This section is from the book "Practical Cooking And Dinner Giving", by Mary F. Henderson. Also available from Amazon: Practical Cooking And Dinner Giving.
Throw into the omelet-pan fine-cut shreds of tender ham, with the butter. When the ham has cooked a moment, throw in the eggs, and proceed as for plain omelet. A little chopped parsley beaten with the eggs will improve it. The dish may be garnished with thin diamonds of ham around the omelet.
Before beating the eggs, add with the pepper and salt some chopped parsley and shives; cook a moment in the butter some thin shreds of onion, then pour in the eggs, and proceed as for a plain omelet. The shives may be omitted.
Boil the mushrooms in a little water, or stock, to which are added pepper, salt, a few drops of lemon-juice, and, when done, a little flour, to thicken it slightly. Inclose some mushrooms in the omelet in the manner explained for tomatoes; pour the remainder of the mushrooms around the omelet, with a little juice,
Inclose some picked shrimps in the centre of the omelet. Garnish the omelet with shrimps unpicked.
Scald the oysters in their own liquor; when just about to boil, plump them by throwing them into cold water; then beard them; beat them into the eggs before they are cooked, leaving a few oysters for garnishing the plate.
Brillat Savarin says: "Take the same number of eggs as guests at table. Take then a piece of good fromage de Gruyère, weighing about one-third, and a piece of butter one-sixth this weight. Break up and beat your eggs well in a saucepan; then add your cbeese and butter grated. Put your saucepan on the fire, and stir with a wooden spoon until the substance is thick and soft; put in a little salt, according to the age of the cheese, and a good sprinkling of pepper, which is one of the positive characteristics of this ancient dish. Serve up on a warm dish. Get some of your best wine from the cellar, which pass around briskly, and you will see wonders."
Gruyère cheese is considered superior to other cheeses in this omelet; yet any kind of American cheese, if highly fla-vored, is most delicious also, and, I think, quite as good as the Gruyère. I would use fresh cheese, and chop it fine, rather than grate it, and also would not add so much butter. We will say, then, to six eggs add three-quarters of a cupful, or two ounces, of cheese chopped fine, a piece of butter the size of a small egg, salt, and pepper. Proceed as for plain omelet.
Add to the above receipt about two or three cupfuls of mac-aroni which has been boiled in salted water and drained, and hot. still hot.
Beat the whites and yolks of four eggs separately, and then, adding pepper and salt, put the whites over the yolks, and mix them together carefully. Put butter the size of a small egg into an omelet-pan, and when it has covered the bottom of the pan and is bubbling turn in the eggs; with a spoon lift them from the bottom until all is slightly cooked, or at least well heated; then gather up the sides to make it into omelet form; shake the pan to disengage the omelet, and at the same time to color it slightly at the bottom; turn this over into the centre of a warm platter, so that the colored part be on top.
Add a little sugar to the eggs, instead of pepper and salt; make it then as a plain omelet, inclosing in the centre any kind of preserves, marmalade, or jam; when it is turned on to the dish, sprinkle sugar over the top.
This is a most delicious omelet. Add a little sugar to the eggs, say a sherry-glassful to six eggs, and make the omelet as a plain omelet. When turned on to the dish, sprinkle a little handful of sugar over the top, and pour over five or six table-spoonfuls of rum.
Set it on fire, and serve it at the table burning.
Cook the vegetables first until they are done, as they will not have time to cook with the eggs. Make them in the same manner described for tomatoes; or the vegetables may be beat-en with the eggs. Make a border around the omelet of the vegetables used.
 
Continue to: