Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Strawberry Mousse
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Hull and wash the strawberries, then drain and rub them through a fine sieve.
Make the mousse
Add the powdered sugar and softened gelatine, melted over hot water, to the strawberries.
Set aside until the mixture begins to thicken, stirring occasionally.
Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt to stiff peaks.
Gently fold the whipped egg whites into the strawberry mixture until it holds its shape.
Chill and serve
Pour into a wet mold, cover tightly, and bind the edges with a buttered cloth.
Bury the mold in a mixture of ice and salt and set aside for 2 hours.
Turn out the mousse and serve.
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.
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strawberries
- Provide the main flavour and the fruit pulp that gives the mousse its body.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the mousse its light, airy structure.
- Gelatine
- Sets the strawberry mixture so the mousse holds its shape when turned out.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the mousse and dissolves easily into the strawberry pulp.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Stirring instead of folding knocks out the air trapped in the whipped whites, so the mousse turns dense rather than light. Fold gently until no streaks of white remain and the mixture holds its shape.
“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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