Some call it the most underrated British dish of all time. Delicious herb-infused pork sausages, baked golden brown inside the center of a perfectly risen Yorkshire pudding. We’re talking, of course, about Toad in The Hole.
In reality, it’s one of the blandest of British culinary offerings. Nevertheless, it is one that Brits like me cling to out of nostalgia, the same way we do with similarly basic bygone staples like Arctic Roll and Battered Mars Bars.
Regardless, though, of how you might rank Toad in The Hole in terms of culinary cleverness, the history and namesake of the dish are nothing short of fascinating.
The Story of The Real Toad in The Hole
Toad in The Hole is a dish that hails originally from the North East of England. Think Northumberland, County Durham, and Yorkshire. Or, if you’re American and find it easier to use TV geography, Winterfell.
“Your grandad once found one of these, you know,” my own grandmother once said matter-of-factly and proudly, as she was whisking batter ready to embed an eight-pack of Walls Sausages in, before baking the mixture in the oven one day.
“What, a Yorkshire Pudding?”
“No, you daft basket case!” My grandma snapped exasperatedly. “A Toad! In the Hole!”
Naturally, this explanation didn’t satisfy my childlike need for further explanation, but my grandmother realized this.
“All that coal down there in the mines,” she said, pointing to the 90s linoleum floor to emphasize that she meant underground. “Used to be whole forests of trees full of birds and animals.”
Being an avid fossil hunter like every boy in the days before boys stopped playing outside and became effeminate incels, I already knew this. I even had a piece of coal with a fossil leaf embedded in it (albeit bought, not found).
However, what my grandmother said next threw me sideways.
“And every now and again,” she said. “They’d find one in a rock.”
“What, a fossil?”
“No! A bloody toad! A live one! Don’t you bloody listen?”
Being seven or eight at the time, I was already aware that my grandmother was possibly the biggest liar I had ever met. As my father had already assured me, she was not a witch. The big black thing in the back garden wasn’t a cauldron; it was simply something to grow potatoes in. There was also no buried treasure in the house. What I was detecting with the metal detector my father gave me for Christmas, was just the house plumbing.
Was it, therefore, probable that my late grandfather had once found a live toad from the Cretaceous era in a coal mine? Likely, the answer was no.
However, what I found out as I got older was fascinating.
Real Toads in Real Holes/Rocks Were Once a Really Big Thing
Most people don’t know it, but Toad in The Hole, the dish, is really a culinary metaphor hailing from a time of the flourishing North East England mining era. One in which it was apparently common knowledge that small animals like toads and reptiles could occasionally be found alive, despite being entombed in rock for millions of years, by Geordie and Yorkshire folk working the rock faces.
And yes, I know that sounds crazy.
What is particularly interesting about this legend, is that most of the creatures supposedly found entombed in rock were creatures that we know today that have the ability to hibernate. Furthermore, in every documented case of such a creature being found, it would revive for a short while after being discovered, but perish quickly afterward.
Scientifically, there are several theoretical reasons why this might happen. The lower percentage of oxygen in our current climate, the prevalence of billions of new bugs and bacteria in our current biosphere that an ancient immune system just isn’t prepared to tackle. Take your pick.
The Rev. Dr. Buckland Entombed Animal Experiment
Make no mistake, interest in creatures supposedly encased in stone for millions of years, before miraculously reviving on being discovered, was once a very big scientific hot topic. The phenomenon was also garnering the attention of the Church.
There were suppositions, after all, that such creatures might be living remnants of the world before the flood. This being the case, in 1825, a study was made by the English theologian and paleontologist Dr. William Buckland.
In his experiment, Rev. William Buckland encased 24 living toads into blocks of limestone and sandstone, before burying said stones in his garden. A year later, in 1826, these artificial tombs were recovered…
In the recovered sandstone block that Buckland had buried, all the toads that Buckland had entombed were found dead and decomposing. However, in the limestone that Buckland had buried, several toads were found alive, with some having even gained weight during their period of internment.
Realizing that limestone was more porous than sandstone, Rev. Buckland sealed any air gaps he could find in his limestone toad tomb before reburying it. A year later, all the toads in his experiment were dead.
The curious case of the Toad in The Hole was, therefore, officially settled by one of God’s own. As Buckland had demonstrated, no toad could survive even a year entombed in rock without at least a little oxygen. However, there was a quite gaping flaw in the Buckland experiment.
For one, Rev. Buckland failed to address how some toads buried in his garden during his original experiment had been able to put on weight while being entombed. More importantly, Rev. Buckland failed to address how limestone, by nature, is porous and how, in the North East of England, coal and limestone have been historically easy to quarry, thanks to deposits lying so close to the surface.
In fact, the North East of England, where the Toad in The Hole legend originates, has coal and limestone lying so close to the surface that open-cast mining is possible. This means that coal and lime can be mined in many places without a need to even dig a shaft underground. Put simply, if your Toads in The Hole need a little porous rock and oxygen, they’ve got it. And don’t forget, they can (apparently) put on weight without eating.
Is an Actual Toad in The Hole Possible? – Well, Shrimps Are….
Do I believe that my grandfather once found a living toad from a bygone geological era in a coal mine? No. Like I say, my grandmother, for the sake of her being the best grandmother in the world, was a massive liar.
However, we have lots of legends in the North of England. There is one about a giant worm, one about a giant wild boar, one about a saint who never decays no matter how many times he’s exhumed. No other legend, though, was ever crafted so precisely into the region’s culinary memory.
It is also the case that even now, in the 21st century, we are still finding things in rocks that we shouldn’t be. Recently, scientists have found copepods (relatives of modern shrimp), flatworms, and several other invertebrates, that should all belong in oceans but seem to be happy living within water trapped within isolated rock pocket ecosystems buried deep underground, – and which all have been where they are for at least 12,000 years.
Could Rocks we Think are Old Actually be Much Younger?
Can life survive being entombed if we just rewind the clock a little bit? I’ll be honest; I have no idea how 12,000-year-old shrimp in rock work. I’m also no expert in hibernation.
Recently, though, the BBC published a piece describing how modern human garbage, metals, plastics – you name it – seem to be transitioning from the garbage we know into rock far faster than we originally expected. This poses the question: is the rock we know actually far younger than we first thought? Furthermore, if geological cycles work faster than we once thought, might the Toad in The Hole be a real thing that was quietly pointing us all along to some kind of alternative understanding of geology as we know it?
I don’t know, but I kind of hope so. After all, wouldn’t having a Cretaceous toad in your garden pond be kind of cool?