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Cheese Omelet
Whisk two eggs thoroughly. Allow a pinch of salt, the same of pepper, half a tea-spoonful of finely-chopped parsley, and a tea-spoonful of grated Parmesan or Cheshire cheese to every two eggs. Mix completely. Put a piece of butter the size of an egg into the frying-pan. When it is hot, pour in the mixture, and stir it with a wooden spoon until it begins to set. Discontinue stirring, but shake the pan for a minute or so, then fold the omelet in two, and keep on shaking the pan, and, if it seems likely to stick, put a little piece of butter under it. When it is lightly browned, turn it on a hot dish. It must not be overdone. The inside ought to be quite juicy. If it is preferred, the cheese may be finely grated, and strewed over the omelet after it is cooked, instead of mixed with it before. Time to fry, ten minutes. Probable cost, 5d., with two eggs. Sufficient for one person.
A two-egg French-style omelet, sound in method but written for a coal range and a heavy iron pan. Two numbers need adjusting before you cook.
- Ignore the ten minutesTen minutes in a pan would give you a leathery disc, and it contradicts the book's own instruction that the inside "ought to be quite juicy." A two-egg omelet over medium-high heat is set and folded in 60 to 90 seconds; the stirring stage alone is perhaps 20 seconds.
- Butter the size of an eggThat is roughly 2 oz (55 g), a quantity that suits a slow, unevenly heated iron pan and no non-stick coating. In a modern 8-inch pan, 15 g is plenty, with a knob held back in case of sticking as the recipe suggests.
- A teaspoonful of cheeseScant by current taste. A tablespoon of finely grated Parmesan per two eggs gives a clearly cheesy omelet without weeping fat; more than that and the omelet turns greasy and refuses to fold.
- Cheshire cheeseA crumbly, salty English cow's-milk cheese, still made and still worth using here. It behaves differently from Parmesan in the pan, so grate it fine and be sparing with the added salt.
- Pan size and heatTwo eggs want an 8-inch pan; anything larger spreads them too thin to fold. The butter should be foaming and just beginning to smell nutty when the eggs go in — if it browns first, wipe the pan and start again.
- The folding"Fold the omelet in two" is the plain half-moon fold, not the tri-fold roll familiar from French practice. Tilt the pan away from you and let the omelet turn onto the hot dish; the residual heat finishes the centre on the way to the table.
- YieldSufficient for one, as stated. Do not scale up in the pan -- cook successive two-egg omelets rather than one large one.
- Probable cost5d. is five old pence, about 2p in decimal money.
The insistence that the omelet "must not be overdone" and that the inside should stay juicy matches the French preference for an omelette left baveuse. The choice offered between Parmesan and Cheshire is characteristic of the book -- an imported hard cheese for those who could get it, and a native English one for those who could not. The recipe also allows the cheese to be strewn over the finished omelet rather than beaten in, which produces a noticeably different dish: the cheese stays distinct instead of seasoning the whole egg.