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Omelette with Green Peppers
Carefully crack eight fresh eggs in a bowl, add half gill milk, half teaspoon salt, half saltspoon grated nutmeg, and sharply beat up with fork for two minutes. Cut in halves two large, sound green peppers, remove the seeds, then finely slice them. Heat a tablespoon melted butter in frying pan, add peppers and fry six minutes, occasionally tossing meanwhile. Drop in the eggs, add half a teaspoon freshly chopped parsley, mix with fork for two minutes, let rest half minute; fold opposite sides to meet in centre, let rest a minute, turn on a dish and serve.
A plain French rolled omelette in a large format, with sweet peppers softened first. The measurements are Delmonico-era kitchen units and need translating before you start.
- 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, less watery set if you prefer.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so half a saltspoon of nutmeg is 1/8 teaspoon — a whisper, not a flavour note.
- Green peppersIn 1906 this means sweet bell peppers, not chillies. Six minutes in butter softens them but leaves them squeaky; eight to ten minutes over medium heat is better, and they should not colour much.
- Pan sizeEight eggs will not fold in a standard 8-inch skillet. Use a 12-inch nonstick or well-seasoned pan, or split the mixture and make two omelettes in sequence.
- One tablespoon of butterThat is barely enough to fry peppers, let alone keep eggs from sticking. Add more butter to the pan just before the eggs go in.
- The hinge"Mix with fork for two minutes, let rest half minute" is the whole technique: stir the setting curd off the base, then stop and let the bottom knit into a skin you can fold against. Keep the heat moderate — a browned, leathery underside is the usual failure here.
- FoldingFolding both sides to meet in the centre gives the classic three-fold cushion. Slide it seam-side down onto a warmed plate; the residual heat finishes the interior, which should still be slightly loose.
- YieldEight eggs serves four as a main course, six as part of a larger meal.
The International Cook Book is generally attributed to Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, and its method here follows the professional French pattern: eggs beaten only briefly, cooked fast, stirred then rested, folded rather than flipped. The pepper gives the dish an American cast. Sweet capsicums were a New World crop that European cookery adopted slowly, and by the turn of the twentieth century they appear in American cookery books as an everyday omelette filling alongside parsley and nutmeg — nutmeg being a common seasoning in egg and cream dishes of the period.