No. 2891

Omelet, German Style

Omelette a l'Allemande

Dilute two tablespoonfuls of flour in a bowl with two whole eggs, one yolk and a gill of cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg; strain through a fine wire sieve and then add finely cut-up chives. Put four ounces of clarified butter in a pan to heat, pour in the preparation, spreading it over the entire surface of the pan; prick the omelet as fast as it swells up, and turn it over when of a fine color; add a little more butter and brown nicely on the other side before serving. With this quantity several omelets can be obtained.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is a batter omelet rather than a French egg omelet — flour and cream make it closer to a thin pancake, and it behaves like one in the pan.

A gill of creamA gill is half a cup (4 fl oz / 120 ml). With two whole eggs, one yolk and two tablespoons of flour, that gives a thin, pourable batter roughly the consistency of heavy cream.
Strain, then add the chivesThe order matters. Straining through a fine sieve removes flour lumps and chalazae so the sheet cooks evenly; the chives go in afterwards or the sieve will catch them.
Four ounces of butter is for the pan, not the omeletHalf a cup of clarified butter in the pan is shallow-frying, in keeping with the recipe's note that the batter makes several omelets. For one omelet in a modern nonstick or well-seasoned steel pan, a tablespoon or two is enough; keep the rest warm for the later ones.
Why clarifiedThe milk solids in whole butter scorch at the heat needed to colour a flour batter. Clarified butter (or ghee) takes the browning without turning bitter and black.
Pricking as it swellsThe flour sets a skin that traps steam and blisters. Pricking the domes with a fork knocks them down so the sheet stays flat and cooks through to an even thickness.
Heat and turningMedium heat, not high. Give it two to three minutes until the underside is well coloured and the top is set enough to hold together, then flip with a wide spatula or by sliding it onto a plate and inverting it back. A minute or so on the second side.
YieldThe batter will probably stretch to two omelets in an 8-inch pan, or one generous 10-inch one; the original's "several" presumably assumes smaller pans and smaller portions. Serve at once — it turns leathery as it sits.
SeasoningNutmeg here is meant as a background note, not a flavour: a few scrapes of a whole nutmeg, no more. Chives can be swapped for parsley or chervil without upsetting anything.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef of Delmonico's, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a compendium of the French professional repertoire as it was cooked in New York, and its egg chapter runs to dozens of numbered variations on a single technique. Here à l'Allemande attaches to an egg dish built on a flour-and-cream batter rather than on eggs alone — the same family as the Pfannkuchen and Eierkuchen of German home cooking, and a cousin of the Austrian Kaiserschmarrn, which is a comparable batter deliberately torn up instead of kept whole.