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Dessert

Chocolate Mousse

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pack a freezer or mold with ice and salt.

  2. Whip 1 quart of cream until thick.

  3. In a small saucepan, combine 2 tablespoons grated chocolate, 3 tablespoons sugar, and 1 tablespoon boiling water; stir over heat until smooth and glossy.

Make the mousse

  1. Add ½ cup of cream to the chocolate mixture.

  2. Sift 1 cup of powdered sugar over the whipped cream.

  3. Pour the chocolate mixture slowly onto the whipped cream and stir gently until well mixed.

  4. Turn the mixture into the freezer (without the paddle) or mold.

Freeze and serve

  1. Cover and place ice on top.

  2. Cover with a piece of carpet.

  3. Let it stand for 4 to 5 hours.

  4. Turn out onto a serving platter when ready to use.

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 + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Whipped into foam that gives the mousse its light, airy body.
Grated chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and, once melted smooth, firms the mousse as it chills.
Sugar
Sweetens the mousse and helps the chocolate blend smoothly into the cream.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves readily into the whipped cream, adding sweetness without grittiness.

The step that matters

Pouring the chocolate mixture onto the whipped cream. Adding warm, liquid chocolate to cold whipped cream can seize it into lumps or deflate the foam. Pouring slowly and stirring gently keeps the air in 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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