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Plain French Omelet
Beat three eggs enough to break them, add a small half teaspoon of salt and a dash of pepper. Heat a tablespoon of butter in the omelet pan, pour a little of it into the beaten eggs, and let the remainder get hot. Draw the pan to the hottest part of the stove, turn in the eggs, shaking the pan all the time. With a knife or fork make holes for the egg mixture on top to penetrate the cooked surface and let it also run under the sides. The work must be done very quickly. While the egg is still soft but slightly thickened, roll over with a knife, let it remain a few seconds to brown and turn on to a hot dish.
A true French omelet: three eggs, one pan, under two minutes. Everything in this recipe depends on speed, so read it through and have the plate warmed before the butter goes in.
- The hinge: barely beat the eggs"Beat three eggs enough to break them" is deliberate. Over-beating incorporates air and produces a foamy, souffléd texture; the French style wants the yolk and white just blended so the finished omelet is dense and creamy.
- "The hottest part of the stove"On a coal range this meant moving the pan toward the firebox. On a modern burner, medium-high to high -- hot enough that the butter foams and just begins to smell nutty, but not so hot it browns before the eggs go in.
- The panAn "omelet pan" was generally a heavy iron or steel skillet, and cooks often reserved one for eggs; the rule against ever scouring it is traditional rather than anything this book states. An 8-inch nonstick or carbon-steel pan suits three eggs, and a much wider pan spreads the egg too thin to roll.
- Buttering the eggsThe book gives no reason for pouring a little of the hot butter into the beaten eggs; the usual explanation offered is that it takes the chill off the mixture, though the effect of part of a tablespoon on three eggs is slight.
- Total cooking timeThe book never says. For three eggs over high heat it is a matter of a minute or two. "Still soft but slightly thickened" means the surface is glossy and moist when you roll it; carryover heat finishes it on the plate.
- "Let it remain a few seconds to brown"Modern classic French practice generally keeps the omelet pale, with little or no colour; this book plainly expects some browning. Drop that step if you want the paler result.
- Salt quantityA "small half teaspoon" for three eggs is on the generous side by current taste; a scant quarter teaspoon suits most palates, particularly if the butter is salted.
- YieldOne omelet, serving one person, or two at a light breakfast. Better made one at a time than scaled up in the same pan, though the book does not say so.
The plain French omelet earned its place in a 1900s American household manual as a test of technique rather than a recipe for ingredients: three eggs, butter, salt and pepper are within reach of any kitchen, and everything else is wrist and timing. Butterick, better known for dress patterns, published its cook book for the same readership it sold sewing patterns to, and the instructional tone here is characteristic: the emphasis on making holes for the raw egg to run through and on working "very quickly" is a written substitute for standing beside someone who already knows how.