In these next few posts, I will be sharing with you the successes and failures of omelet making. Not the puffed, stuffed, slathered kinds you could order at your favorite brunch spot, but the actual, real deal French Style omelets. You may be asking, “Why”? My boyfriend, Gene, can take the blame.
My Christmas gifts from Gene this year consisted of a myriad of cookbooks. Having learned fast of my obsession with cooking, he knew what would butter my toast, so to speak. One of these cookbooks was the cookbook of all cookbooks, the piece de resistance, and the jewel of any cookbook aficionado’s collection: Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertoholle, and Simone Beck.
Julia is the one who started it all. The reason you hear “BAM!” on television, watch Rachel knock out a 30 minute meal, or see Bobby throw down on the grill is all because of Julia. As a child, I would pretend to be Julia while assembling the most basic of recipes. I would line up all of my pre-measured ingredients (imagine, mise en place at age 8), and speak to the kitchen window in a high lilting voice while making boxed caked.
Now you may be asking yourself why someone who is so obviously obsessed with cooking, cookbooks, and Julia does not already own this masterpiece of masterpieces of a cookbook. Folks, if you know me at all you know I am CHEAP! I cannot think of the last time I bought a book that was past the first tasty rows of bargain books at Borders. You can be assured that my wanderings toward the café always veered by the cookbooks. After passing those shelves my arms would be heavy laden with books that I knew I would never purchase for myself. Mastering the Art of French Cooking was almost always one of them. My dear sweet, ever thoughtful boyfriend bought me all the books that he knew I would never buy for myself because he paid retail.
I have a theory that these gifts come with a secret (or not so secret) ulterior motive of being the beneficiary of my labor and I am more than happy to oblige him. He is going to be eating a lot of omelets in the near future. [Editors note: Yummy!]
Julia’s description of omelet making presents an interesting temptation. While she says there is a trick to making omelets, and that I may have to throw many omelets out before getting it just right, she also says it takes less than 30 seconds to make. It’s one of those great conundrums of life where learning takes minutes mastering takes a lifetime. The French omelet may prove to be my game of chess.
I read the directions about ten times before attempting this omelet, the reason being, that Julia told me to. “There is no time at all to stop in the middle and pore over your book in order to see what comes next.” My first attempt was made in a non stick pan that seemed to be the appropriate depth and width. I had my 2 eggs lightly beaten, with a fork standing by, while my pan came to a ripping hot temperature. My home being absent of butter I used peanut oil and dumped in the eggs. I noticed immediately that I did not have my sliding technique even close to effective. I had to use my fork a lot to get the eggs where I needed them and in rolling it onto the plate I found I had pushed the eggs to the wrong edge of the pan. The finished product was not very pretty but resembled some very tasty, well textured scrambled eggs. Not a bad first attempt but I knew that I needed to work on presentation.
Attempt Number 2:
Omelet number two was made with room temperature butter. Julia does not warn against the foibles of room temperature butter, but I warn you now. A screaming hot pan and room temperature butter are not a successful combination. My butter went from melting, to foaming, to browned, to burned in about . . . maybe point zero five seconds. I threw my eggs in right away and immediately realized that butter was a useless liquid that would only serve to discolor my eggs. The good news is that my technique improved greatly. After reading the directions in the book several times, I knew I had to see Julia make an omelet. Youtube.com proved to be a goldmine of Julia omelet making clips. I watched her make an omelet in black and white, in 1964, and in 1980 on the Today show. I was armed. My eggs came out underdone to my taste. I believe this to also be a product of the overcooked butter as I was mentally hurried to get it finished before blackening began. It was very well formed and slid onto the plate in a beautiful gentle roll. The brown liquidly butter that ran here and there was unappetizing as was the underdone texture. My dog seemed to enjoy it.
Attempts Number 3 and 4:
The next morning I met Gene at his house to go into work with him. Arriving at just after seven a.m. with a departure time of seven-fifteen, I attempted my 3rd and 4th omelets. Remember, it is supposed to take less than 30 seconds. Pan . . . HOT: check. Butter . . . Room temperature: check. Eggs . . . Mixed: check. Technique . . . We will see. Eggs in, pan shaking, jerking, tipping, rolling onto plate . . . VIOLA! Despite the egg being just a bit browner than I think Julia would approve of, the egg looked fantastic. I set it aside and began attempt number 4. This was the most successful to date. While the 3rd proved to be a little uneven in doneness, the 4th was a perfect creamy little roll of egg. I think there is still improvements to be made on doneness, color, and smoothness (mine was wrinkly, Julia’s was not), but I am getting there.
