To Recipe Test: Popovers (Test #1 = Fail)

photo from Williams-Sonoma//link

I grew up in New England eating popovers or yorkshire pudding on New Year's day alongside a beautifully rare prime rib. My father mastered the whole meal and its a combination of flavors that really brings me home.

Saul abides by the Fannie Farmer popover recipe. I always associated her with New England style cooking, and that seems like a fair assessment, but apparently she was also one of the first to include real measurements in her recipes. And Saul's FF popovers were usually a hit!

To me, a perfect popover is crusty brown and practically air filled on top but any doughy substance that IS present is soft. Then, the bottom is bit denser and eggier, almost like sheets of velvety baked custard. Obviously, you eat it piping hot and obviously, you put several thousand pats of cold butter that mostly melt, but sometimes, you get a bit that has hot dripping butter with a little globule of cold salty butter sandwiched between the custard layers. OGMOGMGGMGMGGGGGGGGGGg.

So, of course, I know that Fannie Farmer works for my father. But, I need to try it for myself. And as I was searching for popover recipes to see how they differed, I noted a HUGE difference.