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Omelet, with Cheese, Baked
Beat two eggs lightly, and mix with them a small pinch of salt, two pinches of pepper, three table-spoonfuls of new milk or cream, and two ounces of grated Parmesan. Pour the mixture into a buttered plate, bake in a quick oven, and serve immediately. Time to bake, fifteen minutes. Probable cost, 4d. or 5d. Sufficient for two persons.
A two-egg baked omelet in the French style, closer to a shallow cheese custard than a folded pan omelet. The proportions are unusually cheese-heavy, which drives most of the adjustments.
- Quick ovenRead this as roughly 400-450F. Towards the top of that range the mixture puffs and browns quickly rather than setting into a smooth custard.
- The fifteen minutes is the outside limitThe fifteen minutes may be the outside limit -- in a shallow dish two eggs can be set well before that, so start checking at 8-10 minutes; held too long the edges toughen.
- Two ounces of Parmesan is a lotThat is roughly half a cup grated against two eggs, and Parmesan is salty enough on its own. Omit the added pinch of salt, or halve the cheese if you want the eggs to taste of eggs.
- New milkSimply fresh whole milk, as opposed to milk that had stood and been skimmed. Whole milk or light cream both work; cream gives a softer set.
- A buttered plateUse a shallow pie dish, gratin dish or small cast-iron pan, about 6-7 inches across. A wide, shallow vessel is the point: depth turns this into a slow-cooking custard.
- Beat lightlyBeating only until the yolks and whites are combined keeps the texture tender. Whisking to a froth gives a soufflé-like rise that collapses on the way to the table, which is part of why the recipe insists on serving immediately.
- Yield"Sufficient for two persons" is modest by modern standards; as a modern lunch, with bread and a salad, it will feed one generously.
- Probable cost4d. or 5d. is fourpence or fivepence in pre-decimal currency, listed so a household could cost a menu at a glance.
Cassell's distinguished between the pan omelet turned over on itself and the baked or "oven" omelet set in a dish, and gave a long run of variations on each. The cheese version uses Parmesan, a hard grating cheese available to British kitchens in imported form and one that kept in a larder where a fresh cheese would not; recipes of the period call for it in everything from macaroni to soups to fritters. The instruction "new milk" reflects how milk reached the household before mechanical refrigeration and pasteurisation, delivered daily and used quickly, with new milk distinguished in price and quality from skimmed. The dish also shows what a dictionary of cookery was for: a cheap, fast supper costing a few pence, set out in five lines with a cost and a yield so a cook could slot it into the week without thinking twice.