No. 2888

Duxelle or Cooked Fine Herb Omelet

Omelette a la Duxelle ou aux Fines Herbes Cuites

Chop up some onions and shallots very small; fry them in a little grated fat pork or butter, put in some finely chopped fresh mushrooms, and when these have evaporated their moisture add some chopped parsley and two spoonfuls of chopped truffles, mixing in a little veloute sauce (No. 415). Prepare the omelet the same as the parsley and fill it with the preparation; surround each side with hollow half-round-shaped crusts (No. 52) to be filled with tomato puree (No. 730).

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade kitchen where velouté, tomato purée and fried croustades are already standing by; assembled from scratch this is a duxelles omelet with two garnishes. The numbered cross-references are to other entries in The Epicurean.

The hinge: dry the mushroomsThe duxelles must cook until the mushrooms have thrown off and evaporated all their liquid and begin to sizzle in the fat rather than steam. Wet duxelles will weep into the eggs and split the omelet as it rolls.
Grated fat porkThis is fresh or lightly salted pork fat, grated so it renders quickly. Butter, as the recipe allows, is the straightforward substitute; rendered salt pork or bacon fat will give something nearer the original, though bacon adds smoke the original would not have had.
Velouté (No. 415)A blond roux thinned with veal or chicken stock, cooked down until it coats. A scant tablespoon of thick stock-based white sauce, or a spoonful of reduced stock with cold butter whisked in, binds the filling adequately. It should be stiff, not pourable.
TrufflesTwo spoonfuls of chopped truffle is a period luxury, not a structural ingredient. Omit rather than substitute truffle oil, or use a small amount of finely chopped preserved truffle or truffle peelings if you have them.
"Spoonfuls" is impreciseRanhofer's spoonfuls are unstandardised and are usually taken to mean roughly a tablespoon. The filling as written is a batch quantity, not a single portion; for one omelet of two or three eggs, figure roughly 2 to 3 tablespoons of duxelles total, since more filling than that and the omelet will not roll.
Croustades (No. 52)Hollow half-round crusts are fried or baked bread cases. Small hollowed dinner-roll halves, brushed with butter and crisped at 400F, serve the same purpose: they hold the tomato purée off the plate so it does not run into the eggs.
Omelet method"The same as the parsley" means the French rolled omelet: beaten eggs into hot butter, stirred briefly, filling laid down the center, rolled out onto the plate still soft in the middle. Under a minute over high heat; a browned exterior is a fault here.
YieldOne omelet per person. The duxelles keeps several days refrigerated, so it is worth making a larger batch than one omelet needs.

A Little History

Duxelles — chopped mushrooms, shallots and herbs cooked down to a dry paste — is traditionally credited to the kitchen of the Marquis d'Uxelles, whose cook was François Pierre de la Varenne, author of Le Cuisinier François (1651); the attribution is repeated throughout nineteenth-century French cookery writing rather than documented. By the time Charles Ranhofer compiled The Epicurean in 1894 from his decades at Delmonico's in New York, duxelles was a standard mise en place item, made in quantity and used to stuff mushrooms, line pastry, bind forcemeats and fill omelets. The distinction Ranhofer draws between this and the following entry, fines herbes raw, is exactly that: cooked aromatics carry a deeper, meatier flavor and no water, while raw chopped herbs beaten into the eggs stay green and sharp. The truffles and the velouté mark the dish as restaurant work rather than home cooking — a household cook would not have a saucepan of velouté waiting.