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Sausage Omelet
Separate one-half of a pound of little pig sausage, prick each link several times with a fork and fry slowly, turning so as to brown evenly and pouring off the fat as it is tried out. Take two from the pan as soon as done and chop quickly, drawing the pan to one side of the fire. Break four eggs in a bowl, add two tablespoonfuls of warm water, beat with a fork just enough to mix, and season with a dash of salt. Heat the omelet-pan very hot, melt in one-half teaspoonful of butter and pour in the eggs. Shake and stir with a knife while the eggs begin to thicken, then allow the mixture to set, loosening the edges from time to time. When set but still very soft in the center lay in the chopped sausages, roll and turn out on a heated platter, garnishing with the whole sausages.
A rolled French-style omelet built around breakfast sausage, written for a coal range where the pan could be slid off the heat. Everything hinges on the eggs staying soft.
- Cook the sausage first, separatelyHalf a pound of "little pig sausage" is breakfast links, perhaps eight or so depending on size. Pricking and slow-frying while pouring off fat is what the recipe directs; it renders them without splitting the casings, and roughly 10-12 minutes over medium-low heat should bring them to 160F internal.
- "Drawing the pan to one side of the fire"On a range, the cooler edge of the stovetop held food warm without further cooking. The modern equivalent is the lowest burner setting or simply off the heat with a lid.
- Half a teaspoon of butter is not enoughThat quantity probably assumed a well-seasoned iron omelet pan, though the recipe does not say. In a modern nonstick or carbon-steel pan, a teaspoon to a tablespoon gives a better surface without changing the result.
- The water is deliberateTwo tablespoons of warm water in four eggs turns to steam and lightens the set. Milk or cream would make it heavier and more prone to browning. Beat only until the yolks and whites are combined, no more.
- Very hot pan, very short cookingThe whole omelet should take under two minutes. "Set but still very soft in the center" is the target, and residual heat finishes it on the platter. Cooked until dry, it turns rubbery and weeps.
- RollingLoosen the edges, lay the chopped sausage across the third nearest the handle, then tip the pan and fold that third over, rolling it out onto the platter seam-side down. A flexible spatula makes this far easier than the knife the original assumes.
- YieldFour eggs and half a pound of sausage serves two generously, or three as part of a larger breakfast. Doubling the eggs in one pan does not work; make two omelets.
The rolled omelet with a filling folded in at the last moment is a French technique that American cookbooks absorbed steadily through the late nineteenth century, and by 1900 it had settled firmly into the breakfast chapter alongside eggs shirred, poached and scrambled. What marks this version as American is the sausage: small fresh pork links, seasoned with sage and pepper and sold by the pound, were a fixture of the winter breakfast table in households that still kept a pig or bought from a butcher who did. The instruction to prick the links and pour off the fat as it renders reflects a kitchen attentive to the grease a pound of sausage gives up. The detail about drawing the pan to one side of the fire suggests the era of the solid-top coal or wood range, where heat control meant moving the pan rather than turning a dial, though the phrase persisted in print well after gas ranges arrived.