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Egg Omelette (for Six)
Six eggs beaten separately. Mix in with the yolks 1 cup of milk in which 6 teaspoons cornstarch have been blended, and season with ½ teaspoon salt. Fold the whites in lightly and turn in hot frying pan, in which 1 tablespoon butter has been placed. Let it set nicely in bottom, and when nearly done set in oven to brown. Fold over and serve.
This is a puffed or "soufflé" omelette rather than a folded French one, and the whole thing hinges on treating the beaten whites gently.
- The hinge: fold, do not stirThe whites carry the rise. Beat them to soft peaks that just hold, then cut and fold them into the yolk mixture with a spatula until barely combined, streaks and all. Stirring them in flattens the batter and you get a thick, damp pancake.
- The cornstarchSix teaspoons is 2 tablespoons, a substantial amount for one cup of milk. Whisk it into cold milk until smooth before it meets the yolks; added dry it will lump and you will taste raw starch. Its job is to keep the omelette from weeping as it sets.
- Pan size and typeUse a 10-inch oven-safe skillet, well seasoned cast iron or nonstick with a metal handle. A smaller pan gives a batter too deep to set through before the bottom colours.
- "Let it set nicely in the bottom"Medium-low heat, undisturbed, 4 to 6 minutes. The edges should be firm and the centre still loose and trembling when it goes into the oven.
- Oven browningThe recipe gives no oven temperature; it says only to set the pan in the oven to brown. For a brief finish, 375 to 400F for 5 to 8 minutes, until the top is set and lightly gold. Broiling works but colours in under two minutes and burns quickly.
- Fold and serve at onceLoosen the edge, fold in half, slide onto a warm platter. A puffed omelette begins to sink within a minute or two of leaving the heat, so plate it immediately.
- YieldSix eggs and a cup of milk make a generous four servings by modern standards; six only as one dish among several at breakfast or supper. Season more assertively than the half teaspoon of salt given, and add pepper, which the original omits.
Cornstarch in an omelette looks odd now, but it belonged to a period when packaged corn starch was promoted as a domestic thickener and stabiliser. Here it appears to work as insurance: binding the milk so the eggs hold their puff, and stretching six eggs into a dish said to serve six. The separated-egg method, generally traced to the French omelette soufflée, appeared widely in English-language household books of the era, often under the name "puffy omelet."