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Dessert

Caramel Mousse

A sweet dessert made with maple syrup, egg yolks, and whipped cream, set in a mold and chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Maple syrup and cream work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 607 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Caramel Mousse

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the maple syrup until it thickens slightly.

  2. Pour the hot syrup into the beaten egg yolks.

  3. Place the mixture in a double boiler and stir until it thickens.

  4. Beat the mixture until it cools.

Finish and chill

  1. Fold in the whipped cream gently.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a mold and pack it in ice for 3 hours.

  3. Seal the mold with lard before packing.

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. Maple syrup + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together607 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Maple syrup + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,156 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness as they set gently with heat.
Whipping cream
Adds airy lightness and a creamy, moist texture when folded in.
Maple syrup
Provides the sweetness and the caramel-like flavor of the mousse.

The step that matters

Stir the custard in a double boiler until it thickens. Gentle, indirect heat thickens egg yolks smoothly. Direct or excessive heat can scramble the yolks, leaving lumps and a grainy texture.

“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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