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German Omelet
salt, pepper, nutmeg 1/4 cup finely chopped chives 2 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon finely chopped red pepper Mix eggs, flour, seasonings; add cream, and beat all five minutes. Melt butter, pour in egg mixture, and cook until delicately browned underneath. Turn, fold, and serve.
What survives here is a beaten-egg omelet enriched with flour and cream, folded around chives and sweet red pepper. The quantities for the eggs, flour and cream are not given in the text as printed, so treat the method as the guide and scale the ingredients yourself.
- ProportionsFor a batter of this type, a workable ratio is 6 eggs to 1 tablespoon flour and 1/4 cup cream. The flour is there to stabilise the beaten eggs, not to make a pancake, so keep it to a scant spoonful.
- The five-minute beatingThis is the hinge. Long beating aerates the eggs and dissolves the flour completely; a hand whisk for five minutes or a mixer for two gives a batter that puffs rather than sets flat. Cook it immediately, before the foam collapses.
- Red pepper"Red pepper" in the ingredient line here means sweet red capsicum, chopped fine, not cayenne. One tablespoon of raw pepper is enough; soften it in the butter for a minute if you dislike the crunch.
- ChivesThe chive quantity has lost its fraction in the printed line. A quarter cup of finely chopped chives is generous for a six-egg omelet and closer to what the dish wants than a full cup.
- Pan and heatUse an 8- or 10-inch nonstick or well-seasoned skillet over medium heat. "Delicately browned underneath" means pale gold, three to four minutes; higher heat sets the outside before the interior has risen.
- TurningThe instruction to turn, then fold, suggests flipping the whole omelet to set the second side briefly. A wide spatula or an inverting plate works; a heavy batter of this kind is sturdier than a plain French omelet.
- NutmegGrate it fresh and use very little — a few rasps. Pre-ground nutmeg in the quantity a modern cook might pour becomes medicinal against eggs and cream.
- YieldA six-egg version serves two as a main course or three or four alongside other dishes. Serve straight from the pan; it deflates as it cools.
Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American cookbooks sometimes applied the name "German omelet" to an omelet stiffened with flour and cream and cooked as a single thick round, as distinct from the soft rolled French style or the separately beaten and baked "puffy" omelet, though how consistently the term was used is unclear. Lowney's, published by the Walter M. Lowney chocolate company, was a general household cookbook that carried far more than confectionery.