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Green Omelette
Hash up together very finely three branches thoroughly washed parsley, same quantity very fresh watercress and the green part of a branch chervil, and place the herbs in a bowl. Carefully break in eight fresh eggs, adding half gill cold milk. Season with half teaspoon salt and two saltspoons white pepper; sharply beat up the whole together for two minutes with a fork, and then proceed to make the omelette.
This is a fines-herbes omelette with the cooking left to the reader — the book assumes you already know its method for a plain omelette, so only the mixture is given here. Two conversions and one decision about pan size are all that stand between it and a modern breakfast.
- Half a gill of milkIn American usage a gill is 4 fl oz, half a cup, so half a gill is 4 tablespoons; by the imperial gill of 5 fl oz it would be nearer 5. Either way it is a fair amount of liquid for eight eggs and will give a softer, slightly looser curd than a dairy-free French omelette.
- SaltspoonsA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. Two saltspoons of white pepper is half a teaspoon — assertive, and intentionally so, since white pepper was preferred in pale egg dishes to keep black flecks out.
- Branches"Branch" here means a sprig or small stem, not a whole bunch. Three sprigs of parsley, an equal volume of watercress leaves and the leaves from one sprig of chervil — a few tablespoons of chopped herbs at most, though the recipe gives no volume.
- ChervilRarely stocked and quick to wilt; it tastes of parsley with a faint anise note. If you cannot find it, a little tarragon leaf gets closer than more parsley will.
- Dry the greensWatercress and parsley hold a surprising amount of rinse water, and wet herbs will make the eggs weep in the pan. Spin or blot them thoroughly dry before chopping.
- Do not beat eight eggs into one panEight eggs in a single skillet sets into a thick, rubbery slab before the centre cooks. Divide the seasoned mixture and cook it in two or three batches in a 8-10 inch pan, each over fairly high heat in hot butter, moved constantly and rolled out while the middle is still creamy.
- YieldEight eggs feeds four as a light main course, or three generously.
An omelette aux fines herbes is a long-standing item in French cooking, and the classic quartet is parsley, chervil, chives and tarragon. This version uses watercress in place of the chives and tarragon, which pushes it toward the peppery, salad-like end of the spectrum. The flat instruction to "proceed to make the omelette" indicates that a method for the plain omelette was given elsewhere, so only the mixture is specified here.