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Sardine Omelet
Have ready over the fire a fryingpan containing two tablespoonfuls of olive oil. Remove the skins and bones from two sardines, and cut them into one-half inch lengths; beat the eggs with one-half saltspoonful of salt and a slight sprinkling of cayenne pepper for a minute. Have in readiness one-half teaspoonful of lemon juice or vinegar. When the oil is hot, pour the eggs into the pan, place it over the fire, and with a fork slightly break the omelet on the bottom as it cooks, so that the uncooked portion can run upon the pan, but do not tear the edges of the omelet. When the omelet is cooked to the required degree, and it should not be too well done, lay the sardines on one side of it, pour the lemon juice or vinegar over them, fold the omelet together, enclosing them, then turn it out onto a hot dish, and serve at once. The omelet should be served the moment it is done, as it hardens by standing.
A three-minute omelet whose only real difficulty is that the original assumes you already know Oscar's standard omelet — including how many eggs go into it.
- The missing quantityThe recipe says only "the eggs," and never gives a number. Three is a sensible reading for a single serving, and it suits two sardines. The original genuinely does not specify, so treat any number as your own decision.
- SaltspoonfulA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so half a saltspoonful is an eighth of a teaspoon. Sardines are salty in their own right, so this restraint is deliberate.
- The hinge: underdone"It should not be too well done" is the whole instruction. Pull the pan while the surface is still glossy and slightly loose; residual heat finishes it on the plate, and the omelet stiffens within a minute of standing.
- Heat and fatTwo tablespoons of olive oil in a modern nonstick or well-seasoned pan is generous — one is enough. Use medium-high heat and a pan of 8 to 9 inches for three eggs; a larger pan spreads the eggs too thin to fold.
- The fork techniqueBreaking the set bottom with a fork so raw egg runs underneath is the French method, and it works, but the warning about the edges matters: tear them and the filling escapes when you fold.
- SardinesOil-packed sardines are the right choice here. Skin and backbone lift out easily with a fingertip; the fine rib bones are soft and can stay. Drain them well or the omelet weeps.
- The acidHalf a teaspoon of lemon juice poured over the fish just before folding is what keeps this from tasting merely oily. Add it at the last second, as the recipe directs, so its freshness is not dulled by the pan.
- YieldOne serving. Cook omelets one at a time rather than scaling up; a six-egg omelet will overcook at the edges before the center sets.
Oscar Tschirky's 1896 Cook Book runs through omelets almost as a catalogue, because at the Waldorf the omelet was a workhorse of breakfast and supper, when a kitchen needed something respectable that could be cooked quickly. Tinned sardines are what make this one a period piece: French canneries from early in the century and Maine canneries from the mid-1870s had made small oil-packed fish a cheap, keepable luxury, and cookbooks of the decade used them freely in sandwiches, salads and savories. The pairing of oily fish with egg and a squeeze of acid is old and widespread, and the closing line about serving it the moment it is done is the sentence that marks a professional writing for home cooks rather than a home cook writing for herself.