Toad in the hole

{{Infobox food

| name = Toad in the hole

| image = Toad in the hole.jpg

| caption = Toad in the hole

| alternate_name = Sausage toad

| course =

| served = Hot

| country = United Kingdom

| region = England

| main_ingredient = Sausages, Yorkshire pudding batter, onion gravy

| variations =

| calories =

| other =

}}

Toad in the hole is a traditional British{{cite book |author=John Ayto |title=The Diner's Dictionary: Word Origins of Food and Drink |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NoicAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA372 |date=18 October 2012 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-964024-9 |pages=372–}} dish consisting of sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter, usually served with onion gravy and vegetables.{{cite book |author=Emily Ansara Baines |title=The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook: From Lady Mary's Crab Canapes to Daisy's Mousse Au Chocolat--More Than 150 Recipes from Upstairs and Downstairs |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n76YCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA213 |date=3 October 2014 |publisher=F+W Media, Inc. |isbn=978-1-4405-8291-2 |pages=213–}} Historically, the dish has also been prepared using other meats, such as rump steak and lamb's kidney.

History

= 18th century origins =

Batter puddings became popular in the early 18th century.{{cite book |author=Alan Davidson |title=The Oxford Companion to Food |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bIIeBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA822 |date=21 August 2014 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-104072-6 |pages=822–}} Cookery writer Jennifer Stead has drawn attention to a description of a recipe identical to toad in the hole from the middle of the century.{{cite book |author=Jennifer Stead |title=Georgian Cookery: Recipes & History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YZPtAQAACAAJ |year=1985 |publisher=English Heritage |isbn=978-1-85074-869-4}}

Dishes like toad in the hole appeared in print as early as 1762, when it was described as a "vulgar" name for a "small piece of beef baked in a large pudding".{{cite web |first=India |last=Mandelkern |title=The Secret History of Toad-in-a-Hole |work=Homo Gastronomicus |date=11 October 2012 |url=http://homogastronomicus.blogspot.com/2012/10/toad-in-hole-revisited.html |access-date=3 May 2020}} Toad in the hole was originally created as a way to stretch out meat in poor households.{{Cite web |url=https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/england/articles/how-toad-in-the-hole-got-its-name/ |title=How Toad-in-the-Hole Got Its Name |last=Lavelle |first=Emma |date=20 June 2017 |website=culture trip |access-date=27 September 2018}} Chefs therefore suggested using the cheapest meats in this dish. In 1747, for example, Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery listed a recipe for "pigeon in a hole", calling for pigeon rather than sausages.{{cite news |last1=Hyslop |first1=Leah |title=Potted histories: toad in the hole |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/10185830/Potted-histories-toad-in-the-hole.html |access-date=9 September 2016 |work=Telegraph |date=24 July 2013}}

= 19th century =

In 1852, Charles Elmé Francatelli wrote in his A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes, of "a cheap dinner" made from "6d. or 1s." worth of bits or pieces of any kind of meat" baked in a nutmeg-seasoned Yorkshire or suet pudding batter.{{cite book |last=Francatelli |first=Charles Elme |author-link=Charles Elme Francatelli |title=A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes |year=1862 |publisher=Pryor |isbn=0-946014-15-9}} Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management of 1861, listed two recipes: "a homely but savoury dish" from rump steak and sheeps's kidney, and another made with cold mutton with kidneys, oysters or mushrooms.{{cite book |last1=Beeton |first1=Isabella |author-link=Isabella Beeton |title=The Book of Household Management |date=1861 |publisher=S. O. Beeton |edition=1st |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10136/pg10136.html |access-date=7 March 2025}} In Pellegrino Artusi's La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well) of 1891, this dish was described as "lesso rifatto all'inglese" (re-cooked meat in the English style) or rospo nella tana, which was mistranslated as "toad in the bole".{{cite book |author=Pellegrino Artusi |author-link=Pellegrino Artusi |title=La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U2q4BgAAQBAJ |date=1 February 2015 |publisher=E-text |isbn=978-88-97313-74-8}} In this recipe from the first modern Italian cookbook, after being browned, the seasoned, thinnly-sliced meat was sprinkled with Parmesan cheese before being cooked in batter.{{cite book|author1=Pellegrino Artusi|author2=Murtha Baca|author3=Stephen Sartarelli|title=Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CvNJXPb7wnIC&pg=PP1|year=2003|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-8657-0|page=266}}

= 20th century =

During World War I, school children were often fed toad in the hole for the midday meal.{{Cite web |title=What did people eat during World War One? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z8kv34j |access-date=2024-02-10 |website=BBC Bitesize |language=en-GB}}

= 21st century =

In 2017, a marketing survey found that 23% of British people had never tried toad in the hole.{{Cite web |date=2017-10-20 |title=The end of bubble and squeak? Traditional British meals are 'dying out' because diners 'prefer foreign favourites' |url=https://uk.news.yahoo.com/forget-meat-veg-prefer-pizza-stir-fries-traditional-british-food-110004459.html |access-date=2024-02-10 |website=Yahoo News |language=en-GB}} In the 21st century, vegetarian and vegan versions of toad in the hole appeared. These included vegan versions made with Linda McCartney Food's vegan sausages{{Cite web |date=2023-12-15 |title=Vegan toad in the hole |url=https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/food/healthy-eating/a46135167/vegan-toad-in-the-hole/ |access-date=2024-02-10 |website=Women's Health |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |date=2023-09-04 |title=Vegetarian toad in the hole recipe |url=https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/food/recipes/a29245476/veggie-toad-in-the-hole/ |access-date=2024-02-10 |website=Good Housekeeping |language=en-GB}} and a vegetarian version published by Ravinder Bhogal that combined toad in the hole with cauliflower cheese.{{Cite news |last=Bhogal |first=Ravinder |date=2023-11-18 |title=Pork belly with turnips, celeriac pakora and cauliflower toad in the hole: Ravinder Bhogal's recipes for British winter veg |url=https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/nov/18/british-winter-veg-recipes-soy-braised-pork-belly-celeriac-rostis-ravinder-bhogal |access-date=2024-02-10 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

Name

The dish with left over meat was originally not called toad in the hole. In the 1787 book A Provincial Glossary by Francis Grose, for example, "toad in a hole" was referred to as "meat boiled in a crust", though a 28 September 1765 passage in The Newcastle Chronicle reads, "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". The first appearance of the word "hole" in the dish's name, not counting Pigeons in a Hole found in the cookbook by Hannah Glasse, appeared in the 1900 publication Notes & Queries, which described the dish as a "batter-pudding with a hole in the middle containing meat". Despite popular belief, there is no record of the dish ever being made with toad.

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.{{cite book |author=Duncan McCorquodale |title=A Visual History of Cookery |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oY0bAQAAMAAJ |year=2009 |publisher=Black Dog |isbn=978-1-906155-50-6}} 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.{{cite book |title=The Feejee Mermaid and Other Essays in Natural and Unnatural History |author=Jan Bondeson |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1999 |page=297 |isbn=9780801436093 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zsQAc_QlB5cC |access-date=23 August 2018}}

The term is sometimes used for "egg in the basket" (an egg fried in a hole of a slice of bread).{{Cite web |last=Barrett |first=Grant |date=2012-11-17 |title=Names for an Egg in Toast Dish |url=https://www.waywordradio.org/names-for-egg-in-toast-dish/ |access-date=2023-02-20 |website=A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language |language=en-US}}