No. 2889

Fine Herb Omelet—Raw

Omelette aux Fines Herbes Crues

Chop or cut finely some fine herbs, such as parsley, chervil, tarragon and chives; mix them in with the eggs, and finish the same as the parsley omelet, or either of these herbs may be used separately in making a chervil, tarragon or chive omelet.

← No. 2888 Duxelle or Cooked Fine Herb Omelet Eggs & Omelets No. 2890 Frog Omelet →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes you have already read the parsley omelet a few entries earlier, so this page gives herbs and nothing else. The gaps are proportion, pan heat and what "finish" means.

Quantities, since none are givenRanhofer specifies no amount. For a two- to three-egg omelet, about a tablespoon of mixed chopped herbs is a reasonable starting point; a heavy load of wet chopped herb makes the eggs looser and harder to roll.
What fines herbes means hereThe classic quartet is parsley, chervil, tarragon and chives in roughly equal parts, which is exactly the list Ranhofer names. Chervil is the hard one to buy; if it is missing, lean on parsley and chives rather than doubling the tarragon, which dominates quickly.
Raw versus the previous recipeNo. 2888 uses duxelles, a cooked shallot-and-mushroom base. "Crues" here means the herbs go in uncooked, straight into the beaten eggs, so their flavour stays green and sharp. Chop them just before mixing.
The hinge: heat and timingRanhofer gives no timing. A French rolled omelet of this kind is cooked fast in a hot buttered pan, stirred with the fork or shaken until the curds are set but the centre is still loose. Held longer, the eggs tighten and brown.
"Finish the same as the parsley omelet"This refers back to the earlier parsley omelet, whose finishing instructions are not repeated here. In the French practice of the period this would generally mean rolling or folding the omelet onto a warmed dish, seam down, without letting it colour.
PanAn 8-inch nonstick or a properly seasoned carbon-steel skillet works well; a wide pan is better than a deep one.
YieldRanhofer gives no yield. A single omelet of this size serves one, or two at most as part of a larger meal. Cook them one at a time rather than scaling up into a single large pan.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and its egg chapter runs through dozens of omelets in strict French order, each cross-referencing the last, exactly as a brigade cook would work through a repertoire. Fines herbes as a fixed set of parsley, chervil, tarragon and chives is often treated as a French codification, though the term is considerably older and its membership varied; the distinction Ranhofer draws between the raw version and the duxelles version is a real one in that tradition: raw herbs for freshness, a cooked base for depth. Chervil and tarragon appear far more often in books of this date than in modern home cooking, which is part of why the dish now reads as more exotic than it was.