An ****omelette (sometimes omelet in American English, see spelling differences) is a dish made from eggs, fried with butter or oil in a frying pan. It is a common practice for an omelette to include 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

France

India

Indonesia

Iran

Italy

Japan

Korea

In Korean cuisine, traditional omelettes are known as gyeran-mari (계란말이, "rolled-eggs") which is a type of savory banchan. Gyeran-mari is made with beaten eggs, mixed with finely diced vegetables, meats, and seafood. This side dish is often found in Korean banquet (janchi) meals, as well as Korean fast food (bunsik) restaurants.

Mexico and Central America

While the Spanish terms tortilla (in Spain) and torta (in the Philippines) are applied to an omelette dish, in Mexico & Central America tortilla is a term for a flatbread made of wheat or corn, while torta is used for a type of sandwich. An omelette in Mexico (& Central America) is sometimes termed as tortilla de huevos, but the term omelette is widely used.

Philippines

In the Philippines, omelettes are known as torta, usually encountered with the enclitic -ng ("tortang") indicating it modifies the next word (the main ingredient); e.g. tortang hipon = torta ("omelette") + -ng and hipon ("shrimp"), meaning "shrimp omelette". There are many types of torta which are named based on their main ingredients. They include:

Pontic Greeks

Spain

Thailand

United Kingdom

An omelette Arnold Bennett incorporates smoked haddock, hard cheese (typically Cheddar), and cream. It was created by the chef Jean Baptiste Virlogeux at the Savoy Grill in London for the writer Arnold Bennett, who was a frequent customer. Cooks from Marcus Wareing to Delia Smith and Gordon Ramsay have published recipes for it.

United States

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