The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1898-02-11
TENDER oMELETrEs.
And How to Make Them Perfect in
Form and Color.

Form and Color.
Many careful and really dainty cooks
never send a tender omelette to the
table. Perfect in form and color and
really appetizing to look upon, it proves
too substantial to really melt in the
mouth, as it should. A certain family
had banished this standby from the
board, but have now welcomed ii back
as If it were newly-discovered dish,
so different is the fiaky concoction now
served to the leathery horror Of yore.
So simple are the means that brought
about this change that they are given
for the benefit of our readers:
The tender discovery" this omelette
is now dubbed, and this is the history:
The women folk of the family had the
coy, cheerful kitchen as usual to
themselves one Sunday evening, and
hot relish had been begged for by the
pater. 1t was Becly's turn to preside
over the range, and she resolved to APP
ply some common sense hints she had
found in some such column as this. She
dared not whisper omelette. She might
as well have suggested fried sole
leather.
To make an omelette tender, she had
read, it must be cooked slowly, like
custard, and the eggs not whipped sep
arately, or even until frothy. only
few strokes to render them smooth
and not stringy. Two omelettes of four
eggs each, cooked on small pans, were
advised for a good-sized family, rather
than a large one of eight eggs, so she
put two frying pans about the size of
dinner plate to get very hot while she
was whipping the eggs, adding to each
four a half teaspoonful of salt, pepP-r
to taste and teacupful of milk. Hold
ing the pan to her cheek to test the
heat and finding it "sizzling," she put
in teaspoonful of butter, and when
this had been spread over the pan by
twirl of the handle the contents of one
of the bowls was stirred up and poured
therein.
1t was left on the hot part of the
stove, the pan being gently shaken
meanwhile, just long enough to make
sure the bottom was evenly Drowned
a broad-bladed knife thrust to the CEN
ter once to allow the hot butter to
reach this sensitive middle spot, which
otherwise would scorch before the
whole was brown. AS the pan was hot,
only the same time was allowed as
would make a pancake ready to turn.
A cook who never trusts to gueSswork,
however, may remove the pan near the
light and lift the edges sufficiently to
see if proper browning has taken place.
Upon the slow cooking at this stage
depends the desired tenderness, so the
pan was covered with a saucepan lid
and put where it would only just keep
hot, while the other omelette received
it's share of attention. Ten minutes
from the time the eggs were broken
sufficed for the whole performance,
while a tough omelette may be pro-
duced in five. The ten-minute variety
do not tougher when they cool and are
therefore excellent for school sand
witches as a change from meat.
A celebrated French chef to whom
a lady sent her cook to learn to make
this very dish insisted upon custard-
like appearance, and we all know what
crumbly horror is a baked custard
cooked too quickly. His idea was pre-
cisely the same as Becky's, but will be
new one to many-Cincinnati Com
mercial Tribune