Omelettes: tips?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Ok, I had a proper go at an omelette yesterday and it worked ok, but I'd like to get better. I do have some questions:

• GH says to stir it until it sets. It starts setting, I kept stirring. Should I have? Stirring seems weird, anyway, don't you want the butter to stay on the bottom?
• It set more in the middle than on the sides, which is the opposite of what GH said to expect. I was using a Le Crueset pan. One edge ended up quite wet at the end, while the rest was cooked.

I don't stir, I kind of tilt it and pull up the sides so it runs underneath

I am not the most accomplished omelette maker, however

if they are soggy at the edges I would be guessing maybe too much egg in there to start with? If you keep it fairly thin and tilt it about I would expect well done edges and softer middle

Hmmm, it was four eggs and a fairly big pan. Very thick bottomed pan.

Hello, by the way, how are you?

I thought 2 eggs to an omelette and no stirring but I'm no expert

I find the best omelettes are left alone once the eggs are added

and then when the bottom is done (by prising it away from side a little) you just pop the pan under the grill .. they get all big and fluffy

I have been really Not Well but am rallying a bit today

I still have your pirate bag and am hoping to pass it over soon

do you feel the need of a day out in beautiful Essex, at all?

I do the grill thing for frittatas, but not omellettes (Ommellettes? Damn those double letters. oommeelleetteess?)

We seem to have Something on every day these days. I'll talk to the boys about a trip out, maybe next weekend or the one after? It's all birthday parties all the time at the moment here ...

You've had a vicious cold, right (the kind that would absolutely be a 'flu if you were XY)? What have you been doing with DS?

pray tell what is a frittata compared to an omelette then? .. don't know

snotty cold eh Franny .. them's the worst .. glad you're on the mend (I get DH to bring me lots of toddies)

Ooh, it was TERRIBLE

I was off work and everything

still ache like a bastard but am Dosed Up from health food shop and feeling Slightly Perkier

NQC it is ridiculous but we are have stuff on virtually every weekend until the end of July . July 1st looks like a goer though, and there is a Food and Drink festival on in the park, which is usually fun?

Frittatas are thicker, and have stuff in them, cooked with them (or before them, in the same pan). Omellettes are thinner, and are folded.

I'll talk to DH about Schedule, we have to book a visit to the ILs too. Insane.

ok well I am going to pencil you in for July 1st in the hope it might make it actually happen

Sounds good.

It is, of course, Canada Day, so I will be demanding lots of Canada-related festivities.

we all have to shave our heads, right?

You all have to get Maple Leafs shaved into your heads. Obviously.

1 heat the pan slowly over a low heat - then it will heat much more evenly than if you do it fast.

2 make sure the butter is good and hot - heat until the foam subsides.

3 Add egg mixture (which I normally lighten with a little milk or water) then tip and rotate the pan pulling the edges in slightly so that the runny mixture runs into gaps around the outside.

4 Once there is no runny mixture left turn the heat down a little and wait till the middle of the omelette is almost dry.

5 slide out of the pan, folding it as you tip it onto a plate. It should still be very slightly wet in the centre as it will continue to cook on the plate once folded and that will finish the cooking.

All of this only takes a minute or two.

Those tips make sense, anorak - sounds like you make a lot of ommeelleetteess!

(Oh, I did add milk - I was following the Good Housekeeping recipe more or less)

My 8 year old made a damn good omlette yesterday just like Anorak said really.

Have you ever read that book by John lanchester "THe Debt to Pleasure"? About a gourmand who talks about food a lot and tells the story of a man who asks the best-renowned omelette-maker in France what her secret is, and she writes down a recipe which says (translated)
"I take some good eggs
I add some salt
I beat them well
I heat some butter in a pan
and I cook them"

I think of it every time I make an omelette [pretentious]
But it's basically true
I personally like the top cooked so I have a system with two wooden spatulae where I can turn the omelette over without breaking it

THe book is good btw and worth reading

I think I have read something else by him, maybe?

I go through phases of loving sandwiches with plain ommeelleetteess in the middle, with chorizo and cheese and tomato [glutton], so getting a good technique would be good.

i don't stir. i pull the sides in as they set and tilt the pan so the uncooked egg goes onto the pan to be cooked. i do that over and over so the omelette gets thicker and fluffier. it's the way delia does it.

i'm a puller and a tilter as well. i think the secret is also to take it off a couple of mins before you're completely comfortable about doiing so. by the time you've served it up the heat will have cooked the runny egg, but it won't be dried out.

I don't mind if it's a bit wet. I do really hate dried up little bits of egg .

Pruni! Jings!

now don't tell me you are one of these deregisterers

nooooooooooooooooooo