THE QUEEN AND THE OMELETTE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1530, 2 December 1873, Page 37

THE QUEEN AND THE OMELETTE.

A School of Cookery has been recently instituted at the South Kensington Museum, with great success. Lectures on this much-neglected art are delivered in a popular style, illustrated by practical illustrations. Very recently her Majesty the Queen, accompanied by the Princess Christian and the Princess Beatrice, visited the International Exhibition at Kensington, one Friday morning, at a quarter-past ten o'clock. The Hon. F. Leveson Gower, chairman of the Committee of the School of Cookery, and the other members of the committee, conducted the Queen and Princesses to chairs in the school. Mr Buckmaster, the lecturer of the school, then made the following observations, during which an omelette aux fmes heroes was pre-

pared:— " May it please your Majesty,—The specimen of cooking which is now to be presented takes only four or five minutes, and is within the reach of the poorest of your Majesty's subjects. The materials cost 3§d, and they furnish a wholesome, nourishing dish, .acceptable for two persons. The omelette is seldom properly cooked even in France, which gives it its name. It is never found in the homes of the poor of this country, and in the houses of the rich it is often very badly cooked. The ordinary frying-pan and spoon found in every house will answer perfectly well. There is no occasion, as you are told in cookery books, for an omelette pan and spoon. We wish to show in this school not only the best and most economic methods of domestic cooking, but the various uses to which kitchen Utensils may be fairly applied without injury. To prepare a plain omelette, see that the frying-pan is thoroughly clean;; for cleanliness brings with it habits of domestic order, which are among the first and best methods of happiness in every household, nor is it without its influence on the moral character, for virtue and dirt can never dwell comfortably together. Place in the frying-pan about one ounce of butter. We use gas-stoves and duplicate all our operations, so that the public may have a ■jbetter opportunity of seeing; but what s#'& at these gas-stoves we can equally,

well do at au ordinary kitchen fire-place. Break three eg«s separately to see they are fresh, be.-'t them up with a little chopped parsley and a pinch of pepper and salt. The eggs should not be beaten too much, or the white of them separates, and you.produce a watery mixture which destroys.ihe flavor and appearance of the omelette. Now that the baiter is melted pour in the frying-pan the omelette mixture and stir it till it begins to set or thicken, shake the pan occasionally, and fold over the omelette neatly into an oval shape, and when it is of a golden color turn quickly into a dish. To be able to prepare a plain omelette is to be able to prepare every kind of omelette. If you require a cheese omelette, introduce into the omelette mixture a desseitspoonful of grated Parmesan cheese, with a little pepper and salt, and sometimes a few grains of cayenne pepper. In a sweet omelette no pepper or salt, but a little sugar; and just before the omelette is folded in the pan distribute evenly over a little jam. If a bacon omelette, a few pieces of previously cooked bacon cut into small dice, and so on for various kinds of omelettes. In preparing an omelette, remember five things—a clean pan, the mixture must not be too much beaten, the omelette must noc be too large, three eggs are better than six eggs, which make two omelettes; they should not be too much cooked; they should be eaten immediately or they become tough, and more like a pancake. To make simple food wholesome and palatable by cooking was a duty imposed on man from the very earliest period of his civilization. An abundant supply of food and the proper preparation of it by cooking are matters intimately connected with the physical well-being and happiness of your Majesty's subjects, and, from a long and close connection with the working classes, on their behalf I may be permitted to say that the interest which your Majesty has taken in this school of popular cookery will be gratefully appreciated by all classes of your Majesty's subjects." This demonstration occupied just four minutes, and the Queen and the Princesses each tasted the omelette, which her Majesty pronounced to be very good.