This Forgotten Omelet Filling Was All The Rage 100 Years Ago

In addition to the perfect combination of fluffy and creamy and the overall buttery profile, the beauty of omelets is their versatility. There are so many options for what you can fold up in eggs, from meats and vegetables to herbs and cheeses. But we're willing to bet you've never tried one particular omelet filling that was a common favorite in the past: jelly.

Jelly omelets are one of the once-classic diner menu items we don't see anymore, and people cooked them at home, too. They're as simple as they sound: Eggs prepared as an omelet with jelly or jam of any flavor spread inside. The history of this dish is a bit of a mystery — it seems to have been more popular a century ago, as evidenced by a recipe for jelly omelets in a 1921 edition of "The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book." Interestingly, jelly omelets also apparently spanned cultures. On a Reddit AskFoodHistorians thread, commenters cite a mention of the dish in the 1930s British novel "Strong Poison" by Dorothy L Sayers, and an appearance of it on the 1960s American sitcom "Hazel." One Redditor's father would make thin jelly omelets, having grown up in northern New Jersey in the 1930s, while others had Jewish grandmothers, Midwestern moms, and Kenyan- and Tanzania-born parents prepare them as recently as the 1970s. It's not hard to imagine why this dish was such a shared staple. It's quick to make, doesn't require many ingredients, is affordable, and is filling and relatively healthy.

Jelly is actually a pretty natural fit for an omelet. While the eggs are buttery, they add just enough savoriness to balance jelly's sweetness. You'd spread jelly on bread or bagels, which both achieve a similar effect of countering fruity sweetness with a savory base. 

Jelly fillings could be a new way to upgrade your omelet-cooking game. To get an especially fluffy omelet that creates more of a pancake-and-jelly effect, separate your eggs before cooking — beat the egg whites into stiff peaks, then reunite them with the yolks. Or, incorporate some other nifty omelet hacks, like pouring in a splash of pancake batter, for similar results. With the omelet taste-and-texture technique down, turn your attention to the jelly filling.

The sky's the limit on what you choose, as you're not even limited to jelly. Remember, the key difference between jelly and jam is that the former is smoother and more gelatin-like, while the latter retains chunks of actual fruit. Grape jelly is a classic jelly omelet filling, but it's worth trying everything from peach to raspberry. Just remember you already have enough of a contrast between the buttery eggs and sweet, perhaps tart jelly, so avoid extremes like more acidic lemon curd. Think about combos like strawberry with fresh basil, apricot jam with habanero peppers, or apple jelly with brie cheese. There are also more savory leaning choices, like bacon, onion, or tomato jam, which would sing inside a mozzarella and spinach omelet.