Ideal fat for roast potatoes and yorkshire puddings

[spokette]

I currently use sunflower oil and the results are disappointing. With the roast potatoes, I parboil the potatoes for 5 minutes, shake them to rough up the edges and then add to hot sunflower oil on a tray in the oven. There is always an after taste which I personally find unpleasant.

With yorkshire puddings, they just don't rise enough (I use 100g plain flour, pinch of salt, one egg and half pint of skimmed milk). Is this due to the sunflower oil not being hot enough even though the oven is set to 220 C?

Any advice/tips will be appreciated.

Thanks

spokette, shake your rosties in some flour as well will make the outside crisp.

I use duck fat - we have roast duck every 3-4 months (co-incides when Sainsbury's have them on offer) and I carry on re-using it till its gone!

I buy batter mix from Tesco's - 10p per sachet, add one egg, 200ml water, wisk, put into hot oven and SCRUMMY yorkshires - never gone wrong yet........great for Toad in the Hole as well...have never made batter since discovering them!