Oh dear! It seems the differences between an omelet and l'omelette consist in more than their spelling. An omelet, we see, is scrambled egg that has been allowed to set slightly on the pan so it can be rolled up and served neatly alongside a salad rather than poured onto hot buttered toast. The perfect omelette is a different beast altogether: barely stirred, hot, speckled golden, firm on the outside yet soft and unctuous in the centre, and folded just in half...

But then as Elizabeth David wrote: "As everybody knows, there is only one infallible recipe for the perfect omelette: your own. Reasonably enough; a successful dish is often achieved by quite different methods from those advocated in cookery books or by the professional chefs, but over this question of omelette making professional and amateur cooks alike are particularly unyielding. Argument has never been known to convert anybody to a different method, so if you have your own, stick to it and let others go their cranky ways, stubborn and ignorant to the end."

I've been making some mediocre omeletes for a long time know, after watching this lesson, I haven't been able to stop making myself delicious omletes. You're absolutely right about leaving eggs a bit wet, the texture of the finished product is fantastic.

I saw on food tv some chefs making great omelets using stainless steel pans ?? is this possible or is there a secret to it ???

This is indeed possible and yes there is a trick to it. Using stainless steel (or carbon-steel) pans can be tricky, which is why we devoted a whole topic in lessons to "Pans for Making Omelets".

In this topic (topic 2) we go through the reasons why they are used and why they are tricky. I am still an advocate of non-stick though.

Hope this helps...good luck!

I took your lesson and taught my wife how to also do this sort of omelet. Then, we took a couple table top gas stoves, a couple of pans, five dozen eggs and a variety of cheeses and herbs and ran an omelet bar at our church between services. I was great fun and seemed appreciated by all. We served about 30 people.

My method for making omelets is quite similar to the one in the video, but I have a "cheat" *(truc) I employ. Just about the time the eggs get to the point where the shaking begins in the video, I instead place the pan right up under the broiler in my oven for about thirty seconds. This firms the eggs from the top down, without all that work. I then pull the pan out, put the toppings on, and put it back under the broiler just until the cheese melts.

Of course, this probably wouldn't work at a church omelet bar. Somehow dragging a toaster oven along would just seem to lack the proper atmosphere.:)

Anyway, this method allows me to produce a very light, fluffy omelet without having it be so runny in the middle. It also gives a perfectly smooth finish to the outside, rather than the rather wrinkly ones shown in the video.

Although it is my understanding that omelets should not be speckled, at least if you're going to be snooty about it, speckling can be easily achieved by using whole butter and cooking the omelet a little quicker. The speckles occur where the milk solids are, which is why people in the unspeckled camp suggest the use of clarified butter. When cooking at home, I don't really care whether omelets are speckled or not, and I can easily eliminate the speckles whole butter can cause by simply being patient and turning down the heat a little. But, if I'm in a hurry, regarding speckles, who really cares?

In many professional kitchens, wrinkly omelets "like my grandmother's underwear" are also frowned upon. But, it all tastes the same, so, again, at home, who cares?

As an aside, although I know such greats as Tony Bourdain use the word, I really wish people who want to apply "unctuous" to the description of food would look the word up. To quote Inigo Montoya: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." :)

Oh, and by the way, the possibilities for fillings are indeed endless, save one thing. Don't try tuna as a filling, unless you really think cat food smells pretty darned yummy. :)

Been trying to make a perfect omelet for many years and finally succeeded (IMHO) after taking your lesson. I usually try and fill with whatever is left in the fridge. So today, a delicious turkey and swiss omelet was my reward for stumbling upon this site and your lesson. Thanks!

I'm still fairly new to cooking, and this lesson has been a godsend!

Having a bit of trouble folding the omelette to be as beautiful as the ones on the video... I'm sure after practice I'll get better at this.

And I've never had an omelette so soft in the middle before. Utterly delicious!

My wife is vehemently against all the non-stick pans since she associates them with unhealthy chemicals. Personally, I don't see much problem with them so long as they aren't overheated.

Anyway, she wanted an omelet this morning so I gave it a try. I was really surprised that it left such a nice clean pan despite it being SS! I will keep working on this and see if I can continue to replicate it more in the future. FWIW, I was successful with grilled onions and hash brown potatoes yesterday also, no sticking, and I was even able to flip them in the pan saute-style, which is really liberating rather than turning everything by hand. I would love to be able to do more 'non-stick required' cooking on SS, if possible, but I owe these recent successes to Rouxbe's excellent instruction. Thanks Rouxbe!

Are any of you aware of a healthy, durable, nonstick on the market? I see a lot of different ones but have no idea which is better - eclipse, ecopan ptfe-free, etc. We do have well-seasoned cast-iron, but I get lazy sometimes and just don't want to get non-stick cooking quickly without worrying about things! Any suggestions?

Good question about the non-stick pans Eric. I actually started a new forum post on this subject (on your behalf of course, I hope you don't mind).

Sounds like you are making some serious headway with those stainless steel pans of yours though. Nice work!!!

OMG!! I just made my first omelette using your technique, my boyfriend was very impressed and absolutely loved it! I bought my first non-stick pan yesterday and I already know my boyfriend is reaping all the benefits of my cooking. Thank you!

