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Meat or Fish Omelets
Take any kind of cold meat, fish, game or poultry that is free from skin, sinew and fat; mince it or pound to a paste in a mortar (use one tablespoon of meat to every four eggs); toss it in a buttered frying-pan over a good fire till it . begins to brown. Now, either pour beaten eggs upon it or beat it in with the eggs, or spread it on them after they have begun to set in the pan. Serve hot with or without a sauce and garnish with sprigs of crisp herbs, pickles or lemon slices. In beating the eggs a little milk, gravy, white wine or water may be added with advantage. MUSHROOM OMELET, No. I-Cut into bits one cup of fresh or canned mushrooms. Melt one tablespoon of butter in a stewpan; add the mushrooms, together with one-half cup of cream or milk, one teaspoon of salt and one-half teaspoon of pepper. Dissolve one teaspoon of flour in a little milk and stir it in for thickening if any is needed; boil ten minutes and set aside until a plain omelet is made. When the omelet is ready to fold, first spread over it the mushrooms; serve hot.
MUSHROOM OMELET, No. 2-Ingredients: Nine eggs; threefourths cup of milk, and some salt. Beat yolks and whites separately, then mix them together with the milk and salt. Cook five minutes in an omelet pan in which a few slices of salt pork have been fried; then bake in the oven till done.
Make a sauce of one quart can of tomatoes, one onion, three teaspoonfuls of sugar, pepper and salt to taste, and one can of mushrooms. Strain the tomato, chop the onion and cook the two together, with the sugar, pepper and salt, until the onion is done; add the mushrooms sliced very thin. Pour a part of the mixture on the omelet, fold it over, pour on the remainder of the sauce and serve at once.
Three related recipes: a template for using up cold cooked meat in an omelet, and two mushroom versions, one folded and one baked. The techniques are sound; the proportions and heat levels need translating.
- The meat ratio looks wrongOne tablespoon of minced meat to four eggs is a whisper of flavour. Treat it as a floor rather than a rule: about a quarter cup of finely minced meat to four eggs gives a filling you can taste without weighing the eggs down.
- "A good fire"For browning the mince, that means brisk heat — medium-high in a modern pan. For the eggs themselves, drop to medium-low. Fast heat is what makes an omelet tough and weeping.
- Mortar or food processorPounding cooked meat to a paste in a mortar was the standard way to get a smooth texture. A few pulses in a food processor does the same job; stop before it turns to a gluey purée.
- StewpanSimply a saucepan with straight sides. Any small heavy pan works for the mushroom and cream mixture.
- Boil ten minutesTen minutes at a boil will reduce a half cup of cream substantially and can split it. Simmer gently until the mushrooms have given up their liquid and the sauce coats a spoon, roughly five minutes, and add the flour slurry only if it is still loose.
- Finishing in the ovenOmelet No. 2 is a baked or "puffed" omelet — beaten whites folded in, set on the stove then finished in the oven. Use 350F and give it eight to twelve minutes, until the centre is just set. It will deflate as it cools, which is normal.
- Canned mushrooms and canned tomatoesBoth were pantry staples by the time this book appeared, and the recipe is built around their softness. Fresh mushrooms sliced and sauteed until dry work better in No. 1; for the tomato sauce, a 28 oz can of whole tomatoes, strained as directed, is the closest modern equivalent to the quart can called for, though slightly smaller.
- Salt porkFrying a few slices of salt pork is there to grease and season the pan, not to add pork to the dish. Bacon fat or butter does the same. Cut back on added salt if you use it.
- YieldNine eggs with sauce serves four to six. The meat omelet at four eggs serves two.
Omelets of this kind belong to the household economy of the period rather than to any national tradition: the Sunday roast, the boiled fowl, the poached fish all came back to the table on Monday minced into eggs. The instruction to remove skin, sinew and fat and pound the meat in a mortar comes straight out of nineteenth-century professional practice, where forcemeats and pounded pastes were a daily kitchen job long before mechanical choppers were common. The Butterick Publishing Company, better known for dress patterns and The Delineator, issued its cook book to the same audience of middle-class women, often said to be running households with little or no hired help — which may go some way towards explaining the emphasis on cold leftovers and on canned mushrooms and tomatoes, conveniences that let a cook produce a sauce in any season.