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Omelet with Peas
Boil one cup of shelled peas in salt water fifteen min. utes. Drain, and keep hot while you make an omelet.
Beat four eggs without separating until well mixed, add to it four tablespoonfuls of warm water, a piece of butter the size of a walnut and about four drops of onion juice. Put another piece of butter the same size in a perfectly smooth frying-pan; when the butter is hot turn in the eggs. Shake over a quick fire until the eggs are set. Lift one side of the omelet, allowing the soft portion to run underneath, dust with salt and pepper. Put two tablespoonfuls of cooked peas in the centre of the omelet, fold one-half over the other and turn it out on a heated dish. Season the remaining quantity of peas, add one tablespoonful of melted butter to them. Pour around the omelet and serve
A plain French-style folded omelet with a pea filling, written when peas came from the pod and eggs were cooked over coal. Two adjustments matter: the pea timing and the heat.
- Fifteen minutes is too long for the peasFifteen minutes suits large, starchy end-of-season peas shelled from tough pods. Young shelled peas need 3 to 5 minutes in salted water, and frozen peas 2 to 3; beyond that they turn grey and mealy.
- Butter the size of a walnutAbout one tablespoon, shelled walnut being the standard reference. The recipe calls for two such pieces, one in the eggs and one in the pan, plus a third tablespoon melted for the surrounding peas.
- Onion juiceGrate a peeled onion on a fine grater and press the pulp in a fine sieve or a square of cheesecloth. Four drops is a whisper of flavour, not a seasoning you will identify; skip it rather than substitute onion powder.
- A quick fireMedium-high heat. The pan should be hot enough that the eggs set at the edge within a few seconds but not so hot that the butter browns before the eggs go in.
- "A perfectly smooth frying-pan"This is the hinge of the recipe. It means a well-seasoned iron pan with no pitting or crust; today an 8-inch nonstick or a carefully seasoned carbon steel pan does the same job. A rough surface tears the omelet when you fold it.
- The warm waterFour tablespoons of water to four eggs is a large proportion, and it is deliberate: the water steams as the eggs set and keeps the interior soft. Do not beat the eggs to a froth, only until the yolks and whites are uniform.
- YieldFour eggs and a cup of peas serves two as a light main course, or four at breakfast if divided.
Books of this period commonly, though not universally, distinguish the fluffy, separated-egg "puffy omelet" baked or finished in the oven from the plain French omelet made in a pan, and this is squarely the second kind, down to the instruction to beat the eggs "without separating." Peas were often said to be a favourite of the kitchen garden, and a recipe that pairs them with eggs and butter and asks for nothing else reflects a moment when the vegetable itself was considered flavour enough. The trick of adding a little water to the eggs rather than milk or cream is generally traced to French practice; it produces a softer set, and it survives in professional kitchens still.