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Omelette, Melba
Carefully crack eight fresh eggs in a bowl, add a half gill cream, a tablespoon sugar, three saltspoons salt, and whisk briskly for five minutes. Heat an ounce fresh butter in a frying pan, drop in the eggs, mix with fork for two minutes, let rest for a half minute; fold up opposite sides to meet in centre, let rest for a minute, turn into a hot dish and keep hot. Place in a saucepan six tablespoons raspberry marmalade, add a tablespoon each Swiss kirsch and parfait amour or prunelle, mix well on fire for five minutes, pour it over omelette and serve.
A sweet folded omelette for four, finished with a warm raspberry-and-liqueur sauce. Nothing here is difficult, but the sugar and the sauce both want restraint.
- Half a gill of creamA gill is half a cup, so half a gill is 4 tablespoons. That is the right proportion for eight eggs — more and the omelette weeps.
- Three saltspoonsA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, giving about 3/4 teaspoon of salt. That is assertive but deliberate in a sweet omelette; it keeps the sugar and jam from cloying.
- Whisking five minutesFive minutes of hand-whisking is a lot of air, and it is the point: this is meant to be light rather than dense. A minute or two on a hand mixer at medium does the same work. Stop when the mixture is uniformly pale and foamy, not stiff.
- Pan sizeEight eggs need a 10- to 12-inch pan. In anything smaller the omelette sets too thick to fold and the centre stays raw. An ounce of butter is 2 tablespoons; use medium-low heat, since the sugar in the eggs will catch and brown fast.
- Raspberry marmaladeThis means raspberry preserve, not citrus marmalade. Seedless raspberry jam is the closest modern equivalent; six tablespoons is a scant half cup.
- Parfait amour and prunelleParfait amour is a violet-scented citrus-and-vanilla liqueur, still made and still purple. Prunelle is a sloe liqueur. Either stands in for the other, and framboise or a good cassis will serve if neither is at hand. Swiss kirsch is clear cherry eau-de-vie, not cherry brandy.
- Five minutes on the fireWarm the jam and liqueur only until fluid and just steaming — a minute or two. Five minutes over direct heat reduces the jam to a sticky glaze and boils off the spirits, which is where most of the perfume lives.
- Yield and servingFour generous portions, or six as a dessert course. Sauce it at the table; the recipe's own direction is to turn the omelette into a hot dish and keep it hot, so serve promptly.
The Melba name attaches to a long list of dishes created for or associated with Nellie Melba, the Australian soprano who was a fixture of London and New York opera in the 1890s and 1900s; Escoffier's peach Melba, first served at the Savoy and only later given the raspberry pur"e at the Carlton, is what fixed raspberry as the signature. By the time Alexander Filippini compiled The International Cook Book (1906) out of his years at Delmonico's, "Melba" was often used as shorthand for a dish finished with raspberry. The sweet omelette itself is much older and thoroughly French: eggs, sugar, a fold, and a spirited preserve poured over at the pass. What dates this version is the liqueur cabinet it assumes, with Swiss kirsch, parfait amour and prunelle all expected to be within reach of the range.