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Omelet, Plain
The following recipe is by the often-quoted M. Soyer. "Break four eggs into a basin, add half a tea-spoonful of salt, and a quarter of a tea-spoonful of pepper, and beat them well up with a fork. Put into the frying-pan an ounce and a half of butter, lard, or oil; place it on the fire, and when hot pour in the eggs, and keep on mixing them quickly with a spoon till they are delicately set; then let them slip to the edge of the pan, laying hold by the handle, and raising it slantwise, which will give an elongated form to the omelet; turn in the edges, let it rest a moment to set, turn it over on a dish, and serve. It ought to be of a rich yellow colour, done to a nicety, and as light and delicate as possible. Two table-spoonfuls of milk, and one ounce of the crumb of bread, cut into thin slices, may be added."
Soyer's method is the classic French omelet in miniature: high heat, constant stirring, then a brief rest to set the base. Nothing in it needs rewriting, but a few of the quantities and cues read oddly to a modern cook.
- The hinge: stop while it looks underdone"Delicately set" means the curds are formed but the surface is still glossy and slightly loose. Residual heat finishes it on the plate; an omelet cooked until dry in the pan is already past saving.
- TimingThe whole cooking takes 60 to 90 seconds over fairly brisk heat. The pan must be hot enough that the butter foams and just begins to quiet down before the eggs go in.
- The fatAn ounce and a half is 3 tablespoons, generous by current habit but suited to a heavy iron or steel pan. In a non-stick pan of 8 to 9 inches, 1 tablespoon of butter is enough. Lard and oil are offered as alternatives.
- SaltHalf a teaspoon for four eggs is on the heavy side for modern palates and modern fine-grain salt; a quarter teaspoon may suit better. Salt of the period was not always as finely ground as modern table salt, so spoon measures may not compare directly.
- Pan sizeFour eggs want an 8 to 9 inch pan. Anything wider spreads the egg too thin to roll; anything narrower gives a thick omelet that must be cooked through and loses the lightness Soyer is after.
- ShapingTilting the pan and turning in the edges is the same manoeuvre as the modern roll: the omelet folds against the far lip of the pan and is tipped, seam down, onto the plate. Slide rather than flip.
- The bread-and-milk variantTwo tablespoons of milk with an ounce of thin crumb slices makes a softer, more filling omelet in the older English manner. It is a different dish from the plain one and is better cooked over slightly lower heat, as the bread can scorch.
- YieldFour eggs serves two as a light course, or one as a substantial meal. Omelets do not scale well: cook two of these rather than one of eight eggs.
Alexis Soyer (1810-1858) was chef at the Reform Club in London and among the most publicly recognisable cooks of his generation in Britain, which is presumably why he can be introduced here as "often-quoted" without further explanation. He wrote for a broad audience, was involved in famine relief in Ireland, and went to the Crimea to reform army cooking; his books put French technique into English kitchens in language a household cook could follow. This omelet is a good sample of that project: the method is straightforwardly French, worked fast over high heat and served barely set. The alternative with milk and bread crumb tacked on at the end suggests a concession to local taste, producing a heavier, more custard-like omelet of a kind familiar in British kitchens.