! Coolness From The 20th Century. His books include "Marketing Mayhem!: Selling Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis to Post-War America", "Advertising Anarchy: Selling Bud Abbott & Lou Costello to War Torn America" and his latest book is "Promotional Pandemonium! - Selling Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy to Depression-Era America: Book One – The Hal Roach Studios Features".