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Dessert

Chocolate Mousse

A chilled chocolate mousse made with melted chocolate, powdered sugar, cream, vanilla, gelatin, and whipped cream.

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 base

  1. Melt the chocolate, then add the powdered sugar and gradually mix in the thin cream.

  2. Stir over heat until it reaches boiling point.

  3. Add the gelatin dissolved in boiling water, sugar, and vanilla.

  4. Strain the mixture into a bowl.

Thicken and set

  1. Set the bowl in cold water, stirring constantly until it thickens.

  2. Fold in the stiffly whipped cream.

  3. Mold the mixture.

  4. Pack it in salt and let it stand for 4 hours or more.

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

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

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

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

  4. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

  5. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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

Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and colour, and its fat gives the mousse a smooth, rich body.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when molded instead of staying loose.
Whipped cream
Adds air and volume, giving the mousse its light, airy texture.
Thin cream
Adds moisture and fat, softening the chocolate into a smooth, pourable base.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Set the bowl in cold water, stirring constantly until it thickens.. The mixture must cool and thicken evenly before the whipped cream is folded in. If it sets in lumps or cools too far, the gelatine clumps and the cream deflates, leaving a grainy, heavy mousse.

“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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