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Posts Tagged ‘popovers’

How to Make Popovers

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on May 5, 2026| 3 Comments »


Just because it is simple doesn’t mean you 
can depend on good results. There are tricks 
to make sure they pop. Preheat the buttered 
pan at 450 degrees. Bring the eggs to room 
temperature. Whirl them with salt till the whole
mixture froths. Warm the milk, but not too hot.
Melt the butter. Be stingy with flour. Mix only 
as long as it takes to sing the first verse of Blackbird. 
But do not invite guests to show off your prowess,
to boast how light, how airy, how balloon-ish-ly
your popovers rise. Pride will slip in and spoil 
the batch. Pride, an ingredient so strong even 
what’s foolproof goes flat. And even if the popovers rise, 
that pride, oh my friend, you’ll taste it. You’ll taste it. 

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While Watching the Popovers

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 24, 2024| 4 Comments »

 
 
It’s elegant, really,
the way protein in eggs
and gluten in flour
create a structure
strong enough that when baked
will stretch without tearing
and set without leaking,
thus trapping the steam
that makes the thin batter rise.
And though it is science
and chemical reaction,
though we could write
an equation to explain it,
still the innocent glee
that rises in us
each time we peek through
the oven window and witness
the golden ballooning.
Perhaps astonishment
is the secret ingredient
when mixed with attention
that creates in us a structure
strong enough to contain
an expanding joy.
How delicious it is,
the chance to celebrate
the familiar, to find
what is marvelous
in the daily, then offer it
like bread to each other.

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