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Omelette, Bonne Femme
Crack eight fresh eggs in a bowl, add a half gill milk, half teaspoon salt, two saltspoons white pepper, and sharply beat up with fork for two minutes. Cut an ounce lean, raw bacon into small square pieces, finely chop half a medium-sized white onion and cut a slice of sandwich bread into quarter-inch squares. Place onions and bacon in a frying pan with a tablespoon melted butter and fry for five minutes, then add bread and fry until a light brown colour, tossing meanwhile. Drop in eggs, briskly stir with fork for two minutes and let rest for half a minute; fold up opposite sides to meet in center, let rest for a minute, turn on a hot dish and serve.
A French rolled omelette with a bacon, onion and crouton garnish cooked in the pan before the eggs go in. The measurements are period shorthand and the pepper in particular needs scaling back.
- Half a gill of milkA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is 2 fl oz (1/4 cup). That is generous for eight eggs and will slacken the curd; 2 tablespoons gives a firmer fold.
- SaltspoonsA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so two saltspoons is a full half teaspoon of white pepper. Modern palates will find that assertive with only eight eggs — a quarter teaspoon is closer to current practice.
- Pan sizeEight eggs need a 10- to 12-inch non-stick or well-seasoned pan. In anything smaller the omelette is too deep to set before the underside colours, and it will not fold cleanly.
- The hinge: heat and handsThe brisk stirring builds soft curds, and the half-minute rest lets the base set. The recipe does not say to move the pan off the flame, but if it stays fiercely hot through the rest the bottom will brown and toughen; a pale, soft omelette is the usual aim in French practice.
- The baconOne ounce of lean raw bacon is roughly one ordinary slice. Unsmoked pancetta or French poitrine will give a less sweet, less smoky result than heavily smoked, sugar-cured supermarket bacon.
- CroutonsQuarter-inch dice from a firm white sandwich loaf, slightly stale. Fresh, soft bread soaks up the butter and goes greasy rather than crisp; add a little more butter if the pan runs dry before they colour.
- Total cooking timeFive minutes for onion and bacon, then a few more for the bread, is seven or eight minutes of garnish work. The recipe has you beat the eggs first, so they stand while that happens; beat them last instead, so they go into the pan immediately.
- YieldEight eggs serves three to four. If you want single omelettes, cook them in two- or three-egg batches in a smaller pan and divide the garnish.
Bonne femme — "good wife" — is one of the standard French menu tags for a homely, unrefined treatment, here meaning bacon, onion and something starchy, the same logic that gives us potage bonne femme with its leeks and potatoes. The dish itself is peasant food, but it arrives with a classical name and a classical method, the eggs stirred to a soft curd and folded rather than browned flat in the country manner. The croutons are the detail worth noticing: frying the garnish in the omelette pan first means the butter carries the bacon and onion flavour into the eggs.