Eggs are a marvellous thing. Don’t you agree? You can boil them into a solid form, scramble into creamy curds, whip air into them for wonderful airless dessert or thicken liquids into sauces, not to mention the glorious custards. Unfortunately for a very long time I didn’t care for them. The only time I really ate them was on Easter after some good old egg fights. You know the kind where you beat your coloured hard boiled egg against someone elses to see whose egg will crack first. After snow flurry of egg shells and the what I can only describe as PG bloodbath where one sibling is left crying because the other decided to used wooden egg in the fights, we were always left with cornucopia of hard boiled eggs that needed to be eaten. So after the Easter week I was always left so full that I could hardly look at another egg dish until next joyous season of carnage.

Fast forward to today and I have grown to like eggs, kind of. However I have not yet learned to make omelette and it is about time to change that. Not that I like them, but because I want to learn to make them. So here lies the question. How do I motivate myself to cook something that I don’t like to eat? Or more specifically, how do I make an omelette more interesting for me?

Enter the history nerd. There is a cookbook “The Professed Cook” by Bernard (?) Clermont. The third edition, published in 1776, is an amalgamation of his own recipes and a translation of an earlier French cookbook. It is one of my favourites. In it you will find a whole chapter on omelettes and other egg dishes with more than 100+ recipes to choose from, both sweet and savoury. It didn’t take long for something to catch my eye. In fact it was the second recipe in the chapter.

B. Clermont instructions on how to make an omelette from 1776 — Instructions for making a basic omelette from B. Clermonts cookbook The *Professed* Cook, published in 1776

I want to make a good French omelette, something that I wouldn’t be ashamed to serve someone. I have managed to make a decent plain omelette, according to Mr. Boyfriend, so obviously time to advance to the filled ones. Enter the Clermonts Military Omelette filled with wilted sorrel, Parmesan cheese and breadcrumb filling that is served along with fried bread. The recipe itself doesn’t actually tell you how to make one, it only talks about the flavourings. For instructions on how to make an omelette you need to look one above. Interestingly it tells you the ratio for butter to eggs, which is 112 grams to 8 eggs. However our eggs are thought to be bigger that in the 18th century, so lets make that 112 grams to 6 eggs. 3 eggs are generally a good number for one omelette, but 55 grams of butter wasn’t the best choice. As much as I love butter, that was too much even for me.

Do you know the difference between omelette and scrambled eggs? It is about 30 seconds. The eggs were practically floating in the butter and it was nigh impossible to make a nice omelette. Not only I didn’t manage to make one, I also overcooks the scrambled eggs. Ahh well… The second attempt was a bit more successful with a lot less butter but it probably would have been a good idea to practice to roll the darn thing onto a plate. It is a tricky business. How did it taste? I thought it was tasty and so did the Mr. The scrambled eggs however were so rich that I only managed to finish half of the dish.

Military omelette

6 eggs
salt & pepper
Butter
Stale bread
Parmesan cheese
Sorrel (or spinach if you can’t find it)
2 bread slices

In a food processor blintz together cheese and bread until uniform texture. Wilt some spinach and set aside. In a large pan melt some butter or ghee over medium high heat. Then add some bread slices and fry off on both sides until crispy.

For the omelette in a pan over medium heat melt a knob of butter and wait until it stops bubbling. Add half of your eggs, whisked and seasoned. With one hand keep stirring the eggs and while with the other shaking the pan so that the runny egg bits would flow in the empty spaces. Once most of the eggs are set, gently more the runny bits sitting on top to the edges so that they cook. Wet, curdy eggs are good in an omelette, runny not so much. Then add half of the spinach in the middle, sprinkle some cheese mixture and fold and flip on a plate. Sprinkle some extra cheese mixture on top and serve with fried bread.

Bon Appétit,
Liga