Okay, this one is for my love of Yorkshire Pudding. . . . don't know if Sherlock ever had any or not.

3 local pubs that are fantastic for Yorkshire Puddings

THIS week, we are looking at not one, not two, but three superb Yorkshire pubs.

They're separated by many miles but linked by one common thread: their reverence for the beauty that is the Yorkshire Pudding.

We've hunted high and low, north and south, to bring you today's recommendations, especially in honour of Yorkshire Day.

And now, after a bitter but brilliant batter battle, we have three recommendations. So if you're looking for a splendid lunch, look no further....

1 - First up is a pub we have recommended before: The Ship Inn in Aldborough, a pretty little village near Boroughbridge.

I headed out here in 2012, after a letter writer to The Press said the beef was the best she'd ever tasted and the Yorkshires the most amazing she’d seen - and we weren't disappointed!

This is a fantastic place, reputed to have been a pub since the 1300s, and run by Brian and Elaine Rey for the past few years. It's splendid, but the roast dinner in particular is hard to beat.

The beef is matured for 21 days and slow cooked for 20 hours, and the portions are enormous. The piece de resistance is what they call "Brian's world famous Yorkshire puddings" - humongous crisp balls the size of grapefruit, which I still remember fondly.

2 - Next up, a couple of miles south of Pickering on the A169, is The Black Bull.

This place changed hands in March, and the new owners are full of fighting talk. A roadside sign declares: "We serve probably the best Yorkshire pudding in Yorkshire" - a claim that demanded to be put to the test.

There's no shortage of choice here. There are giant filled Yorkshire puddings and the house speciality - homemade loaf tin Yorkshire Puddings with a choice of five fillings. I plumped for steak and ale and chips and it was fantastic.

The method was inspired; the result was a hefty brick-shaped pudding, topped with steak and ale and with a mound of chips on the side.

Best in Yorkshire though? It's good - but it can't beat our final pub......

3 - Step forward The Crooked Billet at Saxton, directly opposite the historic Lead Chapel near Towton battlefield, just south of Tadcaster.

I've had this pub on my radar since a visit to its sister pub (The Cross Keys in Hillam) introduced me to the some of best pub burgers I've encountered. Here, the speciality in a vast and varied menu is the filled Yorkshire pudding, and the quality is outstanding.

All come filled with mash, veg, gravy and a choice of two sausages, roast meat of the day, steak and kidney, or vegetables and veggie gravy.

I've tried the first two now (on separate trips) and both were excellent. It looks a bit messy, buckling under its own bulk, but it tastes tremendous.

If you're in this neck of the woods, and want a proper lunch for Yorkshire Day weekend, in surroundings laden with Yorkshire history this is the place to go.

The puddings at The Crooked Billet (left) and The Black Bull.

Credit where credit is due. . . .