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Parsley Omelet
Make in the usual way, mixing in with the uncooked eggs some minced parsley.
VEGETABLE PURÉE OMELETS-The most suitable vegetables are cucumbers, artichokes, onions, sorrel, green peas, tomatoes, lentils, mushrooms, asparagus, cauliflower, potatoes, truffles or turnips. Mash any of the vegetables into a purée, moistening it with a little milk, cream or gravy and adding some seasoning. Beat the eggs very light and pour them into a hot pan in the usual manner, first putting in it one tablespoon of butter. Spread the purée over the egg and when perfectly hot fold and serve.
This is a variation entry that leans on the book's master omelet method, so the useful work is filling in what the original assumes its reader already knows.
- "In the usual way""In the usual way" points back to the book's master omelet method, which is not on this page. What this entry does tell us is that the eggs are beaten light, poured into a hot pan holding a tablespoon of butter, and folded before serving. As a working guide, reckon two to three eggs per person and an 8-inch pan for a three-egg omelet.
- The hinge: the filling must be hot and thickA cold or loose purée is what ruins this. Have it hot and stiff enough to hold a shape on the spoon before the eggs go in the pan, so the omelet can be folded and served straight away rather than sitting over heat while the filling warms.
- How much puréeNo quantity is given. Two to three tablespoons of purée for a three-egg omelet is the working limit; more and the omelet tears when folded.
- Parsley quantityFor the parsley version, a tablespoon of finely minced flat-leaf or curly parsley per three eggs is right. Beat it in at the last moment, since chopped parsley bleeds and dulls if it stands in the eggs.
- Butter and heatOne tablespoon of butter is generous for a modern nonstick pan and about right for carbon steel or cast iron. The pan should be hot enough that the butter foams but does not brown; browned butter gives a mottled, tough surface.
- Vegetables that need adjustingCucumber and turnip purées throw a lot of water, so salt, drain and reduce them before use. Sorrel collapses to a khaki purée in a minute or two and is intensely acidic, so use it sparingly. Truffles are a luxury item today rather than the pantry staple this list implies; sauteed mushrooms are the sensible substitute.
- Lentils and potatoesBoth make a heavy filling. Thin them well with milk, cream or gravy as the recipe says, or the omelet reads as a starch parcel.
- YieldAs written, one omelet serving one or two people. Omelets do not scale in a single pan; make them one at a time and serve as they come.
Butterick, best known for paper dress patterns, published its cook book as part of a broader program of household instruction for middle-class American homes, and the structure shows it: a master method is given once, then a long tail of variations. The purée-filled omelet belongs to the French tradition often invoked in American cookery writing, where the omelette aux fines herbes and its many garnished cousins were treated as basic technique rather than special-occasion cooking. The inclusion of sorrel and truffles in a list otherwise made of onions and potatoes is a good measure of the book's ambitions: it is writing for a household that might have a kitchen garden and might, on occasion, be entertaining.