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Dessert

Coffee Mousse

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Coffee Mousse

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in the milk.

  2. Mix the gelatine mixture with the strong coffee and sweeten with granulated sugar.

  3. Strain the mixture and set aside to cool.

Whip and set

  1. When it begins to stiffen, beat it with an egg beater until frothy.

  2. Fold in the whipped cream thoroughly.

  3. Fill a fancy shaped mold and refrigerate until hard.

Serve

  1. Invert onto a platter and serve with additional whipped cream.

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

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

  2. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

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

  4. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the liquid coffee mixture into a firm, sliceable structure as it chills.
Whipped cream
Adds air and richness, giving the mousse a light, creamy texture.
Strong coffee
Provides the main coffee flavor and liquid base for the mousse.

The step that matters

Beat at the right moment. Beat only once the mixture begins to stiffen. If it is still liquid, the air will not hold, and if it has set too firmly, it will not blend smoothly with the cream.

“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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