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Dessert

Caramel Mousse

A frozen dessert made from caramelised sugar, hot milk, egg yolks, vanilla and whipped cream, packed in ice and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Caramel Mousse

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Stir the sugar over medium heat until it turns golden brown, being careful not to let it burn.

  2. Let the caramel cool slightly, then add the hot milk and stir over hot water until dissolved.

Make the custard base

  1. Beat the egg yolks until thick, then mix in a little of the hot caramel mixture.

  2. Combine the egg mixture with the remaining caramel and stir until cool.

  3. Add the vanilla and blend thoroughly.

  4. Whip the cream until stiff and fold it into the caramel mixture.

Freeze and serve

  1. Transfer to a quart mold, butter the edges of the cover, seal tightly, and pack in ice and salt.

  2. Let it stand for about 4 hours before serving.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Melts into caramel, providing the deep sweet, toasted flavour of the mousse.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and structure as they gently set.
Heavy cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it gives the mousse its light, airy texture.
Hot milk
Dilutes the caramel and forms the liquid base of the custard.

The step that matters

Stir the sugar until golden, not darker. Sugar darkens quickly once it starts to colour, and past golden it turns bitter and can burn. Removing it from heat at the right colour keeps the caramel sweet and balanced.

“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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