It's an odd name, isn't it?
And, unlike many English dishes, it doesn't benefit from being translated into high-falutin' French.
'Crapaud Dans Le Trou', if anything, is worse.
No one really seems to know where the name came from.
There's all sorts of theories, of course, but they're just that.
What's more interesting, perhaps, is that the 'toad' - historically - could be any bit of leftover meat. Makes sense, I suppose. There's very little that won't taste good when it's been enveloped in Yorkshire pudding.
That's probably why there are so many successful vegetarian Toad In The Holes out there.
But I confess to being a fan of the classic.
And as Nigel Slater says in this brilliant recipe, it 'stands or falls by the quality of the sausage that you use'.
True dat.
The thing about Andrew's sausages is that they're very meaty. There's no rusk in them, and so they make for ideal 'toads'.
Note also that Slater suggests wrapping the sausages in bacon.
And using dripping in your baking dish.
In fact, along with Stein's organic eggs and Peter and Mary's organic pasture fed milk, I think that - flour aside - if you're fancying a bit of toadage for yourself, we can sort you out with pretty much everything you need.
Happy Sunday,
Nick