Whats an omelet?

My mom made omelets often when I was younger. I never had an omelet made my anyone else until I was about 14. It was at a restaurant. The thing they gave me resembled a taco, with egg instead of a taco shell. I later discovered that most people made omelets by folding egg around stuff. I do not consider this the correct way to make an omelet. How can you make an omelet & bagel sammich out of one of those?

The way mom always did it was to get a bowl, throw in eggs, ripped up cheese, and whatever other ingredients we wanted. She then mixed it all up, threw it in a pan and cooked it sort of like scrabled eggs. The result was a shapeless mass held togehter by cheese. IMHO, this is a true omelet. Also, an omelet is not right unless cheese is the main ingredient, outmassed only by the eggs.

The only good thing I can think of about the folding method is the appearance, and I don’t really care about the apearance of my food all that much.

My favorite omelet ingredients are ham, sausage, green peppers, and onions.

So, how do you make omelets? Fold or mix? What do you like in them?

I’m not much of an omelet fan, but every one I ever had was made like your mom’s. I wasn’t aware that those “other” omelets even existed.

Mix then fold. Sometimes then add some extra grated cheese & put under the grill for a minute or two :).

Add - ham, tomato, cheese. That’s usually about it, oh! salt & pepper & herbs.

Usually though, I just have scrambled eggs, they’re less work.

Extra cheese, eh? Grill, eh? I will definitely have to try that. Thanks, Fierra.
Wait a minute, under the grill? Must be a transatlantic terminology difference.

What you’ve been eating wasn’t an omelette, but a ‘skillet’ or ‘scrambler’.

Here’s an omlette:

’Zong’s Perfect Omlette

3 large fresh eggs (try whipping them in a blender, it’s awesome!)
Generous portions of diced ham, crumbled feta, sliced black olives, grilled onions

To be enjoyed anytime day or night.

Thanks, now I have to make another run to the market.

Despite what you mother may have told you, an omelette is made by folding, and doesn’t need to have anything inside. Witness the classic French omelette.

Omelet” is a play by William “One Over Easy” Shakespeare.

My family has a great way of making omlettes…
I believe they call it “Egg Mess”.

Anything and everything is included…Maybe 10 eggs, about two handfulls of every kind of cheese we have, mushrooms, green peppers, onion, an’ whatever kind of meat might be laying around (preferably sausage). We dump all the suff in the skillet first and then pour the beaten eggs and cheese on. :slight_smile: Yum now I’m hungry.

although most people would say, “under the broiler”.

American ovens have two sections, the main one and a drawer below it. The heating element, wheather electric or gas, is between the two and exposed to the drawer. You use it for foods that you just want to brown the surface of, or melt cheese over. Its handy for making frozen french fries, or toasting bagels or muffins that don’t fit in a toaster.

Waitress to Martin: “That’s not technically an omlette.”
Martin: “I don’t want to get into a semantic argument about it I just want the protien.”
<sigh> Good old Grosse Pointe Blank. What a flick.

I concur with Schwanzong. My understanding that the item that you described can be called a scrambler, a skillet, or by a similar term, and an omelette is the egg that is folded.

My home economics teacher should be proud.

Huh?

I’ve never seen a two section oven in my life. But I’m assuming you mean use the heating element on the top of the oven instead of the one on the bottom… (set the oven to broil instead of bake) right?

You do set it to broil rather than bake. But you are using the element that is below the main compartment and above the smaller compartment. I’ll see if I can find a picture.

Some ovens have their broilers in a seperate compartment, while others do not. In both cases, setting the dial to “broil” creates an intesely hot region on the inside top surface of wherever the “broiler” is, as opposed to regular oven use which has heat come out of the bottom and, hopefully through ingenious design, eminate fairly evenly through the conductiveness of metals.

In no-drawer oven one must move the rack up to the top position for broiling.

If you just mix it all together then you’ve got scrambled eggs with stuff in it. Which isn’t a bad thing but it isn’t an omlett. To make an omlett I start out with a few eggs, add a bit of milk, and I whip it so it gets nice and airy. Then I put the eggs on the skillet and after about 30 seconds to a minute I add the filler. When it is cooked enough I fold it, then I flip it a few times, and all done.

Marc

http://www.tymagic.co.kr/gas%20oven%20ranges.html

Ah. Here are examples of ovens that have the broiler underneath, and ones that have it above the main part.

I’ve never seen one with the broiler above. I must say, its about time they made them this way. Having the broiler down near the floor IS awkward. And some of these have a window in the broiler. Nice. Very nice. Probably more expensive…

Thanks for the replies everybody.
I couldn’t get that website to work.
I’ve never seen an oven with a seperate broiler. All the ones I’ve ever seen have a broil setting wich activates the top element only, and you leave the door patially open when you use it. It is sort of simulating a grill. The drawer below the main compartment is not exposed to the bottom element, its used to store pans.

I have seen those expensive ovens with two compartments, but they were both regular ovens. They were made to cook 2 things at different temperatures simultaniously.

2 beaten eggs, poured into an omelet skillet sprayed with non stick spray as the egg begins to cook lay some cheese and a strip of bacon down the middle. (or whatever your favorite ingredients are, bacon and cheese are what my son prefers) Flip one third of the edge over the top of the now melting cheese and then slip th spatula under on the same side again and flip it over so its trifolded and laying on the bottom seam. Top with a little bit more cheese and slide under the broiler for a very short bit. The omelet fillings are nicely cooked into the eggs and its still an omelet and not a scrambler goolash.

Omeletier in Texas,
Abby

Dammit, erislover, I opened this thread specifically so I could use that qoute.

UK ‘Grill’ = USA ‘Broil’ (I think)

In any case in the context that Fierra used the word, we’re talking about radiant heating from above the food.