Home › Whites of Eggs › Cheese Omelet No. 1
Cheese Omelet No. 1
4 whites of eggs Pinch of cayenne and salt 1 1/2 ounces grated cheese Whip the whites slightly, add the cayenne and salt, and stir in the cheese lightly. Melt one ounce of butter in the pan and stir in the omelet until set.
A four-white omelet from the chapter on using up whites left over from custards and mayonnaise. It is quick, and the whole difficulty is heat management: with no yolks to buffer them, whites set hard and turn squeaky almost instantly.
- The hinge: low heat, short timeEgg white coagulates at a lower temperature than yolk and has no fat to soften it. Keep the pan at medium-low and pull it while the centre is still glossy; carryover heat will finish it. A minute or two over is the difference between tender and rubber.
- "Whip slightly"This means a few strokes with a fork to break up the whites and loosen the albumen, not a foam. Beating to soft peaks gives a soufflé-like puff that collapses wet in a skillet.
- Weights to volumes1 1/2 ounces of grated cheese is roughly 1/2 cup loosely packed if hard-grated, less if coarsely shredded. One ounce of butter is 2 tablespoons, which is generous for four whites — a tablespoon is plenty in a nonstick pan.
- Which cheeseThe recipe says only 'grated cheese', which points to a firm, dry cheese of the sort commonly grated in period kitchens: Cheddar, Cheshire or Parmesan. Fresh or high-moisture cheeses release water into a mixture that has none of the yolk fat to hold it together.
- Pan sizeFour whites are about 1/2 cup of liquid. Use a 7- or 8-inch pan; anything wider spreads them so thin they set before you can stir.
- "Stir until set"Keep the eggs moving with a fork or spatula until curds form, then stop stirring and let the base set for a few seconds before folding or sliding out. The result is closer to a scrambled-then-rolled omelet than to a smooth, unbroken one.
- CayenneA pinch means a pinch. Cayenne turns up frequently with cheese in cookery of this period, and with no yolk richness to absorb it, it comes through sharply.
- YieldOne generous serving or two light ones. It does not hold — serve straight from the pan.
Cookbooks of this period often carry a section devoted to whites of eggs, because a kitchen that made custards, curds, ice creams and mayonnaise generated yolkless whites in quantity and throwing food away was not done. Eggs and cheese supplied the protein and the savoury depth that meat otherwise provided, and a cheese omelet was a direct way to get both onto a plate quickly. The numbered variations — No. 1, No. 2 — reflect the way these books catalogued small differences in a stock dish.