Three Eggs
Ingredients.
Half an ounce of Butter.
One tablespoonful of Castor Sugar.
One teaspoonful of Orange-Flower Water.
Salt. Put the orange-flower water and the sugar into a stewpan, and stir over the fire; let it boil quickly for three minutes; then put it into a basin to cool. When cool, add the yolks of eggs and beat to a cream. Put a pinch of salt to the whites of eggs, whip them to a stiff froth, and stir them lightly to the yolks of eggs. Melt the butter in an omelet-pan, and pour in the eggs; put this on the fire for two minutes, and then in the oven for three or four minutes. Make some jam, about a dessertspoonful, quite hot; take the omelet out of the oven and put it on a hot dish, spread the jam on the omelet lightly and quickly, fold it over like a sandwich, sprinkle a little castor sugar over it, and serve.
A sweet soufflé omelette, folded round hot jam. The title supplies the main ingredient that the list forgets: three eggs, separated.
- The missing ingredientThe ingredient list omits the eggs entirely — the recipe's title is doing that work. Use three eggs, separated, with all three yolks and all three whites.
- The syrup step is nearly dryA teaspoon of orange-flower water and a tablespoon of sugar boiled hard for three minutes will scorch in most modern pans. Warm them together only until the sugar dissolves, or simply beat the orange-flower water into the yolks with the sugar; the syrup adds nothing a modern cook will miss.
- Orange-flower waterSold as orange blossom water in Middle Eastern groceries and still perfectly available. Strength varies by brand, so keep to the recipe's teaspoon for three eggs — more turns the dish soapy.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. A moderately hot oven, around 400F, will set the top in three or four minutes while the centre stays creamy.
- Folding the whitesThis is the hinge. Whip the whites to a stiff but not dry froth and fold, not stir, in two or three additions. Overworking here gives a flat, leathery omelette rather than a risen one.
- Pan and butterHalf an ounce is about a tablespoon, which is enough only in a well-seasoned or nonstick 8-inch pan. The pan must be ovenproof, handle included.
- TimingTwo minutes on the burner over moderate heat, then straight into the oven. It will not wait: assemble the hot jam and the serving dish before the eggs go into the pan, and fold and sugar it the moment it leaves the oven.
- YieldOne three-egg omelette serves two as a dessert, one generously. It does not scale well — make a second rather than doubling.
Sweet soufflé omelettes of this kind — the French omelette soufflée and its jam-filled cousin the omelette à la confiture — are generally said to have been common in the professional English kitchen from the mid-nineteenth century, when cooks trained in the French manner filled out the pastry and entremets courses of a dinner. Orange-flower water, distilled from bitter orange blossom, is often described as the usual perfume for such dishes long before vanilla extract became cheap and universal; it appears throughout Victorian confectionery in ratafias, custards and almond pastes. The bare, telegraphic style here, with the eggs left in the title and no oven temperature at all, suggests — though this is a matter of interpretation — a collection written for cooks who had already been shown how the thing was done and needed only reminding of proportions.