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Dessert

Chocolate Mousse

A chocolate mousse made with melted chocolate, powdered sugar, sugar, cream, vanilla, gelatin, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate base

  1. Melt the chocolate in a saucepan.

  2. Add the powdered sugar and gradually stir in 1 cup of cream.

  3. Heat the mixture over low heat until it reaches boiling point.

  4. Dissolve the gelatin in the boiling water and add it to the chocolate mixture along with the sugar and vanilla.

Chill and set

  1. Strain the mixture into a bowl and set it in ice water, stirring constantly until it thickens.

  2. Fold in the remaining cream gently.

  3. Mold the mixture, pack it in salt and ice, and let it stand for 4 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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Cream + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

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

Unsweetened chocolate
Provides the deep chocolate flavour and the body of the mousse.
Cream
Adds richness and, when whipped into the mix, a light, airy texture.
Gelatin
Sets the mousse so it holds its shape when molded.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the base and dissolves smoothly into the chocolate mixture.

The step that matters

Chilling until it thickens. Stirring the warm mixture over ice water cools it evenly and thickens it before folding in cream. If it sets too far, the mousse turns grainy and dense; if it stays too thin, the cream will deflate and the mousse will not hold its shape.

“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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