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French Omelet
2 tablespoons hot water 1 teaspoon salt few grains cayenne 1 tablespoon butter Melt butter in frying pan, add well-beaten eggs, to which seasonings and hot water have been added. Cook on cool portion of range, lifting mixture as for scrambled eggs. When creamy, pour into a hot buttered frying pan, brown delicately, fold, and serve. Garnish with parsley. 2 eggs 1 yolk 4 cup cream 2 tablespoons flour
The ingredient list has been mangled in transcription and sits after the method, as it does in many Lowney's pages; read it first and reconcile the two before you start. What is described is a soft, cream-enriched omelet finished in a second pan.
- Read the ingredients as a wholeThe list runs: 2 eggs, 1 yolk, 1/4 cup cream, 2 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons hot water, 1 teaspoon salt, few grains cayenne, 1 tablespoon butter. The "4 cup cream" is a lost fraction, almost certainly a quarter cup.
- The salt is out of scaleA teaspoon of salt for two eggs and a yolk is roughly four times what a modern palate accepts. A generous pinch, or about 1/4 teaspoon, is in line with the rest of the recipe.
- Flour in an omeletTwo tablespoons of flour with a quarter cup of cream makes this closer to a thick batter than a plain French omelet; the flour keeps the eggs from weeping and gives body. Whisk it smooth into the cream first so it does not lump when the eggs go in.
- "Cool portion of range"On a wood or coal range, the far edge of the top held a gentle heat. On a modern burner this is low, no more than a bare simmer under the pan; the eggs should set slowly and never sizzle.
- The two-pan methodThe hinge of the recipe is that the eggs are stirred to a soft curd in the first pan, then poured into a second hot buttered pan only to colour the underside and fold. Have the second pan buttered and hot before you begin, or the curd overcooks while you wait.
- Doneness"Creamy" means still visibly wet and loose. It will keep cooking in the second pan and again on the plate, so pull it earlier than looks right.
- Pan sizeA 7- or 8-inch pan suits this quantity. Anything wider spreads the mixture too thin to fold.
- YieldOne generous serving, or two as a light course with the parsley garnish.
Lowney's, published by the Boston chocolate firm and written by Maria Willett Howard, belongs to the New England domestic-science tradition that ran out of the Boston Cooking School, where recipes were written as short, measured procedures rather than narrative. Its "French" omelet is French chiefly in ambition: a true omelette is eggs, butter and salt cooked fast, while this one takes cream, an extra yolk and a spoonful of flour, a thickened American reading that produces something softer and more forgiving on a range whose heat could not be dialled down. The two-pan finish is a period habit, a way of getting a delicately browned face without overcooking the interior when you cannot trust the burner.