Omelet
Beat three eggs very light, separately, a little pepper and salt, two tablespoons milk, butter the griddle or frying pan well, and bake it. When done, double it one half over, and serve it on a hot platter. These are very nice made in small ones, one large tablespoonful dropped in the frying pan and double half over.
A plain three-egg omelet from the era before nonstick pans, when "bake it" on the stovetop simply meant to let it set over heat without stirring. A few of the terms and proportions need translating.
- "Beat separately"Whites and yolks are beaten apart and then folded together, which makes this closer to a puffed or souffléd omelet than a French rolled one. Beat the whites to soft peaks only; stiff peaks make the omelet dry and prone to collapse the moment it leaves the heat.
- "Bake it" means the stovetopThe pan goes over moderate heat and the omelet is left undisturbed until set, roughly 3 to 4 minutes for a three-egg mixture in an 8-inch pan. If the top is still loose, slide the pan under a broiler for under a minute rather than flipping it.
- Butter the griddle wellIron and tinned pans of the period generally needed a generous coat. A well-seasoned or nonstick pan needs about a tablespoon, no more, or the folded omelet slides in fat.
- Heat control is the hingeAn aerated egg mixture browns and toughens fast. Medium-low is right; if the edges are setting the instant the eggs hit the pan, the pan is too hot.
- The milkTwo tablespoons for three eggs is a light hand and does not water the omelet down. Modern whole milk will serve here, though the milk of the period was unhomogenized and variable in richness; cream will make it richer but slower to set.
- The small onesA tablespoonful dropped in the pan gives a silver-dollar omelet cooked in a minute or so, then doubled over as the recipe directs. Three eggs beaten light will give roughly eight to ten, and they need a wider pan or a griddle so they do not run together.
- YieldOne omelet from three eggs serves one generously or two lightly. Salt after the whites are folded in, not before beating them, so the foam is not slackened.
Omelets in nineteenth-century American cookery are commonly described in two forms: the plain skillet omelet, stirred and folded, and the version made with the whites beaten separately, sometimes called a puffed or soufflé omelet. This one belongs to the second camp, and the instruction to "bake it" here means cooking in the griddle or frying pan rather than in an oven. The small dropped omelets suggested at the end are a practical answer to feeding several people in sequence from a single pan.