Denver omelette

In cuisine, an omelette (also spelled omelet) is a dish made from beaten eggs, fried with butter or oil in a frying pan (without stirring as in scrambled egg). It is quite common for the omelette to be folded around fillings such as chives, vegetables, mushrooms, meat (often ham or bacon), cheese, onions or some combination of the above. Whole eggs or egg whites are often beaten with a small amount of milk, cream, or water.

History

The earliest omelettes are believed to have originated in ancient Persia. According to ''Breakfast: A History'', they were "nearly indistinguishable" from the Iranian dish kookoo sabzi.

According to Alan Davidson, the French word ''omelette'' () came into use during the mid-16th century, but the versions ''alumelle'' and ''alumete'' are employed by the Ménagier de Paris (II, 4 and II, 5) in 1393. Rabelais (''Gargantua and Pantagruel'', IV, 9) mentions an ''homelaicte d'oeufs'', Olivier de Serres an ''amelette'', François Pierre La Varenne's ''Le cuisinier françois'' (1651) has ''aumelette'', and the modern ''omelette'' appears in ''Cuisine bourgeoise'' (1784).

Alexandre Dumas discusses several variations of omelette in his ''Grand dictionnaire de cuisine''. One is an omelette with fresh herbs (parsley, chives and tarragon), another is a variation with mushrooms that Dumas says may be adapted using green peas, asparagus, spinach, sorrel or varieties of truffles. The "kirsch omelette " (or rum omelette) is a sweet omelette made with sugar and liquor, either kirsh or rum. The omelette is rolled and sprinkled with powdered sugar. A hot poker is used to burn a design into the omelette and it is served with a sweet sauce made of liquor and apricot jam. Another sweet omelette, attributed to a royal cook of Prussia, is made with apples and brown sugar glaze. Of the Arabian omelette, Dumas writes "I have been concerned in this book to give the recipes of peoples who have no true cuisine. Here, for example, is a recipe the Bey's cook was good enough to give me." The omelette itself is made with an ostrich egg and served with a spicy tomato-pepper sauce.

Variations by country

China

* Egg foo yung, a Cantonese omelette made with beaten eggs and usually ham
* An oyster omelette, a dish of Hokkien and Teochew origin made with oysters, starch and egg batter

France

* Depending on sources, a standard omelette is cooked in butter on medium (or sometimes high) heat, is supposed to be golden brown or "unbrowned or very lightly browned" on the outside and soft in the insideGinette Mathiot (éd), ''La Cuisine pour tous'', 1955, p.107 : "(...) laissez cuire à feu vif. L'omelette doit être dorée à l'extérieur, baveuse au centre." (though variations are possible according to preferences); according to some American cookbooks reflecting high-end restaurant practices, a "French Omelette" should be unbrowned, cooked slowly over medium-low to medium heat, with initial stirring to prevent curds and sticking. Good with just salt and pepper, this omelette is often flavored with finely chopped herbs (often fines herbes or tarragon, chervil, parsley and chives) or chopped onions.
* The omelette de la mère Poulard, a Norman specialty first developed in Mont-Saint-Michel, has been called the most famous omelette in the world. It is served without fillings but often served with heavy garnishes.

* The Provençal omelette is more similar to a frittata than to a traditional rolled or folded French omelette. The eggs are cooked like a traditional French omelette until the time any fillings are added; instead of adding fillings in a strip or on half the omelette, they are scattered over the entire surface of the omelette, and then the entire omelette is flipped and slipped back into the pan to cook what had been the top and is now the bottom. A tourne omelette or vire omelette, a concave platter similar to a cake plate, is often used as an aid and can be used to serve the finished omelette. According to Bernard Duplessy the tourne omelette dates to "several centuries before Christ".
* Crespéou, another Provençal dish (also called ''gateau d'omelettes'' or ''omelettes en sandwich''), is made by stacking open-faced omelettes.

India

* In Parsi cuisine, ''pora'' is an omelette made from eggs, onion, tomato, green chillies, and coriander leaves. It is usually served for breakfast with Indian/ Irani tea and bread.

Indonesia

* In Betawi cuisine, ''kerak telor'' is a traditional spicy omelette that made from glutinous rice cooked with egg and served with ''serundeng'' (fried shredded coconut), fried shallots and dried shrimp as topping.
* '' Fuyunghai'' or ''puyonghai'' is a Chinese Indonesian omelette, usually made from the mixture of vegetables such as carrots, bean sprouts, and cabbages, mixed with meats such as crab, shrimp, or minced chicken.

Iran

*'' Kuku'' is an omelette frequently containing large proportions of other ingredients, including herbs, folded in.
*'' Nargesi'' or spinach omelette, an Iranian dish, is made with fried onions and spinach, and is spiced with salt, garlic, and pepper.

Italy

* A ''frittata'' is a kind of open-faced Italian omelette that can contain cheese, vegetables, or even leftover pasta. Frittatas are cooked slowly. Except for the cooking oil, all ingredients are fully mixed with the eggs before cooking starts.

Japan

* In Japan, ''tamagoyaki'' is a traditional omelette in which eggs are beaten with mirin, soy sauce, bonito flakes, sugar and water, and cooked in a special rectangular frying pan.
*''Omurice'' (from the English words "omelette" and "rice") is an omelette filled with rice and usually served with a large amount of tomato ketchup. ''Omu-soba'' is an omelette with ''yakisoba'' as its filling.
* ''Tenshindon

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