Peach Omelet
Pare and stone three very mellow peaches, then press them through a sieve, add two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar and the well beaten yolks of three eggs, then stir in carefully the whites of six eggs beaten to a stiff froth, turn in a greased baking dish and bake in a quick oven fifteen or twenty minutes. Serve immediately.
This is a sweet souffléd omelet baked in a dish rather than folded in a pan, and it rises and falls fast. Have everything ready before the whites are beaten.
- Quick ovenA "quick oven" of the period is usually reckoned somewhere in the region of 400–450°F, though period sources differ. At the top of that range the outside sets long before the centre; around 425°F with the dish on a middle rack is the safer reading of the instruction, and the 15–20 minutes will run to the shorter end.
- Powdered sugarIn nineteenth-century usage this means sugar ground fine — closest to today's caster or superfine sugar, not modern confectioners' sugar, which carries cornstarch. Either dissolves here, but caster gives a cleaner flavour.
- The peaches must be very ripeThe instruction to use "very mellow" fruit is doing real work. Underripe peaches sieve into a watery, acidic purée that weeps in the oven and deflates the whites. If the purée looks loose, cook it down a little and cool it fully before it meets the yolks.
- Six whites to three yolksThe lopsided ratio is deliberate — the extra whites are the leavening. Beat them to firm peaks, not dry and grainy, and fold in three additions with a light hand. You will have three spare yolks to use elsewhere.
- The dishA greased 1½-quart baking dish or 9-inch pie plate, filled no more than two-thirds. Grease well and, if you want more lift, dust the buttered interior with sugar to give the mixture something to climb.
- DonenessIt is ready when puffed, set at the edges and barely trembling at the centre — a skewer near the middle should come out with only a trace of moisture. Overbaked, it turns rubbery and tastes of scrambled egg.
- Serve immediatelyNot a flourish but a requirement. Like any soufflé it collapses within a few minutes of leaving the oven, so bring it to the table straight from the rack.
- YieldThree to four small servings as a light supper dish or dessert. It does not reheat.
Books of "hot weather dishes" were a familiar sort of publication in the late nineteenth century, aimed at households cooking in unventilated summer kitchens before mechanical refrigeration: the aim was food that was light, quickly made, and did not require hours at a hot range. A fruit soufflé omelet fits the brief exactly — a few eggs, ripe seasonal fruit, twenty minutes of oven heat and nothing kept over. The form itself is French: the omelette soufflée, in which beaten whites are folded into a sweetened yolk base and the whole puffed by heat rather than folded over a filling in the pan, is described in French cookery books by the earlier part of the nineteenth century. Such dishes appear widely in American domestic writing, where three eggs and whatever fruit was ripe could be turned into something that looked like a company dish. Peaches were a natural choice in an American August, when they arrived in quantity, bruised easily, and had to be used at once.