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Asparagus Omelet
Boil in the usual way twenty-five heads of asparagus, and cut the green ends, when tender, into pieces the size of peas. Asparagus that has been previously cooked may be used in this way, first heating it in a little boiling water. Mix with them four well-beaten eggs, and add a little pepper and salt. Melt a piece of butter the size of an egg in an omelet pan, pour in the mixture, stir till it thickens, fold it nicely over, and serve with sauce and vinegar. Time to fry, six minutes. Probable cost, 1s. 4d. Sufficient for three persons.
A plain French-style omelet folded around asparagus tips, written for a coal range and a heavy iron omelet pan. Two things in the original need adjusting: the butter and the timing.
- Butter the size of an eggThat is roughly 2 oz, or 4 tablespoons — far more than a four-egg omelet wants in a modern non-stick or well-seasoned pan. One tablespoon is enough to coat an 8- to 9-inch pan; a second knob stirred into the eggs at the end gives the richness the original was after.
- Six minutes is too longFour eggs in a hot pan set in two to three minutes. Six minutes will give you a dry, browned omelet rather than the soft, barely-set curd the instruction to "stir till it thickens" implies. Pull it while the surface is still glossy; it carries on cooking as you fold.
- Twenty-five headsCut the size of peas -- Twenty-five heads is roughly one supermarket bunch. Only the green tips are used here, so the woody lower stalks can go to stock. The original boils the heads whole and cuts the green ends afterwards; if you prefer, boil just the tips 2 to 3 minutes in salted water. Either way drain well and dry them — wet asparagus will loosen the eggs.
- Cut the size of peasThis matters more than it sounds. Whole tips tear the omelet as you fold; pea-sized pieces distribute evenly and let the egg set around them.
- Stir till it thickensThe classic method: keep the eggs moving with a fork or spatula over fairly brisk heat, pulling the set curd toward the centre, then stop stirring and let the base set for a few seconds before folding.
- Sauce and vinegarThe original is vague and never says which sauce it means. A plain melted-butter or white sauce at the table would suit, with a cruet of vinegar alongside; vinegar cruets were commonly kept within reach at Victorian tables. A squeeze of lemon does the same job.
- Probable cost, 1s. 4d.Cassell's routinely gave a probable cost for its recipes, aimed at the late nineteenth-century household budget. Asparagus was the expensive part; sixteen pence was a fair outlay for a supper dish serving three.
- Yield"Sufficient for three persons" reflects a multi-course meal. As a modern main course with bread and salad it serves two.
A recipe like this one exists partly to use up what was already cooked — note the concession that "asparagus that has been previously cooked may be used." In late nineteenth-century England asparagus had a short, sharply defined season, forced in beds of manure and rushed to market, so leftover heads were worth rescuing rather than discarding. The omelet itself is the standard French folded type that English cookery books had absorbed by the 1870s, distinct from the flat, set omelette of Spain or the puffed sweet omelets served at the end of dinner. Serving it with vinegar looks odd now, but the Victorian table commonly kept a cruet within reach for eggs, vegetables and fish; the acid was doing the work lemon does in most modern kitchens.