Add mine to the chorus of thanks! I had just realized that, in all my years of cooking, I had never made an omelette. With it being spring, the DH asked for an omelette with fines herbes for dinner and I froze. A tagine? Pate feuillete? Halibut in beurre blanc? Check, check, check. But an omelette? Never.
Oh Rouxbe, how you rode on your white horse and came to the rescue! Thank you thank you.
Here's a question though:even on the lowest heat, the omelette set up a lot faster than I expected: about 30-45 seconds..is this normal?
Also, after shaking and stirring, I couldn't get the eggs to spread across the pan like in the video. They were still quite wet, it's just that the ratio of wet to set was such that there was not enough wet to spread on the whole pan. I'd love some tips!

So glad we could help! Now, as for your questions, I think the first one about it setting faster than the video just comes down to the fact that every ones stove-tops are different. That being said, ours does run pretty hot, even on low as it is gas. Perhaps next time try taking the pan off of the heat every now and then during cooking. This will just slow down the cooking process and give you a bit more time to perfect your new skills.

Second question I think you answered yourself. Next time you might want to stop early to spread out the eggs. The thing with making a good omelette is practice and then more practice.

Keep up the good work and happy omelette making!!

I was trying to replicate this technique, but no matter what I tried when it came time to roll the omelet out to form a nice roll after letting the eggs set for a while, the egg sticked and ripped my omelet. I was pulling hair out as I tried a couple of my different non-stick pans, nothing worked.

Then I got out to my favorite restaurant supply store, got a Bourgeat non-stick pan and voila, problem went away.

I can clearly feel the difference in the non-stick surfaces. My other non-stickers have a rough texture, but the bourgeat is like ice. That's one of the advantages of shopping at stores that supplies restaurants, what's there works, it _has_ to. Some stuff are a little bit more expensive because it has to stand up to a lot of abuse, but at home it will last a lifetime.

i tried two omelets today and both stuck to the pan. I used a cheap old non stick pan and followed the steps. I still managed to get a good consistency in the omelet and no browning but... Perhaps my pan is no good?

Indeed. I believe it was your pan. As we say in the lesson you need to have a good non-stick pan, meaning one that is in good condition.

I say this from experience as I also have some good non-stick pans that are no longer good for making omelets as they have some minor scratches that now cause a bit of sticking for me.

Hope this helps - cheers!

I am having a bit of trouble mastering the French omelet and am looking for help. Once my egg starts to set it quickly turns into a mush-like consistency without any wetness (though it does not taste dry). So, I'm getting nice small curds, but the omelet does not set at all. It comes out of the pan looking a bit like grits. Pretty much delicious scrambled eggs.

I am using a non-stick skillet with a little bit of olive oil set on low heat on an electric range.

Would this be happening if I am using too few eggs or too large of a pan?

Perhaps the heat needs to be slightly higher. The heat could be a bit too low on your stove. By continually stirring over lower heat, you will produce a more scrambled egg like texture. That being said, it could also be the amount of eggs you are using, whether they are fresh or not, and/or the size of your pan.

Review the lesson one more time as there may be something you missed or have forgotten. Next time, try turning up the heat a tiny bit. Just keep in mind that you may have to work a bit faster. It's all about finding the right heat and process to produce the results, so this is where the practice comes in. Keep up the good work, you'll get there! Let us know how it goes or if you have any other questions. Cheers!

After several attempts with increasingly positive results, I started to consider myself fairly proficient at making omelets.

Then, I made the mistake of trying to impress my Mom by making one over at her house. It's easy to forget just how important it is to have a decent pan for certain things and she didn't have anything resembling a decent pan. The omelets turned out edible, but not exactly what I would call impressive.

The moral of the story: If you're not on your home turf, stick to scrambled eggs!

First of all, thanks for an excellent resource.

However, I'm having some trouble getting this perfect. First of all I can't scrape of the sides with my spatula but I guess I just need to buy a spatula with a round edge.

Second, should I heat the pan to a high temperature to make the oil shimmer or not? Because I want to cook at a low temperature it seems like the pan becomes very hot if I do. However if I don't I need to use a lot of oil to cover the pan. Should I start with the oil at a low temperature, or start high and then take it of the stove when I pour in the egg?

The problem I'm having is that either the egg sticks and get a little burned, or it becomes a little rubbery.

Thanks,

Fabian.

Oh and also, when I turn of the temperature to let the egg rest - should I take the pan off the stove or not?

A general request: when you mention temperatures in your videos it would be nice if you could put the Celsius measurement in text in the corner of the video, to help us stupid Europeans out a little bit. ;-)

Thanks,

Fabian

Fabian I see that you are a fairly new user to Rouxbe so if you don't mind I would like to ask you a couple of questions. First, how many times did you watch the lesson on "How to Make an Omelet"? Second, how many times did you practice making on omelet? I ask these question as much of the learning comes from watching the lesson a few times (maybe more) and also from practicing. Cheers!

p.s. We do not put text over our player as we want the learning to be as clean and clutter-free as possible. We do however add the Celsius to all the text recipes. The reason we do not say it as it gets to be too much (we have tried it)...imagine hearing "the heat should be between 190 degrees to 210 degrees Fahrenheit or between 87 degrees to 98 degrees celsius"...the message just gets lost as you are only hearing numbers coming at you. Besides much of cooking is not about exact temperatures. It more about learning and practicing the techniques.

Well, I will be tomorrow after I repeat the success of my first omelet for my girlfriend tomorrow morning. Yes, my first omelet, my secret omelet—made and eaten just now—was prepared away from her prying eyes. Thanks Rouxbe!

Just want to say that I love Paul B's idea of the Omelet Bar. Great idea. Learn it and share it.
Also, thanks to you Rouxbe. I love your cooking school.