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French Omelet
6 eggs 6 tablespoons liquid 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper teaspoon salt teaspoon pepper 3 tablespoons butter The general rule is for each egg use 1 tablespoon liquid, tablespoon butter. Season to taste.
Break eggs into bowl, beat slightly to mix, or until they can be taken up on spoon; add seasonings and liquid, which may be cold water, milk, or stock. Have ready a smooth, hot pan (light weight, small pan is best) in which butter has been melted. Shake the pan so that every part is coated with butter. Pour beaten eggs into pan. As eggs cook, shake pan lightly, and with fork or spatula, gently lift egg. Tip pan, so that some of uncooked portion can run to side. When puffed, creamy, and lightly browned on the bottom, take pan in left hand, tilting pan downward. With knife loosen edge of omelet from pan. Make slight cut in middle at each side at right angles to the handle of the pan, but not entirely through the omelet. Fold quickly, and turn on to a hot plate, from which it is to be served, at once. 5 hard-cooked eggs 3 tablespoons American page 29) cheese (grated) 1 teaspoon vinegar
The method here is sound and still standard: a fast, barely-set folded omelet rather than a browned pancake. The ingredient list has lost its fractions and its egg count, so work from the stated general rule instead.
- The working ratioOne egg to 1 tablespoon liquid, plus butter at the rate given (the fraction before "tablespoon butter" is missing from the text). The egg count has dropped out of the ingredient list and cannot be recovered from the 3 tablespoons of butter alone.
- Missing amountsThe salt and pepper quantities have lost their fractions. Season to taste as the recipe directs, and season the beaten eggs rather than the finished omelet.
- The hingeBeat only "until they can be taken up on spoon" — the whites and yolks should be just combined, not frothy. Over-beaten eggs turn spongy and weep in the pan.
- Pan choice"Light weight, small pan" means a thin skillet that responds instantly to heat changes. A well-seasoned carbon steel or nonstick pan does this job; heavy cast iron holds too much heat and browns the omelet before the top has set.
- Heat and timingThe recipe gives neither; a brisk heat and a very short cooking time suit the method, since the eggs should still be creamy when the omelet is folded, while the bottom takes the light browning the text calls for.
- LiquidThe recipe allows cold water, milk, or stock. Water gives the lightest result; milk makes it softer and slightly richer; stock reads savory.
- The scoring stepThe two shallow cuts at right angles to the handle, cut only partway through, appear to be there so the omelet folds without cracking. Fold and turn it out onto the hot plate as directed.
- Why it sits in "Meat Substitutes"Serving -- If serving as a meal, count one omelet per person and cook them one at a time rather than scaling up in a single pan.
The folded, barely-set omelet was the dish that distinguished French from English and American egg cookery in nineteenth-century household writing: where an English omelet was often thickened with flour or milk and set firm, the French version relies on nothing but eggs, fat, and a cook's timing.