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Cheese Omelet
Make a plain omelet, and when nearly done, strew powdered Parmesan cheese over it. Fold, transfer to a hot dish, strew more cheese on top, and serve.
A note rather than a recipe: it assumes you already know the book's plain omelet, and adds cheese at two points. What it does not tell you is quantity, so work from a standard three-egg omelet.
- The plain omelet it refers toPlain omelets of this period were typically three or four eggs beaten just enough to combine yolks and whites, seasoned with salt and pepper, sometimes with a tablespoon of water or cream, cooked in butter in a heavy pan. Three eggs in an 8-inch pan feeds one generously, two at a pinch.
- "Powdered" ParmesanThis means Parmesan grated to a fine powder on the smallest holes of a grater, not the shelf-stable canister product, which contains anti-caking cellulose and melts poorly. About two tablespoons inside and one on top is the right proportion for three eggs.
- When "nearly done" isThe moment to add the cheese is when the base is set and the surface is still glossy and slightly liquid. Parmesan added much earlier tends to sink and catch; added later it can sit in a dry seam without softening.
- HeatMedium, not high. A three-egg omelet wants two to three minutes total. Parmesan is salty and browns fast, so the pan should not be hot enough to colour the eggs.
- The cheese on topIt will not melt on a warm plate. Warm the serving dish properly, or slide the folded omelet under a hot broiler for fifteen seconds if you want the top cheese to soften.
- SaltParmesan brings a good deal of it. Season the eggs lightly, or not at all if the cheese is well aged.
- YieldOne omelet, one serving. Cheese omelets do not scale up in a single pan; cook them one at a time and hold plates warm.
The Butterick Cook Book (1911) came from the Butterick Publishing Company, better known for dress patterns and The Delineator, and it belongs to a wave of household manuals aimed at middle-class American women who were expected to cook competently without a trained servant. Its egg chapter follows the French pattern common in genteel American cookery of the period: master the plain omelet, then treat every other omelet as a variation announced in a sentence or two. Parmesan was among the imported cheeses available in American cities before the First World War, generally sold as a hard drum and grated at home.