On Food and Cooking

scrambled eggs held together in a coagulated
envelope, a skin of egg heated past the moist,
tender stage to the dry and tough, so that it has
the strength to contain and shape the rest. Its
formation requires a hotter pan than do evenly
tender scrambled eggs. But a hot pan means
fast cooking to avoid overcooking.
An important key to a successful omelet is
contained in the name of the dish, which since
the Middle Ages has gone through various
forms — alemette, homelaicte, omelette (the
standard French) — and comes ultimately
from the Latin lamella, “thin plate.” The
volume of eggs and the pan diameter should
be balanced so that the mix forms a relatively
thin layer; otherwise the scrambled mass will
take too long to cook and be hard to hold
together. The usual recommendation is three
eggs in a medium-sized frying pan, which
should have a well-seasoned or nonstick
surface so that the skin will come away from
it cleanly.