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L'Omelette Roulée

EricC

Member
Those who know Julia Child's story know her fame was launched with the publication of the massive cookbook "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking", a collaboration with Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck. It was originally published in 1961, then a revision (which reflected modern innovations such as the food processor) was published in 1983.

The original French omelette is a bit different than what you get at IHOP, etc. Though lightly browned on the outside, the inside should still be creamy. And fillings are optional; an omelette made just with egg is still an omelette.

MTAOFC describes a couple of methods to make omelettes. L'Omelette Roulée a.k.a. "rolled omelette" takes a little more skill but is utensil-free, aside from beating the eggs. It works better over gas than electric.

This is from MTAOFC revised edition, Vol 1, page 132.

This is a very fast cook, less than a minute. You need to have everything ready to go (mise en place) before you start cooking. A standard 2-3 egg omelette works best in a #5 with 1TB butter. In this example I was cooking 1 egg omelettes in a #3 for the kids.

Melt butter over high heat. After bubbling subsides, add your scrambled egg (scrambled with salt and pepper). Let set for about 3 seconds.


Pick up the pan and hold it at a 20 degree angle. Give it sharp jerks towards you, about 1 per second. This should keep the egg separated from the pan and even out the liquid top without folding anything over.


If you're going to add toppings, do it now (after a few jerks). In this case I used a 3-cheddar blend.


Increase the angle of the pan and continue the 1 second jerks. This should fold it over a bit with each jerk, rolling it up. After it has shaped, hold it at the angle for a few seconds to lightly brown the bottom.


To serve, grip the handle with your off hand from the bottom with your thumb pointing away from the pan, like you would hold a knife if you were to stab downwards. Hold the plate in your other hand angled towards the pan, then flip the pan over, gently dumping the omelette onto the plate (in this pic I couldn't hold the plate because I was working the camera).
 
And there you go.


Not exactly perfect results, I was a bit encumbered trying to work the camera during such a quick and sensitive cook. The next one I did for the younger kid turned out better, a little more browning.


All said, they were yummy enough I ended up making five of them before everyone was satisfied...
 
I've never been able to master an omelette. I'll try doing it this way! Thanks for the detailed instructions.
 
I should mention, I'm left-handed so if a righty were to try this, imagine all the pics reversed...
 
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Nice. Low heat works!

Hilditch

Yeah, I mentioned elsewhere that I prefer to cook eggs over low heat and minimize browning. But in this case I was posting the procedure in JC's cookbook, and it specifies high heat. Though actually the #3's so small that even on my smallest burner, I couldn't set it more than med-high and still keep the flames under the pan...

But really it's barely more than a 30 second cook, most of the time being hand-held above the burner instead of on it. So the heat retained by the pan during preheating / melting the butter is what's really doing the cooking, the burner setting during the cook matters little... at least with CI.
 
Thank you! That is a real omelette. IMHO the egg is one of our perfect foods and I am constantly disappointed by how cooks treat them. The only difference in my technique is that I use a thin spatula to lift the edges, allowing the liquid to flow underneath. Check out a cookbook "EGG" by Jonathan Ruhlman.
 
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