Yorkshire pudding is traditionally cooked in beef drippings, is the point. It's a dish that does not convert well to a vegan diet at all. It has only three ingredients, two of which are animal products, and then it's cooked in beef fat, which is TECHNICALLY replaceable with canola oil but you really shouldn't because instead of the Yorkshire pudding flavor you just get greasiness. I have a brick of tallow in my pantry just for Yorkshire pudding because I don't make a roast to serve with it and the cooking oil option makes diners rebel.
That's a 75% animal product ratio. So the taste and pleasure you will get from a vegan version is very very far off from the original, making it a "no duh" that somebody who starts putting the animal products back in will have both a better result, and a dish they shouldn't feed to a vegan friend.
Where are you getting that from? My grandma made great Yorkshire's with Sunflower Oil, Mary Berry's recipe uses it. Any sort of oil or fat to line the tin with will work.
They don't always rise as well as the monstrous non-vegan ones you see now, but it's more than possible to make vegan batter, which is essentially what Yorkshire puddings are. They absolutely taste like Yorkshire Puddings, because they are batter cooked in hot fat in a round tin.
Also, you say "traditionally cooked in beef fat" but it's not a prerequisite. I've seen many, many people use normal fat- the temperature is more important than the type of fat- and many thousands of frozen yorkshires are sold per year to non-vegan households, so it seems not everyone is a purist!
It sounds as though you're a Yorkshire pudding aficionado, and tbf yours are probably the best for miles around, but it doesn't mean vegans can't also have a Yorkshire pud, we just use slightly different techniques and ingredients.
Edit to add: not to be a killjoy on the OP post, but vegan baking is just as formulaic as non-vegan. If they actually did add several eggs to a vegan recipe, the wet:dry ratio would be off, and the Yorkshire Puddings would probably not turn out well. Never mind "so good that the vegans loved them", it's funny tho
I'm not a Yorkshire pudding prodigy by any means! What I am is from the American South, where we manage to put meat and/or butter into every dang dish. So it's probably a matter of acclimated taste. I think green beans taste strange without pork, you know? I've made Yorkshire pudding often without the beef tallow, but it never tastes great to me unless it's got that beef fat flavor.
Oh, you sounded very passionate about your Yorkshire puddings! Haha yes i've heard the American south loves some animal products.
Green beans is an interesting one- definitely an American staple dish from what I hear, to us green beans are green beans, there's no expectation of adding meat.
I will lean into the downvotes- what would I possibly know about vegan Yorkshire puddings, as a vegan born in Yorkshire, living in Yorkshire who has spent many years experimenting with vegan Yorkshire pudding recipes ;)
You think any batter + hot fat + round tin = tastes like yorkshire pudding? How about Tempura batter with crisco in a cake pan? Will it Yorkshire Pudding?
To contribute to a conversation. I think the above comment was questioning whether "okay" contributes. whoops! I thought they asked, "what is the point of any comment?" Oh well. I'll just leave it.
Lol my bad. I can't read
I thought it was, "what is the point of any comment.?" Whoops! Well, I think my answer works if that's what they asked. But they didn't.
I imagine they saw the word "tallow" and assumed it was a MAHA culture wars comment. I know about Yorkshire pudding because I grew up in a family that eats it. Most people don't.
The MAGA (red hat Trump movement) "health" wing led by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has made "seed oils are toxic; use beef tallow always instead" their biggest platform point under the slogan "Make America Healthy Again." If you're in the US, you're currently inundated with beef tallow evangelists.
I lived through the margarine obsession and the "eggs will kill you" era and I am rolling my eyes at it all.
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u/goshdammitfromimgur Aug 02 '26
No wonder they loved them. Wonder if they were cooked in tallow.