Tomato Omelet
2 large ripe tomatoes 1 teaspoon flour 2 tablespoons butter 3 eggs Peel the tomatoes; chop them fine; season with pepper and salt; dust with the flour; mix it in so that there are no lumps; then add a tablespoon of butter, melted. Beat the eggs, separately and then together; add them to the tomatoes and mix well. Put a second tablespoon of butter in a frying-pan; pour in the omelet; brown slowly; fold over and serve on a hot dish garnished with parsley or slices of red tomato.
A plain flat omelet bound with a little flour, from an era when tomatoes were a summer luxury. The whole success of it turns on how much water you let the tomatoes carry into the eggs.
- Drain the tomatoesTwo large ripe tomatoes chopped fine will release several tablespoons of juice, and that liquid is what makes this dish weep in the pan. Salt the chopped flesh, let it sit ten minutes in a sieve, and press out what comes; the teaspoon of flour handles what remains.
- PeelingScore an X in the base, thirty seconds in boiling water, then into cold, and the skins slip off. The recipe assumes you know this; period cookery books routinely direct that tomatoes be peeled, the skins being apt to toughen and curl in the pan.
- "Beat the eggs, separately and then together"Most likely whites and yolks in separate bowls, then beaten together before going into the tomatoes. Beating the whites first will give a somewhat lighter omelet than a French-style rolled one, though the instruction to 'mix well' with the tomatoes means you should not expect much lift.
- Pan and heatUse an 8-inch skillet for three eggs, non-stick or well-seasoned. "Brown slowly" means medium-low; the flour and the tomato sugars will catch and darken quickly over high heat while the centre is still raw.
- Melted butter in the mixtureThe first tablespoon goes into the tomatoes melted but not hot. If it is still sizzling it will begin to cook the eggs before they reach the pan.
- FoldingWith a wet tomato mixture the omelet is fragile. Loosen the edges, tilt the pan, and fold in half rather than in thirds; if it tears, serve it flat and no one will mind.
- YieldThree eggs and two tomatoes serve two as a light supper or breakfast dish, one as a full meal.
Tomato omelets appear in American and English cookery books once tomatoes had become a staple of the summer kitchen garden. The teaspoon of flour is a tell-tale detail: fresh tomato water thins eggs badly, and a dusting of flour was one remedy. Mrs. Fryer's loose-leaf format — pages that could be pulled out, added to and rearranged — was aimed at the housekeeper who wanted a working file rather than a bound volume. An egg chapter carried real weight in such a book: eggs were the cheap protein that stretched a household between meat days.