Puff Omelet
Stir into the yolks of six eggs, and the whites of three beaten very light, one table-spoon of flour mixed into a tea-cup of cream or milk, with salt and pepper to taste; melt a table-spoon butter in a pan, pour in the mixture and set the pan into a hot oven; when it thickens, pour over it the remaining whites of eggs well beaten, return it to the oven and let it bake a delicate brown. Slip off on large plate, and eat as soon as done. -Mrs. W. D. Hall, Hawley, Minn.
A soufflé-style omelet baked in two stages, with half the whites folded in and the rest spread over the top as a meringue crown. It is simpler than it reads, but it is over quickly and must go straight to the table.
- The teacupA tea-cup in nineteenth-century American receipts is usually reckoned smaller than a modern 8-ounce cup, commonly about 3/4 cup (6 fl oz), though the book does not define it here. Whisk the tablespoon of flour into the cream cold and smooth before it meets the yolks, or you will get lumps that never disperse.
- "A hot oven"Read that as roughly 400-425F, at the lower end of what period books meant by a hot oven. Lower and the base sets sluggishly without lifting; much higher and the meringue topping browns before the custard beneath is set.
- The panYou need an ovenproof skillet of about 9 to 10 inches — cast iron or a heavy stainless pan with a metal handle. Nothing in the original suggests a covered baking dish; the pan the butter melts in is the pan that goes in the oven.
- The hingePull the omelet the moment the base is just barely set and still glossy — "when it thickens" is not "when it is cooked through." It finishes during the second bake, and an over-set base turns leathery and weeps.
- Beating the whitesBeat three whites to soft peaks and fold them into the yolk mixture; the original has the remaining three beaten later, while the base is in the oven, which keeps them at full volume. Whites beaten to stiff, dry peaks are harder to spread over the hot surface.
- Second bakeFour to six minutes is usually enough for "a delicate brown." Watch it rather than timing it; the meringue colors fast.
- Timing and yieldServes three, or four as part of a larger breakfast. "Eat as soon as done" is not decorative — the structure is air, and it collapses within a few minutes of leaving the oven. Have plates and diners ready first.
- Slipping it offLoosen the edge with a thin spatula before you tilt the pan. Buttering the pan generously up the sides, not just the base, makes the difference between a whole omelet and a folded one.
Baked "puff" or "souffléd" omelets were a fixture of American cookbooks from the mid-nineteenth century onward, sitting between the French omelette and the true soufflé: the whites carry the lift, but the dish is cooked in a skillet and served flat rather than in a mold. The Dixie Cook Book, like other compilations of its era, gathered such recipes by contribution, and the credit line here — Mrs. W. D. Hall of Hawley, Minnesota — shows how loosely the "Dixie" title sat on a book assembled from correspondents across the country. Recipes of this kind depended on plentiful eggs and cream at hand and on a cook who could judge oven heat by feel, and they were built in two stages, with the reserved whites added partway through.