Omelet
It was long supposed that an omelet derived its name somehow from ovum, an egg, and might mean œufs mêlés. That etymology has been given up as impracticable by French scholars. It has been reserved for M. Jérôme de Pichon, in his very able edition of the Ménagier de Paris, to declare that the word takes its rise from lamina, a leaf or thin sheet, whence the Latin diminutive Lamella, in English Lamel. He has not, however, clearly traced out the steps by which we travel from Lamella to Omelette. In the Ménagier de Paris, composed about 1390, the name for an omelet is Alumelle, corrupted into Alumette, which yet again appears as Aumelette. If Alumelle comes from Lamella, whence came the initial A? It is strictly in accordance with French law that Al should contract into Au; but we have first of all to account for the presence of that initial A. The explanation may come hereafter. All we can vouch for now is that 500 years ago the name for an omelet was written Alumelle, Alumette, and Aumelette.
Omelet-plain.-Break six eggs into a bowl, season them Omelet with pepper and salt, and beat them with a fork. Put two ounces of butter into an omelet pan, and as soon as it melts pour in the eggs. Stir them lightly with a fork and keep them from catching the pan. When half-set, toss the omelet, and keep stirring it till it is all set. The finishing operation is performed in one of two ways. Practised hands slant the pan downwards from the handle-taking care, however, that the best of the fire is beneath the upper or handle end: they then roll the omelet downwards till it takes the form of an elongated oval. A more simple plan is merely to fold over the omelet on both sides to the proper elliptical shape. In either case the operation must be performed rapidly.
Omelet with fine-herbs. --Beat the eggs with a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, and if the onion flavour is admired, with a chopped shalot which has been first blanched. Omelet with gravy (Omelette au jus). -The same as the last, with a little gravy served round it.
Omelet with cheese. -Some grated Gruyère added to the beaten eggs instead of the fine-herbs, and afterwards strewed over the omelet in the dish.
Omelet with bacon.-Boil a quarter-pound of bacon for five or six minutes; cut it into small squares; fry them in a little butter, and then add them to the beaten eggs of the first receipt-which, however, should have a diminished allowance of salt.
Omelet with kidneys. - Cut up a couple of kidneys into dice or into thin slices. Put them into the omelet pan with butter and some of the kidney fat. When the butter and the fat are melted, and the pieces of kidney are quite hot, pour in the beaten eggs and proceed as before.
Omelet with asparagus.--Boil the asparagus, take the points and mix them with the beaten eggs.
Omelet Omelet with tomatos. - Take the flesh of the tomatos free from skin and pips, and mix with the beaten eggs.
Sweet Omelet. Beat six eggs and add to them two teaspoonfuls of sugar, together with a few bits of butter. As a rule the eggs for an omelet are not to be too much beaten, but for the sweet omelet they may be beaten even to frothing a little. Then pour them into the omelet pan, and proceed as for the plain omelet; only, on account of the sugar, which might burn, the fire must not be so brisk. When the omelet is dished, it is sprinkled with sugar, and with a red-hot iron skewer it is marked with cross-bars. Omelet with rum. - This is a sweet omelet with a glass of rum whipt into the eggs. It is sprinkled with sugar on the dish, and at the moment of serving it a glass of rum is poured over it and lighted.
Apricot Omelet.-This is the preserve which is the most frequently used with the omelet. Proceed as for the sweet omelet in every respect, only that before folding it up there is to be placed in the centre of it a fitting quantity of apricot jam.
Omelette Soufflée. - Take six eggs and break them, dividing the whites from the yolks. All the whites are to be used, but only half the yolks. Whip the whites to a very firm froth. Then add to them the yolks, shake in the best part of two ounces of sifted sugar, and sprinkle all with orange-flower water. Make a smooth mound with this upon an oval dish. In the centre of it put a knife down, giving it a twist, so as to make a hole for the heat to spread quickly into the middle of the omelet, which may also be rudely ornamented by drawing slant lines with the point of the knife all round its sides. Put it into a brisk oven for seven minutes. It must be served instantly, for the inflation rapidly subsides; but before serving sprinkle it with what is lef of the two ounces of sugar. Onion Any other flavour than the orange-flower water may be selected. Rub a little into the sugar, or mix some essence of lemons with the yolks.
Kettner gives one master method and then a run of variations, so the plain omelet is the only thing that really needs decoding. Most of the adjustments are about pan size and heat.
- Six eggs is two pansSix eggs in one pan gives a thick, slow-setting mass that is difficult to roll. Split it into two three-egg omelets in an 8-inch pan, or use a 10-11 inch pan and accept a flatter result.
- Two ounces of butterThat is 4 tablespoons, about 55 g — generous by modern habit but not wrong for a well-seasoned steel pan. One tablespoon per three-egg omelet is enough in a nonstick pan.
- Do not overbeatThe instruction to beat the eggs only lightly with a fork is the hinge of the plain omelet. Whisking to uniform froth builds structure and gives a spongy, rubbery result; a few strokes leaving faint streaks of white is right. The sweet omelet is the deliberate exception.
- A brisk ovenFor the omelette soufflée, read this as a hot oven, somewhere in the region of 400-425F (200-220C); 'brisk' was never a fixed temperature. Seven minutes is plausible at that heat for a mound of this size; the centre hole is there because the meringue insulates itself and the middle would otherwise stay raw.
- The red-hot skewerA metal skewer heated in a gas flame or over an electric coil until it glows, then laid on the sugared surface, caramelises lines into a lattice. A kitchen blowtorch does the same job with less drama.
- Bacon boiled firstVictorian bacon was heavily salt-cured, and the five-minute boil drew salt out. Modern bacon needs no boiling — dice and fry it, and still reduce the salt in the eggs since the bacon carries plenty.
- KidneysUse lamb kidneys, cored, halved and diced small. Kettner has them merely "quite hot" before the eggs go in, which will not cook diced kidney through; brown them properly in the butter first, then pour on the eggs.
- Orange-flower waterStill sold in Middle Eastern groceries and baking aisles, and much stronger than the phrase "sprinkle" suggests. A teaspoon is plenty for six whites; more turns the soufflé soapy.
- YieldThe plain six-egg omelet serves two to three as a main course. The soufflée, using six whites and three yolks, serves three or four and will not wait — have the plates on the table before it comes out of the oven.
Kettner's opening pages of etymology are typical of the book's manner: Eneas Sweetland Dallas, who wrote it under the restaurateur Auguste Kettner's name in 1877, treated the dictionary of dishes as an excuse for philology. The derivation he credits to Jérôme Pichon, editor of the fourteenth-century Ménagier de Paris, is the one still generally accepted — lamella, a thin plate or leaf, giving Old French alumelle (also a word for a blade), then alumette, aumelette and finally omelette. The stray initial A that puzzled him is now usually explained as the definite article absorbed into the noun, la lemelle heard as l'alemelle. What follows the etymology is a compressed record of the French restaurant omelet repertoire of the 1870s: fines herbes, cheese, bacon, kidney, asparagus, tomato, then the sweet ones ending in the omelette soufflée, a baked meringue that had nothing to do with the pan omelet but shared its name and its demand to be eaten the moment it appeared.