Omelette au Naturel

Ingredients

• eight eggs
• a teaspoonful of salt
• a tablespoonful of water
• a cup of sweet butter
• pepper

Method

1. 1

   Beat eggs with salt and water.

2. 2

   Heat butter in a pan, pour in eggs, and cook gently, rolling as it cooks.

3. 3

   When done, it should be round like a small pudding.

As published

This recipe was extracted from La cuisine creole (1885) by Lafcadio Hearn, page 39. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

a teaspoonful of sait and some lumps of butter as big as a nutmeg. Then fill up the pan with new milk and bake until browned on top, but never let it get dry; it is better to put water in, if your milk has given out, than to let it get the least dry. This is a rich dish when well made, but a poor one if badly made, and served dry. 94 LA CUISINE CREOLE. eGGs, o/yiebeTs, etc. In choosing eggs hold each one up to the light; if fresh, the white will be clear and the yolk distinct; if they are not good, they will hâve a clouded appearance. Eggs for hoiling must be as fresh as possible; they may be kept fresh for several weeks by packing them in bran. Lay the small end of the egg downward in the box. You may also keep them for months by greasing them with melted lard, or beef fat, or in a weak brine oi lime water and sait ; strong lime water will eat the shell, and if very strong will cook the eggs. Add to a common bucket of water a pint of sait and a pint of lime; stir it well, and it is ready to receive the eggs. Omelets require a thick-bottomed pan, as an ordinary pan is too thin and would seoreh the eggs before they could be properly cooked. For turning omelets, eggs, frîed parsley, etc., hâve a skimmer spoon with a flat, thin blade, with holes to let the fat f rom the f ry. TO BOIL EGGS IN THEIR SHELLS^ SOFT OB HARD. Wash the eggs clean, drop them as wanted in a stew- pan of boiling water; if you désire them soft, let them boil just three minutes by the watch ; if only the yolk is to be soft five minutes will do it; but if wanted very hard for salad, sandwiches, etc., let th^m boil ten ot flf teen minutes. Then put them in cold water, to make them peel easily. If soft-boiled eggs are kept in the LA CUISINE CREOLE. 95 shell before eatiug them^ they will harden very much from the beat of the shell. EGGS, AU GRATIN^ FOE LENT. Boîl the ^gs hard, peel and eut them in slices, and lay them în a deep dish in close circular rows. Make a sauce of a tablespoonful of butter, the yolks of four eggs, a little grated cheese and half a cup of sweet milk. Stir this over the flre until it thickens, pour it over the eggs, strew some bread crumbs on the top, and bake for about ten minutes ; then send to table hot. POACHED EGGS WITII TOAST AND ANCHOVY PASTE. Toast six pièces of bread, shape them round, before browning; keep them where they will be hot until you poach the eggs. Take a tin dipper, halffill it with boiling water, and drop it gently into the pot again, holding it so that none of the water from the pot can get into the dipper ; keep it flrm by holding it yourself or getting it held for you, and break a nice f resh egg into the dipper ; let it stand until the white is firm. . Lay each egg on one ;of the slices of toast, use butter and sait on the toast for both egg and toast ; break each egg in this way until your, six eggs and six pièces of toast are used; butter very f reely, and serve hot. Anchovy paste may be spread on the toast before the eggs are put on, but it is a nice dish without it and very suitable for a délicate breakfast. 96 LA CUISINE CREOLE. POAOHBD EGGS AND HAM. Poach your eggs in a tin dippper, as directed, and when done put them on round slices of broiled or f ried ham. Many pref er this to f ried ham and eggs. EGGS WITH BROWNED BUTTEE AND VINEGAR. Put four ounces of butter into an omelet pan over the flre ; as it begins to sputter, break the eggs into it without disturbing the yolks, season with pepper and sait ; f ry the eggs caref uUy and remove them on to the dish in whieh they are to be served. Put two ounces more butter in the pan, f ry it of a brown color ; put to the butter two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, pour it over the eggs and serve. OMELETTE AU NATUREL. Break eight eggs into a bowl; add a teaspoonful of sait, half as much pepper, beat up the whole very hard and throw in a tablespoonf ul of water. Hâve the ome- let-pan on the fire with a cup of sweet butter heated to a gentle beat (fier ce beat would scoreh the eggs) ; pour the eggs into the heated butter ; raise it as it cooks, with a skimmer-spoon, turn in the brown edges, or turn one half over the other, as it keeps in the lusciousness of the omelet. Keep gently roUing it, as it cooks, until, when done, it is round like a small roly-poly pudding. Omelette au naturel is the basis of ail ômelets, for, by substituting différent seasonings, you hâve ail the vari- eties of them. Parsley and onion chopped fine and mixed with the eggs is one variety; grated ham and parsley is another ; sugar makes another class, and so on. LA CUISINE CREOLE. 97 A NICE OMELET WITH 6BBEN ONION. Beat the whites and yolks of six eggs separately, put in a tablespoonful of butter, a spoonful of chopped green onion and one of fine-cut parsley, and mîx wîth the eggs; then put it into a thick-bottomed pan, in whieh you hâve placed a half cup of butter. EoU it up as it cooks, and tilt the pan on one side, that the omelet may cook on the other side; roU up again as it cooks. Do not let it get hard and brown but keep it soft. Keep on rolling as well as you can ; a little practice will mak» you perfect. When the eggs cook, butter, pepper and sait them, and turn on a dish. OMELET FOR ONE PERSON. Beat two eggs — ^yolks and whites separately ; in a bowl put a tablespoonful of water

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.