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Dessert

Coffee Mousse

A chilled dessert made with whipped cream, sugar, gelatin, coffee, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and gelatin 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 ↓

Coffee Mousse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatin

  1. Soak gelatin in a little cold water for 5 minutes.

  2. Dissolve the soaked gelatin in hot coffee and let it cool.

Make the mousse

  1. In a bowl, beat the whipped cream, sugar, and egg whites together.

  2. Fold the cooled coffee mixture into the whipped cream mixture.

Freeze

  1. Place in a freezer or mold packed in equal parts of salt and ice 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. Cream + gelatintop 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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Whipped cream
Adds airy volume and a light, creamy texture to the mousse.
Gelatin
Sets the liquid so the mousse holds its shape when chilled.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that traps air, giving the mousse lightness.
Sugar
Sweetens the mousse and balances the bitterness of the coffee.
Coffee
Provides the main flavor and liquid that is set by the gelatin.

The step that matters

Cool the dissolved gelatin before folding. Hot gelatin mixture can melt the whipped cream and deflate the air in the egg whites, leaving a dense, watery mousse instead of a light one.

“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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