A Yorkshire pudding is one of the few things in British cooking that cannot be faked. You can buy decent sausages, a passable pork pie, even a tolerable supermarket gravy. But a Yorkshire pudding that has risen drunkenly over the sides of the tin, crisp at the rim and soft and custardy in the middle, only happens when the batter is right. Get the ratio right, give it time to rest, and treat your fat with respect, and you will never buy a frozen one again.

The Only Ratio You Need to Remember

Forget long lists of ingredients. A proper Yorkshire pudding batter is eggs, plain flour, milk and salt, in roughly equal volumes of egg and flour, with milk to loosen. The version I use for a twelve-hole tin, or one large 23cm tin, is this:

• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 100g plain flour, weighed properly
• 200ml whole milk
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• A good pinch of fine salt

That is it. No baking powder, no sugar, no self-raising flour. The rise comes from steam and from egg, not from a raising agent, and adding one gives you something closer to a popover than a Yorkshire.

The water is my one small heresy. A splash of it thins the batter without adding more fat, and it seems to help the edges crisp up more aggressively. If you only have semi-skimmed milk, use it, but whole milk gives a richer, softer middle.

If you want to scale up, think in volumes: roughly equal quantities of beaten egg and flour, then milk until the batter coats the back of a spoon and runs off in a thin ribbon. A thick batter will give you stodgy puddings that never climb. Too thin and they will be greasy and flat. Aim for the texture of single cream.

Mix It Gently, Then Let It Rest

Whisk the flour and salt together in a bowl and make a well in the middle. Crack in the eggs and beat them into the flour gradually, drawing flour in from the sides. Add the milk in a slow stream, whisking as you go, then stir in the water. A few small lumps at this stage are fine; they will disappear during resting.

Now walk away. Rest the batter for at least 30 minutes, and an hour is better. Overnight in the fridge is better still, provided you bring it back to room temperature before it goes anywhere near the oven. Resting lets the flour hydrate and the gluten relax, which is the difference between a tender pudding and a rubbery one. Cold batter also shocks hot fat and can stop the rise before it starts.

Fat, Heat and the Tin

This is where most Yorkshire puddings are lost. The fat must be genuinely hot, not merely warm. Beef dripping is traditional and gives the best flavour. Vegetable oil or lard work well. Butter burns, so avoid it.

Put a teaspoon of dripping into each hole of your tin, or a generous tablespoon if you are using one large tin, and slide it into an oven preheated to 220°C (200°C fan, gas mark 7). Leave it for ten to fifteen minutes. You want the fat shimmering and just beginning to haze with smoke. If you are roasting a joint of beef, you can spoon some of the hot fat from the roasting tin instead, which is exactly how it was done for generations.

Work quickly and carefully. Pour the batter into a jug, pull the tin out, and fill each hole about two-thirds full. It should sizzle audibly the moment it hits the fat. If it does not, the tin goes back in for another five minutes.

Into the Oven: Timing and Temperature

Return the tin to the top shelf and do not open the door. Not to peek, not to turn them, not to check. A Yorkshire pudding rises on a cushion of steam, and a draught of cool air will collapse it in seconds. You have about twenty minutes of patience to find.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes for individual puddings, or 25 to 30 minutes for one large one. They are ready when they are deep golden brown, well risen, and firm enough to lift. If you want them extra crisp, drop the oven to 190°C for the last five minutes to dry them out. Serve them the moment they come out of the oven, because they begin to soften as soon as they cool.

When It Goes Wrong

• Flat and greasy: the fat was not hot enough, or the batter was too thin.
• Stodgy in the middle: too much flour, or the batter went in cold.
• Risen up one side only: the tin was not level, or the oven has a hot spot. Rotate the tin after fifteen minutes if you know your oven runs unevenly.
• Collapsed on the plate: the oven door was opened too early.
• Pale and soft: not enough time, or too low a temperature. Give them another five minutes.

Serving Them Properly

Traditionally, a Yorkshire pudding was not a side dish at all. It was the first course, brought out before the meat with a jug of onion gravy poured over it, to take the edge off everyone's appetite so the beef would stretch further. It is a very good way to eat them, and worth doing on a cold Sunday when you want the house to smell of roasting for hours.

Alongside a roast, they belong on the plate with the beef, the roast potatoes and a spoonful of gravy that has made it into the well in the middle. Leftovers, if you have any, are excellent cold the next day with a slice of ham, or reheated in a hot oven for five minutes, never in a microwave.

Make them often enough and you will stop measuring altogether, judging the batter by eye and the fat by the sound it makes. That is how it has always been done in British kitchens, and it is still the best way.