Hand-Book of Practical Cookery, for Ladies and Professional Cooks: Containing the Whole Science and Art of Preparing Human Food

before making the omelets and wiping it with a coarse towel, you can keep it as clean as can be without washing. To wash it causes the omelet to adhere to it while cooking, and injures its appearance. Commence by beating the eggs, then put the butter in the frying-pan, about two ounces for eight eggs; set on the fire and toss gently to melt the butter as evenly and as quickly as possible, else some of it will get black before the whole is melted. As soon as melted, turn the beaten eggs in, and stir and move continually with a fork or knife, so as to cook the whole as nearly as possible at the same time. If some part of the omelet sticks to the pan, add a little butter, and raise that part with a knife so as to allow the butter to run under it, and prevent it from sticking again. It must be done quickly, and without taking the pan from the fire. When cooked according to taste, soft or hard, fold, dish, and serve warm. It is _folded_ in this way: run the knife or fork under one part of the omelet, on the side nearest to the handle of the pan, and turn that part over the other part of the omelet, so as to double it or nearly so; then have an oval dish in your left hand, take hold of the frying-pan with the right hand, the thumb upward instead of the fingers, as is generally the case in taking hold of a pan, incline the dish by raising the left side, place the edge of the pan (the one opposite to the handle) on the edge of the dish, turn it upside down--and you have the omelet on the dish, doubled up and sightly. Cooks do not succeed in turning out a decent omelet generally, because they cook it too much, turn it upside down in the pan, or because they do not know how to handle the pan. In holding the pan as it is generally and naturally