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Eggs and Omelettes: Omelette
A simple omelette is called Omelette au naturel.
Omelette aux fines herbes is a savoury omelette— with chopped parsley and shallot. au Parmesan-with grated Parmesan. If Gruyère cheese is used instead of Parmesan, it is called au fromage. au jambon with chopped ham. au lard with chopped fried bacon. à la purée de volaille, or gibier, has a purée of fowl or game in the centre of the omelette. aux truffes has slices of truffles in brown sauce in the centre of the omelette. aux champignons has mushrooms in brown sauce in the centre. aux tomates has dressed tomatoes in the centre.
Omelette aux olives has olives and brown sauce in the centre. aux huîtres has oysters in white sauce in the centre. aux abatis-stewed giblets with herb sauce in the centre. aux rognons-kidneys with fine herbs in the centre of a savoury omelette. aux anchois has fillets of anchovy on pieces of toast in the centre; it is served with gravy. à la Normande has shrimps in anchovy sauce in the centre. à la Macédoine has a Macédoine garnish in the centre. à la Jardinière is made with chopped vegetables mixed with the eggs.
In addition to these there are the sweet omelettes -au sucre.
Omelette aux confitures-a sweet omelette folded over jam. au rhum-a sweet omelette with rum, and a sauce of burning rum. à la Celestine-a small sweet omelette, with apricot marmalade in the centre. aux fraises-a sweet omelette with a compote of strawberries in the centre. These can be made with any fruit.
An Omelette soufflée is made with sugar, beaten yolks and beaten whites of eggs, and is baked.
For Omelette soufflée à la crème, whipped cream is used instead of some of the whites of eggs.
Every entry here assumes one shape of omelette: rolled, with the filling placed in the middle. Once you see that, the whole list reads as a catalogue of fillings rather than of dishes.
- The filling is cooked before the eggsThe phrase in the centre of the omelette repeats more than a dozen times, and in most cases what goes there is already a finished sauced ragout: oysters in white sauce, mushrooms in brown sauce, kidneys with fine herbs. Nothing is folded in raw. That is two pans and a sauce before the eggs are touched.
- Fines herbes here is only two herbsThe page defines aux fines herbes as chopped parsley and shallot. The modern meaning, an equal mixture of parsley, chervil, chives and tarragon, will give you a different omelette from the one the card promised.
- The cheese changes the nameAu Parmesan is Parmesan; the same omelette made with Gruyère is au fromage. So on one of these cards the vague-looking name is the precise one: it meant Gruyère and nothing else.
- Abatis means gibletsSeveral entries use the organs and extremities as the point of the dish. Giblets now arrive in a bag inside a whole bird, if at all, and have to be asked for separately; a butcher will usually keep them back if you order ahead.
- Omelette soufflée is not an omeletteYolks and whites beaten separately, sugared, and baked: it belongs with soufflés and hot puddings, and it will not survive being made in a frying pan. The page files it here because of the eggs, not because of the method.
- Sweet and savoury, same techniqueThe list runs straight from anchovy fillets on toast to apricot marmalade without changing register, because to this kitchen an omelette was a wrapper. If you want to cook from the page, choose the filling first and the sweetness will follow.
Read as a document rather than a menu, this page shows a kitchen that could not afford to waste anything and did not want to say so. Giblets, kidneys and the livers of birds appear in the same list as truffles, oysters and foie gras, each with a French name of equal dignity, and a guest reading the card could not tell the thrift from the luxury. The omelette earned its long entry because it was fast, needed no advance notice, and could absorb whatever the larder held, which made it the obvious dish for the lighter slots in a meal and for the kind of supper served after an evening out. The page is also a reminder that the hostess’s job was naming: she had to know that chopped ham made it au jambon, so that the card would read correctly to people who would never see the pan.