No. 2903

Parsley Omelet

Omelette au Persil

Parsley omelet is frequently confounded with fine herb omelet. Use only eggs, seasoning and chopped parsley. Chop up some very green fresh parsley, put it into the corner of a napkin and dip tuis in several waters; remove the cloth at once and squeeze out all the moisture. Break eight eggs into a vessel, add the parsley, also pepper and salt. Melt some butter in a pan, pour in the beaten eggs and set it on the open fire; move the pan rapidly with the left hand, using a stew-spoon in the right hand. When the omelet is done fold it on both ends, turn it over on to a dish and shape it prettily.

← No. 2902 Omelet with Caviare a la Stoekel Eggs & Omelets No. 2904 Physiological Omelet →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

A plain French rolled omelet built on eight eggs, with parsley as the only flavouring. The whole thing turns on the parsley being bone dry and the pan being hot.

Wash and wring the parsleyThe napkin trick is the hinge. Chopped parsley holds a surprising amount of water, and wet herbs will steam inside the eggs and leave grey streaks and a weeping omelet. Chop, gather in a cloth or a square of muslin, rinse under running water, then twist hard until no more drips come out.
Eight eggs is a large omeletThe recipe gives no serving count and no pan size. In a 9- or 10-inch nonstick pan, work in two batches of four eggs, roughly 30 to 45 seconds each.
"Set it on the open fire"A live coal fire gave fierce direct heat. The equivalent is the highest setting your burner will hold without the butter browning: the butter should foam and just stop hissing before the eggs go in.
The pan motionShaking the pan with the left hand while stirring with the spoon is the classic French method, and it is what produces a fine, custardy curd rather than a set sheet. Keep the eggs moving until they are the texture of loose scrambled egg, then stop stirring and let the base set for a few seconds.
Stew-spoonA long-handled metal kitchen spoon. A silicone spatula or a fork works as well and is kinder to a coated pan.
"Fold it on both ends"This is the French rolled omelet, not the folded half-moon. Tip the pan away from you, fold the far and near thirds in toward the centre, then roll it out seam-side down onto the plate and press it into a neat cigar with a cloth.
Not fines herbesRanhofer is explicit: parsley only. A fines herbes omelet adds chervil, chives and tarragon, and is a different dish in this book.
DonenessFrench practice leaves the centre baveuse, barely runny, because it carries on cooking on the plate. If you want it fully set, hold it in the pan a further 15 seconds rather than raising the heat.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its egg chapter reads as a working catalogue of the French repertoire transplanted to Manhattan: dozens of numbered omelets, each distinguished from its neighbours by a single garnish or technique. The opening remark here is a chef correcting his kitchen rather than instructing a housewife. Omelette au persil and omelette aux fines herbes were, and still are, routinely confused, and Ranhofer's point is that the plain parsley version has its own identity and should not be quietly upgraded with chervil and tarragon. The rolled, quickly shaken omelet he describes is the standard French method of the period, and the insistence on shaping it prettily on the dish reflects the restaurant setting.