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Savory Omelet
1 dozen eggs 4 tablespoons gravy 2 sprigs parsley 4 minced chives 1/4 lemon 1/4 cup shortening 1 teaspoon salt pepper Break eggs into bowl, add seasonings and gravy, beat with fork few strokes. Melt shortening in hot frying pan, pour egg mixture into it, sprinkle with the minced chives and parsley, cook slowly till bottom is browned. Fold over in center onto hot platter. Squeeze the juice from the lemon over it and serve. Serves 8.
A large, plain family omelet stretched with a few spoonfuls of leftover gravy — the trick that makes it worth cooking is heat control, not technique.
- Keep the heat genuinely lowTwelve eggs in one pan set slowly, and the instruction to "cook slowly till bottom is browned" is the hinge. On medium-high the base scorches before the top has set; on low it takes 12-15 minutes and lifts cleanly.
- Pan sizeA dozen eggs will not fold in anything smaller than a 12-inch skillet. If your largest pan is 10 inches, split the mixture and cook two omelets rather than crowding one.
- The gravyThe recipe says only "4 tablespoons gravy," which most likely means leftover pan gravy from a roast; a thickened gravy will season the eggs without thinning them. If you have none, leave it out and add a little more salt.
- ShorteningA quarter cup is 4 tablespoons, generous by modern taste. Two tablespoons of butter or oil is enough in a well-seasoned or nonstick pan.
- Chives and parsley"4 minced chives" most likely means four individual stalks, finely cut; two sprigs of parsley is a scant tablespoon chopped. The recipe sprinkles both over the eggs in the pan rather than beating them in.
- Beating"Few strokes" is deliberate: whites and yolks stay streaky rather than being fully blended.
- ServingServes 8 as written, which works out to an egg and a half each. The lemon is squeezed over the folded omelet on the platter, just before it goes to table.
Gravy in an omelet reads oddly now but fits the thrift of early twentieth-century American cooking, where leftover pan gravy from a roast could be worked into a later dish. The omelet belongs to the flat, folded, single-turn family type rather than the rolled French style, and its scale — a dozen eggs to feed eight at one seating — suits a household breakfast rather than individual plating.