To Make Omelets
To make an omelet, beat the yolks lightly (twelve beats is said to be the magic number), as too much beating makes them thin and destroys the appearance of the omelet, then add the milk, the salt, pepper, and flour if any is used, and lastly the whites beaten to a stiff froth. Have the skillet as hot as it can be without scorching the butter; put in a table-spoon of butter and pour in the omelet, which should at once begin to bubble and rise in flakes. Slip under it a thin, broad-bladed knife, and every now and then raise it up to prevent burning. As soon as the under side is hard enough to hold together, and the eggs begin to "set," fold over, shake the skillet so as to entirely free the omelet, carefully slide it on a hot platter, and serve at once. It should be cooked in from three to five minutes. To bake an omelet, place in the frying-pan on top of stove until it begins to "set" in the middle, then place in a rather hot oven; when slightly browned, fold if you like, or turn a hot dish on top of the pan, upset the latter with a quick motion, and so dish the omelet with the under side uppermost. It should be baked in from five to ten minutes. Where a large quantity of eggs are used, instead of making into one large omelet, divide and make several, sending each to the table as soon as done. Three eggs make a good-sized omelet. Ham, chicken, and all kinds of meat omelets, are made by chopping the meat fine and placing between the folds before dishing. In making vegetable (asparagus, tomatoes, cauliflower, etc.) omelets, cook the vegetables as if for the table; place them in the center of the omelet just before folding. For a plain, easily-made omelet, take three table-spoons milk and a pinch of salt for each egg; beat the eggs lightly for three or four minutes, pour them into a hot pan in which a piece of butter the size of a walnut has just been melted, cook three or four minutes, fold over and serve at once. Some scald a little parsley, pour off the water, chop it, and mix with the omelet just before pouring into the pan. Old cheese, grated and added to a plain omelet, is a favorite dish. To make a bread omelet, remove all crust from a large slice of light, white bread, moisten with sweet milk, rub through a sieve, add to the yolks, beat very thoroughly, and season with salt and pepper to taste, adding beaten whites last.
This is a method rather than a single dish, and it describes the nineteenth-century American puffed omelet, with the whites beaten separately and folded in. A few of its proportions and vessels need translating.
- The hinge: heat, then leave it aloneThe pan must be hot enough that the eggs bubble and rise the instant they hit the butter, but the omelet is only lifted at the edges, never stirred. Stirring collapses the beaten whites and you end up with scrambled eggs.
- Three eggs, and the right panThree eggs is a single-serving to two-serving omelet, and an 8-inch skillet suits it. The instruction to divide a large quantity into several omelets rather than one big one is sound; the book's own reason is that each can be sent to the table the moment it is done.
- That milk quantityThree tablespoons of milk per egg in the "plain, easily-made" version is far more liquid than modern practice, which usually runs to about a tablespoon per egg or none at all. The extra milk gives a softer, wetter, more custardy omelet that is prone to weeping; expect a different texture than you may want.
- "Flour if any is used"The recipe gives no quantity; a teaspoon or so per three eggs would be in keeping, and flour of this sort was generally used as insurance against collapse. It is plainly optional here, and well-beaten whites will hold the omelet up on their own if the pan is hot.
- "A rather hot oven"Read this as roughly 375-400F. Note that the pan goes from stovetop to oven, so use a skillet with an ovenproof handle; an all-metal pan of the sort common in the period is what the instruction takes for granted.
- Butter the size of a walnutAbout a tablespoon, the same as the measure given at the top. Enough to coat the pan and no more, since excess butter pools and fries the underside before it can set.
- Fillings go in hotChopped ham, chicken or cooked vegetables should be warm when they go between the folds. Cold filling in a three-minute omelet leaves a cool center and the omelet cannot be returned to the heat without toughening.
- The bread omeletMilk-soaked crumb pressed through a sieve is a panade, and it makes a denser, more sliceable omelet closer to a baked pudding. A large slice of a soft white sandwich loaf, crust off, is the right substitute for "light, white bread."
- TimingThree to five minutes on the stove and five to ten in the oven are both accurate for a puffed omelet of this size. It will deflate within a minute or two of leaving the heat, which is why the book insists on sending each one to the table as soon as it is done.
Buckeye Cookery (1877, out of Marysville, Ohio, and compiled from contributions gathered by churchwomen of the town's First Congregational Church) belongs to a moment when the separated-egg, soufflé-style omelet was widely taught in American books, set out here alongside the plainer flat style rather than in place of it. The word omelet reaches English through French omelette, generally traced back to Latin lamella, a thin plate or leaf, which describes the flat pan-cooked version better than this puffed one. The insistence on counting beats -- twelve for the yolks -- is offered here as hearsay ("is said to be the magic number"), and it suggests where precision could be located in a kitchen with no thermometers or timers and a wood-fired range judged by hand: the number of strokes of a fork was one of the few things a cook could count exactly.