French omelette baveuse with bacon strips

Of course an omelette is super easy to make. And so also an omelette with bacon strips. But today we're going one step further: we're making an French runny omelette "baveuse" with bacon strips. Difficult? Not at all, just as simple as a so-called classic omelette with bacon strips. With a few strokes of the spatula, however, we make a runny omelet: soft on the top, and golden brown on the bottom. You can find more about this French technique later in this article, after the recipe.

How to make an omelette "baveuse" with bacon strips

As mentioned, an omelette with bacon strips is very easy to make. But with the "baveuse" technique you can turn this smelly normal omelette into something gourmet for a Sunday morning breakfast or a brunch.

Beating the eggs

So we start with scrambling and beating the eggs. Like you do for any other omelette. If you want you can also add a tablespoon of cream or milk. This will make your omelette extra creamy. However, there is a very important “but” that we have take into account. With a classic omelette, we fry the eggs well. So it's no drama if your eggs are already a day older. With the "baveuse" technique, however, your omelette will remain runny. That is why it is highly recommended to use fresh eggs. And this also means that this method of frying eggs is not recommended for pregnant women.

How can you tell whether your eggs are still fresh?

There is a very simple way to determine whether and how fresh your eggs are. For that we just need a jug of water. In which we drop the egg. If this remains flat on the bottom, it is still very fresh. And therefore perfectly suitable for our runny French omelette "baveuse". Does the egg stay upright on the bottom? Then they are already a little less fresh. But still perfectly usable for consumption. But then the advise is to make a classic omelette with it. It is better not to use them anymore for a “baveuse” or other (semi) raw preparations. However if your eggs start to float, you should not consume them anymore. Then they are too old already. Safety first!

Frying the bacon strips

To fry the bacon strips, we first heat a pan. When it is hot, we add the bacon strips. The bacon strips will now fry in their own fat. After a few minutes they are ready. Now we add the butter to the bacon strips and let it bruise well. Once the butter is bubbling, turn the heat down. We don't want our French omelette to cook too quickly. We still need to have the time to make our runny baveuse.

Making the omelette "baveuse" with bacon strips

Now we can bake our omelette. As said, we don't want this to go too fast, so this has to be done on a lower heat. If you have a gas fire or an induction plate, the temperature drops quickly and you can start baking the omelet right away. This cooling down might take longer with a ceramic fire or a hob. There it is advisable to fry the bacon on a lower heat. Give the pan then also some time to cool down.

We now pour the beaten eggs over the bacon strips. The liquid egg will immediately spread over the pan and start to solidify at the bottom. Now we will pull the solid parts to the middle with a spatula. At the same time, the still liquid egg on top will flow to the outside. Repeat until the egg is mostly set. You now have something like a runny omelette. We turn off the heat and let the egg continue to cook in the pan for another minute or so. This to make sure the bottom is fix. So we can wrap it or transfer it to a plate without breaking it.

Meanwhile, we finely chop the chives and sprinkle the omelette with the finely chopped chives. And with that, our omelette is ready and you can serve it. If you want you can wrap them, or just serve them directly on a plate.

But what does "baveuse" exactly mean?

You probably already understood that "baveuse" is a French word. And this refers to the country where this method of frying eggs originates from. If you use a translation tool you might learn that it means as much as slobbery or drooling. However this translation is a bit ambiguous. That is why in English it is mostly translated as a French omelette, or a runny omelette. The spatula creates an uneven and a bit runny surface. This is the combination of the butter and the egg that is not completely done.

So you have an omelette that has two different sides: beautiful golden yellow at the bottom, as we are used to from a traditional omelette. But the top, as mentioned, is wrinkled and runny. With this simple spatula trick you can turn a classic omelette into a special and noble gourmet omelette for your Sunday morning brunch.

Read more about the freshness of eggs, omelettes and the baveuse method in the following articles:

More surprising.egg

I think everybody always has some eggs in the refrigerator. They always help you if you are in need for a fast breakfast or lunch. You may find some more surprising egg recipes in the following articles:

If you speak Dutch, you can find the Dutch version of this recipe on gerechtenweb.blog.