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Egg-Omelet
Mrs. Carson.
Six eggs beaten separately, half pint sweet milk, six teaspoons of corn starch made smooth in a little of the milk, one teaspoon baking powder, a little salt; add the whites last, cook in a hot pan with a little butter; when nicely browned, roll over on a hot dish and serve at once,
A late-nineteenth-century puffed omelet, thickened with cornstarch and lifted with baking powder. The method is closer to a souffle omelet than to a modern French rolled one.
- Half pint sweet milkOne cup. "Sweet" simply means fresh rather than soured or buttermilk.
- Six teaspoons corn starchAbout two tablespoons. Slake it in a few spoonfuls of the cold milk before adding the rest, or it will lump.
- Beaten separatelyYolks with the milk, cornstarch, baking powder and salt; whites to soft peaks. Fold the whites in with a spatula at the last moment and get the pan going immediately, since the baking powder starts working on contact with the wet batter.
- Pan size and heatA 10-inch skillet over medium, not the fierce heat "hot pan" suggests. A batch this size is thick, and high heat browns the underside before the middle sets.
- Finishing the middleThe recipe says nothing about how the top is to set, leaving it to the cook to keep the pan moving. Covering the pan for the last two or three minutes, or sliding it under a broiler briefly, sets the surface without overcooking.
- Roll over on a hot dishLoosen the edge, fold in half in the pan, then turn it out. A warmed plate matters here: a leavened omelet begins collapsing the moment it cools.
- YieldSix eggs and a cup of milk serve three to four as a main dish, or six as part of a larger breakfast.
Cornstarch omelets turn up in American community cookbooks of the 1870s and 1880s, a period when packaged cornstarch and chemical baking powders were both established commercial conveniences. The starch and milk stretch six eggs into a much larger dish and give it a soft, custardy body, while the baking powder does openly what a French cook achieved by beating whites alone. The receipt is credited here to Mrs. Carson, and contributed collections of this kind are exactly how such conveniences spread from one kitchen to the next. The instruction to serve at once is practical rather than polite: the dish begins to fall as soon as it leaves the pan.