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Dessert

Fruit Mousse

A frozen mousse made from strawberries or raspberries, sugar, gelatin, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Fruit Mousse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit and gelatin

  1. Sprinkle the berries with sugar and let them stand until the sugar dissolves and juice is drawn out.

  2. Mash the berries and strain through fine cheesecloth to obtain 1 pint of juice.

  3. Soak the gelatin in cold water for 20 minutes.

Make the mousse

  1. Pack a mold or freezer can in ice and salt, without the beaters.

  2. Chill the cream and then whip it until stiff.

  3. Dissolve the soaked gelatin in boiling water and strain it into the fruit juice.

  4. Set the pan in a bowl of ice and stir constantly until it begins to thicken.

  5. Gently fold in the whipped cream until well mixed.

  6. Pour the mixture into the mold, cover, and let it stand for 3 hours.

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. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Strawberries or raspberries
Provide the main flavor and the juice that sweetens and colors the mousse.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws out its juice as it stands.
Gelatin
Sets the juice into a soft, sliceable structure as it cools.
Heavy cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it adds lightness and a creamy texture.

The step that matters

Stir the gelatin mixture while it chills. Gelatin sets as it cools, so stirring constantly over ice keeps it evenly cool and smooth. If it sets in lumps or clumps before the cream is folded in, the mousse will be grainy and uneven.

“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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