Toad in the Hole. (Photo: Tony Jackman)
There has never been an actual toad in the dish known as Toad in the Hole. In modern times, by which I mean the second half of the 20th century until now, the “toad” in its hot batter blanket has often been pork bangers or other sausages, which is what I used for this recipe. Yes, good old pork sausages again, this time wrapped up snugly.
In much earlier times, there have been pigeons in the hole, rounds of beef, rump steak, lamb’s kidney, or any meat left over from a stew. The principle was always that it had to be a “poor man’s” cut, this being a dish that came out of the “peasant food” end of the cuisine scale. And this is not to mock this genre of cooking: some of the finest dishes, especially in France, came from this oeuvre.
Which proves a point that I believe in — that food does not have to be fancy to be fine. More often than not, in my experience, the food on the plates of rustic restaurants made by cooks who love their craft are often better than the finest cuisine in the poshest five-star restaurants. This is something that is not understood by those who dole out awards.
Dishes like toad in the hole appeared in print as early as 1762, says Wikipedia, “when it was described as a ‘vulgar’ name for a small piece of beef baked in a large pudding”. This being the British idea of a savoury “pudding”, often with a suet crust.
One of the earliest published references to Toad in the Hole (give or take) seems to be this from the Newcastle Chronicle in 1765: “No, you shall lay on the common side of the world; like a toad in a hole that is bak’d for the Devil’s dinner.” Which is obscure and hardly definitive; nor is context given. What it does tell us is that the term “toad in the hole” existed in 1765 and that at least one observer deemed it a bad, bad thing.
Less dire is this from Wikipedia: “The origin of the name is unclear, but it may refer to the way toads wait for their prey in their burrows, with their heads poking out, just as sausages peep through the batter. It may also derive from the ‘living entombed animal’ phenomenon of live frogs or toads supposedly being found encased in stone, which was a popular hoax /false belief of the late 18th century.”
In the later 20th century, circa 1950 until the 1980s, Toad in the Hole was still well known and cooked as a family dinner (or for “tea”) in Britain, but by 2017 it had clearly fallen out of favour to the extent of almost being forgotten, with a marketing survey that year finding that 23% of Britons had never eaten it.
Tony’s Toad in the Hole
(Serves 2)
I cooked this in two small loaf tins (20 cm by 10 cm), both of which fitted comfortably in the basket of an Instant Vortex Plus 5.7 litre air fryer. You may have to adapt the recipe to suit your air fryer size. Each of these tins could accommodate three standard pork sausages in a bed of batter.
The sausages are cooked first in the air fryer after being coated with oil, then the batter is poured around them for them to “lie” in while being cooked again.
Ingredients
2 tsp canola oil (one for each small tin)
6 pork bangers
For the batter:
70g cake flour
1 large egg
100 ml full cream milk
A pinch of salt
Method
Preheat the air fryer to 200℃.
If using tins such as mine (20 cm by 10 cm), pour 1 tsp of oil in each.
Put the tins in the machine (without the sausages) for 2 minutes at 200℃.
Brush the sausages with oil.
Put the sausages in, and cook at 200℃ until slightly browned but not too dark, pulling the basket out and shaking the sausages around a few times until they look right; about 3 minutes in all. Bear in mind that they’ll be cooking again when the batter goes in, so leave them “under”.
In a jug with a pouring spout, whisk the flour, egg, milk and a pinch of salt to make a runny batter.
Add 1 Tbsp more oil to each pan and reheat with the sausages in.
Pull the drawer out and pour the batter around (not on top of) the sausages.
Put the drawer straight back in and cook at 200℃ for about 8 minutes or until the batter has puffed up and turned golden and pillowy. DM
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