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Cocoanut Omelet
Beat together the whites of three eggs with a half teaspoonful of salt and dash of tabasco. When well whipped add the yolks and one cup of grated cocoanut with a half cup of cocoanut milk. Cook carefully for three minutes in a well-buttered saucepan where there is moderate heat, slipping a knife under the omelet once or twice to prevent burning. When partially brown set in the oven to finish cooking, a good final test being that of no particle sticking to a knife thrust into the centre.
A savoury souffléed omelet, whites beaten separately for lift and the yolks folded back in. It moves from stovetop to oven, which is the only tricky part.
- Cocoanut milkIn books of this period "cocoanut milk" may mean the thin, watery liquid poured from inside the nut rather than the thick canned emulsion of grated flesh sold today; it can also mean liquid pressed from grated flesh steeped in water or milk. Canned coconut milk will make the mixture heavier and sweeter; the water from one nut is closer to one likely reading, though the original is ambiguous.
- The coconut itselfOne cup grated most likely means fresh coconut grated on the coarse side of a box grater, though desiccated coconut was also available. Dried desiccated coconut is drier and often sweetened, and will pull moisture out of the eggs; if it is all you have, use unsweetened and let it soak in the coconut liquid first.
- Beating the whitesWhip to soft peaks only. Stiff, dry whites will not fold back into the yolks without deflating, and the omelet sets grainy rather than tender.
- The pan"Saucepan" here probably stands in for a shallow pan that can take direct heat and then go into the oven. A modern cast iron or steel skillet of about eight inches suits three eggs, and it must be ovenproof.
- Moderate heat, then a moderate ovenModerate heat, then the oven -- Keep the burner at medium-low for the three minutes on the stove. The recipe gives no oven temperature; a moderate oven, around 350F, will finish it, and the knife test rather than the clock tells you when it is done.
- The doneness testA knife into the centre coming out clean is a reliable test, but it also collapses the puff. Test near the middle rather than dead centre, and serve at once.
- Savoury, not sweetThe salt and tabasco place this on the supper table, not the dessert course. It suits a curry, cold ham, or a green salad.
- YieldThree eggs makes one generous serving or two modest ones.
Coconut reached American kitchens in quantity in the second half of the nineteenth century, when steam shipping and the trade out of the Caribbean made whole nuts a common grocery item and desiccated shredded coconut a shelf staple. Coconut turns up accordingly not only in cakes and puddings but in soups, salads and, as here, a savoury egg dish sharpened with Tabasco. The soufflé is older and French in origin, generally traced to the practice of beating whites separately to make an omelette soufflée; grafting tropical produce onto it is a characteristically American gesture of the period.