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French Omelet
M.
One cup boiling milk with one tablespoon of butter melted in it; pour this on one cup of bread crumbs, (the bread must be light); add salt, pepper, and the yolks of six eggs well beaten; mix thoroughly; and lastly, add the six whites cut to a stiff froth; mix lightly and fry with hot butter; this will make two; when almost done, turn together in shape of half moon.
A bread-and-egg omelet of the puffed, soufflé type rather than the rolled French omelet familiar today. The batter is the whole trick.
- Fold, do not stirThe six beaten whites are what lift the panade off the bottom of the pan. Cut them in with a spatula in three additions and stop while streaks are still visible; a thoroughly mixed batter collapses and fries into a pancake.
- "Light" breadMeans well-risen, open-crumbed white bread, not stale rusk. Use soft fresh crumbs from a plain loaf; dried packaged breadcrumbs absorb the milk unevenly and give a pasty texture.
- Soak the crumbs firstPour the hot buttered milk over the crumbs and let them stand until cool enough not to cook the yolks on contact, five to ten minutes. Add the yolks to a warm, not hot, panade.
- Pan and heatAn 8-inch nonstick or well-seasoned skillet over medium-low. This mixture is thick and burns before the centre sets if the heat is high; "hot butter" is best read here as foaming rather than browning.
- FinishingCover the pan for the last few minutes, or slide it under a broiler for 30 seconds, to set the top before folding. It should be just barely firm in the middle.
- YieldThe recipe says two omelets, each folded into a half moon — roughly four modest servings, or two generous ones as a supper dish.
- SeasoningNo quantities are given. About 3/4 teaspoon salt and a good grind of pepper for the whole batter is a reasonable starting point; the bread and milk swallow more salt than a plain egg omelet would.
Nineteenth-century American cookbooks used "French omelet" loosely, and this is not the rolled, barely-set omelet of a Paris kitchen but a bread-thickened, whipped-white version closer to an omelette soufflée. A milk-and-crumb panade of this kind both stretched the mixture and helped the dish stand up at table. The single-letter "M." at the head of the recipe appears to be a contributor's initial, the sort of credit used in community cookbooks compiled from local women's contributions.