Omelets

Few preparations in the kitchen instill as much uncertainty in the cook as an omelet. This is due in part to the conflicting directions in cookbooks and magazines and to the so-called differences between a “French" omelet and an American one. The goal is simple: lightly scrambled eggs encased in a thin, tender crust, the whole thing shaped vaguely like an old-fashioned tapered cigar. There are a number of ways to go about cooking an omelet, with most of them designed to deal with the fact that when you put the beaten eggs in the pan of hot butter, the bottom sets and the eggs on top remain liquid. If you don’t do something quickly, the egg on the bottom hardens, wrinkles, or even burns before the runny egg on top cooks. You can always slide the pan under a broiler, add any filling, and fold the eggs over. Or, you can lift up the edge of the set egg with a fork, so the liquid egg runs underneath, and then continue cooking until all the egg has set. Both methods will work, but to get a perfectly shaped omelet in about a minute, you need to use a specific technique.