No. 2905

Sausage Omelet

Omelette aux Saucisses

Sausage omelets can be made with Lubeck, Frankfort or fresh sausages. For the unsmoked ones, first broil them, then take off the skins and cut them up into small pieces. For Lubeck sausages, fry them in a pan, then cut them up. Plunge Frankfort sausages into boiling water, peel off the skin and divide the meats into small bits. Mix either of this with the uncooked omelet and finish the same as a parsley omelet (No. 2903).

← No. 2904 Physiological Omelet Eggs & Omelets No. 2906 Shrimp Omelet →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer gives this as a variation, not a standalone method: the sausage is folded into the raw egg and the omelet is then made exactly as his parsley omelet (No. 2903), which is a French rolled omelet cooked fast in clarified butter. The whole dish hinges on the sausage being fully cooked and, above all, dry before it meets the eggs.

The missing cross-referenceNo. 2903 is Ranhofer's parsley omelet, and this recipe simply tells you to finish the sausage version the same way; the method itself is not reproduced here, so any egg count or butter quantity is your own choice. A plain French omelet of this type is beaten with seasoning, poured into a hot buttered pan, stirred briefly, then allowed to set and rolled out onto the plate.
Lubeck sausageA German smoked sausage from Lübeck, essentially unavailable under that name now. A firm smoked pork sausage such as kielbasa or a smoked bratwurst is the closest substitute; Ranhofer has you fry it, so cook it through rather than assuming it is ready to eat.
Frankfort sausageA frankfurter of the period, sold in a natural casing that Ranhofer tells you to peel off after plunging it into boiling water. Modern skinless franks need no peeling; simply warm them through and dice small.
"Fresh sausages" and "broil"The unsmoked option is raw pork sausage, and it must reach 160F internally before it goes near the eggs. "Broil" in 1894 means cooking over or before direct heat on a gridiron; a hot pan or a modern broiler both serve.
Blot the fatAny of the three sausages will shed grease. Drain the pieces on paper and let them cool slightly, or the omelet weeps and refuses to roll.
Dice sizeThe original says only "small pieces"; something like 1/4-inch dice works well, since larger chunks tear the egg curd when you roll the omelet and sink to one end.
Heat and timingA French omelet of this kind is done in about 60 to 90 seconds over fairly high heat and should still be moist inside. Adding cold sausage to the raw eggs slows the set, so have the pan properly hot before pouring.
YieldThe original gives no quantities: no egg count, no weight of sausage. Taken as a single omelet of about three eggs with 2 to 3 ounces of sausage, it serves one generously or two as part of a larger breakfast.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and the long run of omelet numbers around 2900 shows how systematically a nineteenth-century restaurant treated the form: one base preparation, then a series of numbered garnishes folded into it. That two of the three sausages named here are German — Lübeck and Frankfurt — reflects the large German presence in New York's food trade at the time. Ranhofer's habit of writing recipes as cross-references was practical rather than lazy: his readers were expected to be cooks working through the book with the master method already in hand.