side will always furnish one. Fresh eggs are essential; the frying-pan should be round and small. The basis of most omelets is the following: beat well the yolks of 6 and the whites of 3 eggs, put to them a little salt and 2 table-spoonsful of water; put 1½ oz. fresh butter into the frying-pan, and hold it over the fire; when the butter is hot, pour in the eggs, shake the pan constantly, or keep stirring the eggs till they become firm, then with a knife lift the edge all round, that the butter may get under. If over done, it will be hard and dry. Gather the border up, roll the omelet, and serve in a hot dish. This may be flavoured in various ways: with grated lemon peel, nutmeg and mace; or with the juice of a Seville orange; or with grated ham, tongue, or veal kidney, pepper and salt; or finely chopped parsley, green onions, chives and herbs: also, for maigre dinners, lobster meat, shrimps or the soft parts of oysters may be pounded, seasoned and put into the eggs. A pounded anchovy, and, also, mushroom powder, may be used to give flavour. Potatoe or wheaten flour, about a table-spoonful, is sometimes added to the eggs.
Boil some spring water, skim it, and put in a table-spoonful of vinegar. Break off the top of the egg with a knife, and let it slip gently into the boiling water, turning the shell over the egg, to gather in the white; this is said to be a better way than to break the egg into a cup, then turn it into the water. Let the saucepan stand by the side of the fire till the white is set, then put it over the fire for two minutes. Take them up, with a slice; trim them, and serve on toasts, spinach, brocoli, sorrel, slices of broiled ham, or in the centre of a dish, with pork sausages round.
Melt a piece of butter in a frying-pan, and slip the eggs in.—Or: lay some thin slices of bacon in a dish before the fire, to toast; break the eggs into tea-cups, and slip them gently into boiling lard, in a frying-pan. When done, little more than two minutes, trim the white, and lay each one on a slice of bacon. Make a sauce of weak broth, cayenne, made mustard and vinegar.
