Tea at Trianon: Yorkshire Pudding

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Yorkshire Pudding

From Epicurious:

I don't think I had ever tasted Yorkshire pudding before I had it at my husband's parents' house, but I'm now one of the tradition's most fervent supporters. Crisp around the edges, light and fluffy on the inside, my mother-in-law's version of the dish is cooked in a rectangular baking pan—like the ones you'd make brownies in. (And as with brownies, the inside pieces are always the best. [Ed. note: Seriously?]) Flavored with drippings from the roast, the savory pudding has just the right amount of eggy richness. Plus, Yorkshire pudding just sounds so...charmingly Dickensian.

According to British food historian Annie Gray, Ph.D., this association isn't off-base. Yorkshire pudding "appeared on Christmas menus throughout the 19th century," Gray says. "And today it's basically obligatory with beef." The pudding was traditionally cooked underneath a roast, where it would catch the drippings as the meat cooked. Serving the rich, pillowy dish was also a way to to fill guests up and stretch the costly main course—an early example of #wasteless-style frugality. (Today Yorkshire pudding is less prevalent on British holiday tables, Gray explains, as beef has fallen out of favor for the Christmas meal and been replaced by—as she puts it—"tedious turkey.") (Read more.)