The Perfect Omelette and How to Cook It

author:Michael Sheridan

Omelette
They’re easy to cook, right?
We’ll see.

In cuisine, an omelette or omelet is a dish made from beaten eggs quickly cooked with butter or oil in a frying pan, sometimes folded around a filling such as cheese, vegetables, meat (often ham), or some combination of the above. To obtain a fluffy texture, whole eggs or sometimes egg whites only are beaten with a small amount of milk or cream, or even water, the idea being to have “bubbles” of water vapor trapped within the rapidly cooked egg. Some home cooks add baking powder to produce a fluffier omelette; however, this ingredient is sometimes viewed unfavorably by traditionalists. The bubbles are what make the omelette light and fluffy.
Omelettes may be only partially cooked on the top side and not flipped, even prior to fold.

The first thing to remember is that you need the right size of frying pan. This is more important than you may think. Too large, and the omelette will dry out; too small, and it will not cook through.

As a basic guide, you need a 15 centimetre pan for a two-egg omelette and a 25 centimetre pan for a four to six egg omelette. That is, 6 in. and 10 in.
respectively. Which, handily enough, is pretty much the size of pans you should have in your kitchen anyway.

The second most important thing is not to beat the eggs.

I’ll repeat that for all of those chefs out there who think they can cook an omelette : do NOT beat the eggs.

Instead, abandon the habits of a lifetime and stir the yolks into the whites using a knife blade. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Warm your empty pan through on a moderate heat, add a good knob of butter, turn up the heat and swirl it round to coat the bottom and sides of the pan.

When the butter is foaming pour some into the egg mixture, stir it in and then immediately pour the eggs into the pan.

Shake the pan to spread the mixture evenly. Now, using a fork or thin spatula, draw the cooked egg away from the edge of the pan and let the uncooked liquid run into the space created.

When the omelette is almost cooked, but the surface is still soft and liquid, flip one edge of the omelette towards the centre of the pan so that it folds over. Then slide the unfolded edge onto a warmed plate, rolling the folded edge over the top of it as you do so.

An omelette cooked in this way requires no filling, except perhaps some fresh, chopped, herbs added to the egg mixture about 15 minutes before cooking.
What’s that? Oh yes, all right; if you must you can use olive oil instead of butter.

author:Michael Sheridan

This site is hosted by (click on the graphic for more information)

Return from omelette to Home Page

Cheese & eggs and the perfect omelette with Bill & Sheila