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Omelet (II)
Miss E. C. Harris.
One cup of milk, one tablespoon flour stirred into the milk; four eggs, the yolks and whites beaten separately; one-half tablespoon melted butter stirred into the mixture; a little salt. Stir in the whites before putting into the spider. Cook on top of the stove about ten minutes, then set the spider in the oven to brown the top. To be eaten as soon as taken from the oven. Very nice.
This is a puffed or souffléd omelet, thickened with a little flour and finished under oven heat. It is straightforward, but the original assumes a cast-iron pan on a wood range and leaves out a few things a modern cook needs.
- The spiderA spider is a cast-iron skillet, originally one with legs that stood over coals. Any heavy 9- or 10-inch ovenproof skillet does the job; the point is even heat and a pan that can go straight into the oven.
- Grease the panThe recipe never says to butter the skillet; presumably a well-used iron spider was taken to need none. Butter it generously or the puffed base will weld itself to the metal.
- Mixing the flourStir the tablespoon of flour into the cold milk before anything else and whisk it smooth. Added to warm or egg-rich liquid it will lump, and the lumps will not cook out in ten minutes.
- Folding, not stirring"Stir in the whites" is period phrasing for folding. Beat the whites to soft peaks and fold them in with a spatula in a few strokes; the lift of the finished omelet depends largely on the air you keep in them.
- Ten minutes on the stoveOn a modern burner use low heat and expect the base to be set and the centre still loose in five to eight minutes. If the underside is browning fast, move it to the oven early.
- Browning the topThe book gives no oven setting. A hot oven, around 400F, for three to five minutes will colour the surface without drying the interior; the broiler works too, watched constantly.
- Serve at once"To be eaten as soon as taken from the oven" is the hinge of the whole thing. A souffléd omelet begins to sink within a minute or two of leaving the heat, and a collapsed one is merely a thick, rubbery pancake.
- YieldFour eggs and a cup of milk make a light dish for two, or three at a breakfast with other things on the table.
Nineteenth-century American cookbooks routinely distinguished the plain French omelet, cooked fast and folded, from this kind — beaten whites, a little milk and flour, finished in the oven and served puffed. It was often called a puffed, souffléd or "omelet soufflé." The Home Cook Book was compiled from contributions by named local women — the attribution to Miss E. C. Harris is typical of the format. The recipe's brevity and its closing verdict, "Very nice," are the voice of a cook writing for other cooks who already knew what a spider was and how their own stove behaved.