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Dessert

Coffee Mousse

A chilled gelatin-based coffee dessert set in a mold, served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Coffee Mousse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mousse

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in cold water.

  2. Pour the hot coffee over the dissolved gelatin.

  3. As it cools, beat the mixture with an egg beater.

  4. Add sugar to taste.

Set

  1. When the mixture is too stiff to beat, pour it into a mold.

  2. Pack the mold in salt and ice and let it sit for six hours, or place it in a freezer.

Serve

  1. Serve with 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. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Coffee + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Gelatin + vanillatop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together924 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

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

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

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

Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Brewed coffee
Provides the main liquid and the coffee flavour of the mousse.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the bitterness of the coffee.
Vanilla
Adds a rounding aroma that supports the coffee flavour.

The step that matters

Beat while cooling, then mold at the right moment. Gelatin begins to set as the mixture cools, and beating traps air for a light texture. Beating too early yields a runny mixture, while waiting too long makes it too stiff to pour into the mold.

“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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