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Fried Omelet
Mrs. F. D. Orr.
Three eggs, two gills milk, two tablespoons flour, a little salt and pepper, fried on hot griddle.
A four-line batter omelet of the old school: eggs thinned with milk and bound with flour, cooked flat on a griddle rather than folded in a pan. It behaves more like a thick crepe than a modern omelet, and the proportions are worth reading carefully before you pour.
- Two gills is one cupTwo gills is about a cup -- A gill is a quarter-pint, so two gills equals a half-pint, roughly a cup of milk (nearer 240 ml by US measure, more like 280 ml if the imperial pint was intended). Against three eggs that is a very loose mixture by modern standards.
- Expect a batter, not a custardWith a full cup of milk to three eggs, the flour is doing structural work. Whisk the flour with a few spoons of the milk first to a smooth paste, then thin with the rest and beat in the eggs, or you will be picking out lumps.
- Griddle temperatureThe recipe says only 'hot griddle' and gives no number. Aim for a heat at which a drop of batter sets at the edge within a few seconds but does not brown before the centre sets; a fierce griddle will colour the outside too fast.
- Grease is assumedThe recipe says 'fried' but names no fat; some greasing of the griddle is taken for granted. Use butter or a neutral oil; a cast-iron or nonstick surface makes the turn far easier.
- Cook it in roundsPoured all at once onto a griddle the batter runs. Ladle it in 5- or 6-inch rounds, cook until the surface loses its gloss and the underside is pale gold, then turn once. Two to three minutes a side is plenty.
- Seasoning"A little salt and pepper" is roughly 1/2 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of pepper for the whole quantity. Season the milk before adding eggs so it disperses evenly.
- YieldServes two as a light supper or breakfast dish, or four alongside ham or sausage. Serve straight from the griddle; a flour-set omelet turns leathery as it sits.
The Home Cook Book belongs to the first great wave of North American charity cookbooks, compiled in the 1870s from contributions solicited from named subscribers, which is why this entry carries Mrs. F. D. Orr's name and nothing else by way of authority. The recipe reflects a nineteenth-century usage in which "omelet" covered a wide family of egg dishes, including flat, flour-thickened batters cooked on the griddle beside the pancakes rather than the fluffed and folded French omelette that later monopolised the word. Flour and a generous measure of milk stretched three eggs to feed a family, and the same logic produced the era's many "omelets" enriched with breadcrumbs, cracker dust or cold potato.