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Dessert

Chocolate Mousse

Chocolate mousse made with gelatin, cream, sugar, chocolate, vanilla, and whipped cream, chilled in ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the base

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for 2 hours.

  2. Whip the cream until you have 1 cup of liquid left.

  3. Heat the remaining cream to boiling point.

  4. Pour the hot cream over the gelatin.

  5. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.

  6. Melt the chocolate and stir it into the mixture.

  7. Strain the mixture.

Chill and set

  1. Set the strained mixture in a pan of ice, stirring occasionally.

  2. Add the vanilla when the mixture is cold.

  3. Fold in the whipped cream when it begins to thicken.

  4. Pour the mixture into a mold.

  5. Pack the mold in ice and salt for 3 hours.

Serve

  1. Turn out the mousse.

  2. Serve with soft custard.

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

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid cream mixture into a firm, sliceable mousse structure.
Cream
Whipped portion adds air and a light, fluffy texture; the rest gives richness.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour and colour and adds body to the mousse.
Sugar
Sweetens the mousse and balances the bitterness of the chocolate.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped cream when the mixture begins to thicken. If the base is too warm, the cream will deflate and the mousse will be heavy; if it has set too firm, the cream will not blend in evenly. Folding gently at the thickening point keeps the air trapped while the gelatine is just beginning to set the mixture.

“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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