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Omelet, Indian
Break six eggs into a basin. Beat them lightly, then flavour them with a table-spoonful of young mint-leaves, finely-minced, and half a table-spoonful of either chopped onions, cloves or leeks. Add half a salt-spoonful of salt, a salt-spoonful of cayenne, and a table-spoonful of cream. Fry the omelet in the usual way, being careful to keep it well together, so that it may be as thick as possible. Time to fry, six minutes. Probable cost, 9d. Sufficient for three persons.
A six-egg herb omelet with the Victorian Anglo-Indian signature of mint and cayenne. Two things in the original need adjusting: the seasoning is hotter than it looks, and the frying time is roughly double what six eggs will tolerate.
- Six minutes is too longA six-egg omelet in a hot pan is set in two to three minutes, and "as thick as possible" means folded, not slowly dried out. Cook over medium-high heat, drawing the setting edges in, and take it off while the centre is still glossy.
- Salt-spoon and cayenneA salt-spoon is usually reckoned at about a quarter teaspoon, so this calls for something like a quarter teaspoon of cayenne against half that of salt. That is a genuinely hot omelet by modern palates; start with a pinch of cayenne and add more if you want the original heat, and increase the salt to about half a teaspoon.
- "Chopped onions, cloves or leeks""Cloves" here almost certainly means cloves of garlic rather than the spice, given the list it sits in, but the text is ambiguous. Half a tablespoon of minced garlic would be one large clove; onion or leek at the same volume is milder and closer to the spirit of the dish.
- MintYoung mint leaves means the soft top growth, not tough late-summer stems. Spearmint is the right register; chop it just before use, as bruised mint blackens and turns muddy in eggs.
- A tablespoon of creamThat is all the liquid the recipe wants, and it is enough. More cream or any water makes the omelet weep and refuse to hold together, which is the fault the original specifically warns against.
- Pan sizeSix eggs need about a 24-25 cm (9.5-10 inch) pan. In anything smaller the omelet is too deep to set before the base overcooks.
- Yield"Sufficient for three persons" holds up as a light supper or breakfast dish with bread. The ninepence is a period price note and tells you nothing useful about cost now.
Cassell's places this among a run of omelets distinguished only by their flavourings, and "Indian" here means what it usually meant in a late-Victorian English kitchen: cayenne, plus an aromatic or two, standing in for the whole of the subcontinent. The pairing of mint with chilli and allium is not a fantasy — it points at the fresh chutneys and herb-seasoned egg dishes that British households in India encountered and brought home in simplified form, alongside kedgeree, mulligatawny and curry powder. The word omelet itself came into English from French in the seventeenth century, and by the time Cassell's was compiled the technique — beaten eggs, a hot pan, a folded finish — was standard enough that the book could simply say "fry the omelet in the usual way" and expect to be understood.