I can give you a tip on how to prepare, in the very best fashion, two
articles of food.
The first is omelette: The frying pan should be held at a slant, with
the lower part immediately over a moderate heat, and continually the
volume of eggs that becomes cooked should be scraped back and the
liquid part allowed to flow over the pan thus emptied, and then when
the omelette is, I should say, about two-thirds cooked, it should be
removed from the fire and dished.
It is impossible to make an omelette of the utmost symmetry and
firmness and have it good at the same time. If it is stiff enough to
maintain a certain symmetry, then it is too stiff to be good. I have
made an omelette in this fashion containing as many as eighteen eggs. I
learned how to make omelette from Madame Poulard of Mont St. Michel in
Normandy, one of the most famous omelette makers in Europe.
I am also particularly successful in making pies. On one occasion I
made pies for one hundred and eighty-five officers on the troop-ship
_Leviathan_. To make pies, one must have the best quality of butter and
the best quality of flour. Use a pound of butter to every two pounds
of flour. The butter must be rather firm and must be mixed with the
flour with your hands. Then when you have a sort of a mass of dough on
the table, make a little hollow in the middle, pour in a little cold
water, mix it to such a consistency that it can be made into a roll
perhaps as thick as your wrist. It will require about two inches to be
rolled out thin for the crusts. Dust a little flour in the dish that it
is to be baked in and put into the oven at such a temperature as would
require one half an hour to bake. There’s a considerable secret in the
choice of fruits. The top crust should have little apertures in it so
as to permit the steam to escape. It is easier to make perfect pies
than any other dish.