“A quart pot of strong coffee and the most extravagant breakfast his larder afforded: he fried his bacon just so and carefully browned his corn-cakes and used half the can of egg-powder and his last tin of ham to crisp a beautiful omelette. Into his coffee he dumped the entire jar of preserved cream that he had been saving for some purpose or another, he hadn’t quite known what until now. It was the best meal he had eaten in two months.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
tongue, or cheese, in the proportion of one tablespoonful to one egg; proceed to mix and cook in the same way as for omelette with herbs. 77. =Omelette with Oysters.=--Blanch one dozen small Blue Point oysters, by bringing them just to a boil in their own liquor, seasoned with a dust of cayenne, a saltspoonful of salt, and a grate of nutmeg; mix an omelette as above, omitting the herbs, place it over the fire, and when it begins to cook at the edges, place the oysters, without any liquor, in its centre, and fold and serve it in the same manner as the omelette with herbs. 78.
Sources: The passage is from Albert M. (Albert McKune) Treynor, Snow-blind, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Corson, The Cooking Manual of Practical Directions for Economical of 1877, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — burgundy cloth, boar stamp.