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Cold Mousse of Vegetable Macedoine

A chilled mousse made from gelatin, cream, broth, and cooked vegetables, served in molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Cold Mousse of Vegetable Macedoine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

  1. Soften the gelatine in cold water and dissolve it in the hot broth.

  2. Chill individual molds in ice water.

Decorate the molds

  1. Dip peas in the gelatine mixture and set them around the bottom of the molds.

  2. Cut shapes from thin slices of cooked carrot and place them in the molds above a piece of truffle.

Fill and serve

  1. Add the cooked vegetables to the gelatine mixture.

  2. When the mixture begins to set, fold in the whipped cream and adjust seasoning if needed.

  3. Fill the molds with the mixture and serve on lettuce with French dressing.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Beans + asparagustop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together292 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Peas + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Beans + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Beans + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together949 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the broth into a firm, sliceable mousse that holds its shape when unmoulded.
Double cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture when whipped and folded into the set mixture.
Chicken broth
Provides the seasoned liquid base that the gelatine sets into.
Cooked vegetables
Supply colour, flavour and body throughout the mousse.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped cream when the mixture begins to set. If the gelatine has set firmly, the cream cannot blend in evenly and the mousse turns lumpy. If it is still fully liquid, the cream deflates and the mousse will not hold its shape when chilled. Timing the fold at the first sign of setting keeps it airy and uniform.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, truffle, chicken, celery, beans, carrot, asparagus):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Peasthe original
  4. Sesamefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, truffle, chicken, celery, beans, carrot, asparagus. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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