Ingredients: Six eggs, one ounce of cheese, two ounces of butter, one heaping tea-spoonful of flour, a little cayenne, one table-spoonful of vinegar, one and a half cupfuls of milk.
Put the eggs on the fire in cold water, and when they come to a boil set them at the side of the fire to simmer seven minutes; then put them into cold water. When cold, remove the shells; cut them in half lengthwise with a sharp knife, taking care not to tear the whites; mash the yolks, to which add the grated cheese, vinegar, cayenne. At the cooking-school was added also a tea-spoonful of olive oil. Make a _roux_ by putting the butter into a little saucepan on the fire, and when it bubbles mix in the flour. In another small saucepan have a wine-glassful of milk boiling, to which add enough of the _roux_ to thicken it, and then add the yolks, and mix all together until quite hot. Now to the remaining _roux_ add a cupful of milk, and stir until quite smooth for a sauce; fill the cavities of the whites of the eggs with the yolk preparation, rounding the tops to represent whole yolks; arrange them in a circle on a warm platter, and pour the white sauce in the centre.
Nothing is more simple than to make an omelet, yet very few can make one. The eggs stick to the pan, or they are overdone, and tough.
Senator Riddle, of Delaware, a decided epicure, took much pleasure in his superior knowledge on this important subject. Once when breakfasting with Mrs. Crittenden, of Kentucky, a piece of omelet of doubtful appearance was presented to him. “Before we proceed with our breakfast,” said he, “let me teach you a valuable accomplishment.” They repaired at once to the kitchen range, where the senator demonstrated at once his qualifications as a first-class cook. My own first lesson was from Mr. Riddle, so of course I have the correct _modus operandi_; afterward in London, however, I heard a lecture upon omelets from a cooking professor, and was astonished at the multiplicity of dishes which could be made from this simple preparation; not only breakfast dishes, but also the variety of sweet omelets for dessert.
The fire should be quite hot. All cookery-books especially expatiate on the necessity of a pan to be used for omelets alone. Any clean, smooth iron spider, or _sauté_ pan, is a good enough omelet-pan. Put the pan on the fire to become heated; break the eggs into a kitchen basin; sprinkle over them pepper and salt, and give them twelve vigorous beats with a spoon. This is enough to break all the yolks, and twelve beats was Mr. Riddle’s rule. Now put butter the size of an egg (for five eggs) in the heated pan; turn it around so that it will moisten all the bottom of the pan. When it is well melted, and _begins to boil_, pour in the eggs. Holding the handle of the omelet-pan in the left hand, carefully and lightly with a spoon draw up the whitened egg from the bottom, so that all the eggs may be equally cooked, or whitened to a soft, creamy substance. Now, still with the left hand, shake the pan forward and backward, which will disengage the eggs from the bottom; then shaking again the omelet a little one side, turn with a spoon half of one side over the other; and allowing it to remain a moment to harden a little at the bottom, gently shaking it all the time, toss it over on to a warm platter held in the right hand. A little practice makes one quite dexterous in placing the omelet in the centre of the platter, and turning it over as it is tossed from the omelet-pan.