Wonderful stuff! I commented on popovers a few years ago here with some science, and it's all in here. The real key is making sure the batter is full of natural air bubbles (no baking powder—it doesn't promote the big bubbles popovers need from steam), then get it immediately into the pan and then immediately into the fully-heated oven. Those bubbles do your popping—don't give them time to dissolve! PJ hit the other key element: none of your ingredients should be cold. This is why some people pre-heat the popover pan itself; you want the batter to heat immediately in the oven so steam can inflate the bubbles. If you use cold eggs, butter, or milk, the oven wastes those key first five minutes heating those cold ingredients up. You can't heat the ingredients first or you'll cook the eggs and lose some of the milk to steam before you get started, but do have them at least at room temperature. Put your whole eggs in hot tap water as you turn on the oven to preheat and you should be just fine. (I warm the milk and melt the butter in the microwave, but don't get them steaming hot.) For whole wheat popovers, you would want a little extra liquid, and ideally a little extra time for it to soften the bran—but that's going to cause problems if you let your batter sit, because then you'll lose your bubbles. I might try mixing just the whole wheat flour with the liquid and letting that sit for a while, then adding the rest of the ingredients and blending thoroughly (I use a blender to get LOTS of bubbles) and proceeding as usual. Just make sure that you get lots of bubbles if you want them to pop! Matt, I learned a lot from you last time around, and incorporated it here. Thanks for "popping" in again! :) PJH

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