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Omelette with Chervil
Crack eight fresh eggs in a bowl, add a half gill milk, half teaspoon salt, two saltspoons pepper, the leaves of two branches chervil, and sharply beat up with a fork for two minutes.
Heat a tablespoon butter in a frying pan, drop in the eggs, mix with a fork for two minutes and let rest for half a minute; fold the opposite sides up to meet in the centre, let rest for one minute, turn on a hot dish and serve.
A plain French rolled omelette, scaled for a family rather than a single plate. Two measures need translating and the pan matters more than the recipe lets on.
- Half a gillA gill is half a cup, so half a gill of milk is 1/4 cup. That is generous for eight eggs; 2 tablespoons gives a firmer set if you like your omelette less soft.
- SaltspoonsA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. Two saltspoons of pepper is a half teaspoon for eight eggs, which reads as strong by modern taste — start with half that and adjust.
- The pan is the hingeEight eggs need a 10- to 12-inch nonstick or well-seasoned pan. In anything smaller the egg sits too deep, the outside toughens before the centre sets, and the fold tears. One tablespoon of butter is the minimum; two coats the pan better.
- HeatMedium is right. The butter should foam and just stop foaming before the eggs go in; if it browns, the pan is too hot and the omelette will colour and toughen in the two minutes of stirring.
- "Mix with a fork for two minutes"This means dragging the setting curd from the edge to the centre while tilting the raw egg into the gaps, not scrambling. Two minutes is an outside figure — on a modern burner the curds will be set in 60 to 90 seconds.
- ChervilTwo branches means two sprigs, leaves stripped, roughly a tablespoon chopped. Chervil is fragile and loses its faint anise scent with heat, so it is worth adding a pinch fresh over the finished omelette as well. Flat-leaf parsley with a few tarragon leaves is the usual substitute if chervil is not to be had.
- Resting and foldingThe half-minute rest lets the base firm enough to lift. Fold in thirds rather than in half — the "opposite sides up to meet in the centre" describes exactly that — and the final minute finishes the interior. The recipe does not say whether the pan comes off the heat for it; lowering the flame is the safer reading.
- YieldEight eggs serves three to four as a main course. If you want a classic single-portion omelette, work in batches of two or three eggs; a large one is harder to keep tender.
Chervil is one of the four herbs of the French fines herbes, alongside parsley, tarragon and chives, and the omelette was its most ordinary home — cheap, quick, and cooked in the two or three minutes before the leaves can wilt to nothing. The plain French omelette here reads as a technique exercise as much as a recipe: the instructions are almost entirely about timing, because the ingredients are eggs, butter, salt and a herb. Chervil was more widely grown in kitchen gardens than it is sold in shops now; it bolts fast and wilts quickly, which is the reason usually given for its never making the transition to commercial produce the way parsley did.