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Dessert

Sweet Cream and Strawberry Mousse

A chilled mousse made with gelatin, eggs, sweet cream, and strawberries.

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

Sweet Cream and Strawberry Mousse

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mousse base

  1. Soak the gelatin in warm water.

  2. Bring the sweet cream to a boil, then add sugar, strawberry juice, and gelatin. Boil for one minute.

  3. Beat the eggs until smooth and slowly add them to the mixture until combined.

Set and serve

  1. Let the mixture cool but not harden, then fold in whipped sweet cream and wood strawberries.

  2. Pour into a large oval mold and refrigerate until set.

  3. Serve garnished with leaves and flowers.

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. Strawberry + creamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,525 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + strawberrytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,060 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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 mixture into a soft, sliceable structure as it cools.
Eggs
Add richness and body, thickening the mousse and giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and, once whipped, air that lightens the mousse's texture.
Fine sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the strawberry flavour.
Strawberry juice
Provides the main strawberry flavour and colour throughout the mousse.
Wood strawberries
Add fresh strawberry flavour and small pieces of fruit texture to the set mousse.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool but not harden. Gelatine sets as it cools, so if the base is too cold it becomes lumpy and resists folding, while if it is too warm the whipped cream deflates and the mousse stays loose. Fold in when the mixture is cool and just beginning to thicken.

Swap the strawberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Strawberrythe original
  4. Raspberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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