Puffy Omelet
4 eggs, beaten separately. 2 tablespoons water. 1 tablespoon butter. Salt and pepper to taste.
Beat yolks light, add water and seasoning. (A pinch of baking powder added to yolks will keep omelet from falling.) Fold this into the well-beaten whites. Have butter melted in sauce pan. Run into hot oven, cook until eggs are set. Grated cheese can be sprinkled between when folded for platter. Always cut edges when ready to fold. This omelet may be served in a variety of ways. Minced bacon can be put between folds, garnished with parsley and thin slices of ham.
Mushrooms can be used for garnish, also oysters. Macaroni in short pieces may be served around omelet with tomato sauce.
A soufflé-style omelet that rises on beaten whites rather than folding technique. The whole thing succeeds or fails on how the whites are handled.
- Fold, don't stirBeat the whites to soft, glossy peaks — stiff and dry whites break into lumps that will not incorporate. Fold the seasoned yolks in with a few broad strokes and stop while streaks are still faintly visible; every extra turn costs height.
- "Hot oven"In period usage that generally means somewhere around 400°F. Lower, around 375°F, gives a more even set with less risk of the top browning before the centre firms.
- The pan"Sauce pan" here likely means a shallow, oven-safe skillet — a 9- or 10-inch cast iron or steel pan. The recipe only has the butter melted in it before the omelet goes into the oven; 8 to 12 minutes, until the centre barely trembles, is about right.
- The pinch of baking powderOptional insurance; a pinch is on the order of 1/8 teaspoon. Wilson offers it to "keep omelet from falling," but a puffy omelet is meant to be served immediately regardless — it will sink on the plate no matter what.
- Cutting the edgesRun a knife around the rim, as directed, to free the omelet before folding. The set surface is brittle and will crack rather than hinge if it is still stuck to the pan.
- Fillings go in cookedBacon, mushrooms and oysters should all be cooked and drained before they meet the eggs. Raw oysters in particular will weep liquid into a set omelet and collapse it; sauté them briefly, no more than two minutes, or they turn rubbery.
- YieldFour eggs makes one omelet serving two as a light main course, or four at breakfast alongside other dishes. Scaling up past six eggs in one pan is a mistake — the centre stays wet while the edges overcook.
Mrs. Wilson's "puffy" omelet is close to what French kitchens call an omelette soufflée, and American cookbooks of the era carried similar dishes under names like foamy or puffed omelet, distinguishing them from the flat, quickly rolled French omelet made with whole eggs. Recipes of the period leaned heavily on beaten whites for lightness in everything from omelets to cakes, and rotary hand beaters were by then common kitchen equipment. Mary A. Wilson wrote for an American audience of home cooks around the First World War; the entry follows a familiar pattern of one basic method followed by a run of cheap and flexible additions — bacon, cheese, macaroni with tomato sauce.