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Omelette Mousseline Au Beurre Noir
Place eight fresh eggs yolks in a bowl and the whites in a copper basin. Season the yolks with a half teaspoon salt, two saltspoons white pepper and half saltspoon grated nutmeg. Briskly mix the yolks with a wooden spoon for two minutes. Beat up the whites for four minutes, add them to the yolks and lightly mix; heat a tablespoon butter in a large frying pan, pour in the eggs, mix with a fork for two minutes, let rest for a half minute, fold up the sides to meet in the centre, let rest for a minute; turn into a hot dish. Place an ounce butter in the same pan, toss the butter on the fire until a light brown; pour in a tablespoon vinegar, toss a little, pour over the omelette and serve.
A soufflé-style omelette finished with browned butter and vinegar. The whole thing takes about ten minutes, so have the hot serving dish and the butter ready before the eggs go near the pan.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. So the seasoning here is 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp white pepper and a scant 1/8 tsp nutmeg for eight eggs.
- The copper basinUnlined copper reacts with egg white and gives a more stable, less grainy foam. A stainless bowl with a pinch of cream of tartar does the same job; avoid plastic, which holds fat and will keep the whites from mounting.
- How far to beat the whitesFour minutes by hand will usually bring the whites to soft peaks that still slump rather than the stiff dry stage, though this depends on how vigorously you beat. Overbeaten whites are hard to fold into the yolks without breaking, and the omelette cooks out dry.
- Folding"Lightly mix" is the hinge. Fold the whites into the yolks in two additions with a spatula and stop while streaks are still faintly visible; deflate the foam and you have a plain omelette.
- Pan and heatUse a 10-12 inch nonstick or well-seasoned pan over medium heat. The stirring with a fork is only for the first two minutes, to set the base; the recipe then calls for two short rests, through which the omelette should stay pale gold underneath and just moist within.
- Beurre noirDespite the name, take the butter to a nut brown, not black; the recipe itself says light brown, and burnt milk solids taste acrid. The vinegar will spit as it goes in, so stand back; a wine vinegar is the usual sort used.
- YieldEight eggs in one pan serves four generously as a lunch or supper dish. If your largest pan is under 10 inches, make two omelettes of four eggs rather than crowding one.
Mousseline in French cookery signals lightness from beaten egg white or whipped cream, and an omelette mousseline is the puffed, souffléd cousin of the flat rolled omelette — beaten separately, folded, barely cooked through. The beurre noir finish, browned butter sharpened with vinegar, is the same classic sauce traditionally served with skate and with brains, and it turns a plain egg dish into a restaurant plate. Filippini's International Cook Book (1906) drew on his years in New York's Delmonico's kitchens, where French service was the standard by which American hotel dining measured itself, and recipes like this one carried professional technique — a copper basin, timings given to the half minute — into domestic hands.