Inside The Factory - Series 8

Episode
Episode 1 - Yorkshire Puddings
Broadcast Info
2024 (59 mins)
Description
Gregg Wallace steps inside a huge Yorkshire Puddings factory in Hull to learn how Aunt Bessie’s produce a staggering five hundred million Yorkshire puddings every year. The process starts at the intake bay with a delivery of flour from a 24-tonne tanker. Materials Manager, Chris Laws explains that they use ‘biscuit’ flour which has a low gluten content when compared to other flours. Although the factory makes yorkies by the tonne, the ingredients are as simple as when you make them at home - flour, eggs, milk and salt. Gregg heads to the mixing room where he helps to measure out the key ingredients and blend them together. The high-tech mixer helps to trap air in the batter mix which will help the puddings rise in the oven. The fresh mix is piped over to the depositing area where Gregg meets Harry Owen, who shows him how 26 grams of batter is piped into non-stick steel trays coated in oil. The oil is vitally important because it forms a ‘halo’ on top of the batter ensuring that the edges of the pudding rise faster than the centre, giving them their distinctive shape. The metal trays then travel through a 53-metre-long conveyor oven which is split into four cooking zones. Harry explains that the first zone pre-bakes the puddings, the second zone ensures they have the perfect rise, the third hardens the pudding giving them structure, and the fourth zone provides the golden-brown colour. Fourteen minutes after entering the oven, Gregg sees the puddings emerge. After checking they have risen to the correct size and consistency, each one of the puddings is blown out of the tins with a clever blast of compressed air. With the yorkies safely out of their tins, they travel inside a huge freezer to bring their temperature down to minus eighteen degrees Celsius. This gives the puddings a shelf life of up to a year and means they can be made to a traditional recipe without using any preservatives. In the packing area Gregg helps to pack ten bags of puddings into large cardboard boxes, and then it’s time for the yorkies to leave the factory in a specialist freezer lorry to travel to shops all over the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Elsewhere in the episode, Cherry Healey visits one of the country’s largest wheat storage depots where wheat is tested before it can be milled into flour fit for Yorkshire puddings. She also teams up with food scientist Barbara Bray to learn how to cook the perfect gravy for a Sunday roast. Historian, Ruth Goodman bites into the history of the roast dinner; and helps a chef master the art of washing up Tudor-style.
Genre
Nutrition; Science; Technology

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Inside The Factory - Series 8". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/247730 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)