A mousse (, ; ) is a soft prepared food that incorporates air bubbles to give it a light and airy texture. Depending on preparation techniques, it can range from light and fluffy to creamy and thick. A mousse may be sweet or savoury.
. '' Food Network Food Encyclopedia''. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
Sweet mousses are typically made with
whipped egg white
Egg white is the clear liquid (also called the albumen or the glair/glaire) contained within an egg. In chickens it is formed from the layers of secretions of the anterior section of the hen's oviduct during the passage of the egg. It forms arou ...
s,
whipped cream, or both, and flavored with one or more of chocolate, coffee, caramel, puréed fruits, or various herbs and spices, such as mint or vanilla. In the case of some chocolate mousses, egg yolks are often stirred into melted chocolate to give the final product a richer mouthfeel. Mousses are also typically chilled before being served, which gives them a denser texture. Additionally, mousses are often frozen into silicone molds and unmolded to give the mousse a defined shape. Sweetened mousse is served as a dessert or used as an airy cake filling. It is sometimes stabilized with gelatin.
Savoury mousses can be made from meat, fish,
shellfish
Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater envir ...
,
foie gras, cheese, or vegetables. Hot mousses often get their light texture from the addition of beaten egg whites.
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History
Various desserts consisting of whipped cream in pyramidal shapes with coffee, liqueurs, chocolate, fruits, and so on either in the mixture or poured on top were called ('cream in a foam'), ('foamy cream'), ('foam'), and so on,[M. Emy (officier), ''L'Art de bien faire les glaces d'office; ou, Les vrais principes pour congeler tous les rafraichissemens, etc'', Paris, 176]
p. 222
/ref> as early as 1768.[Jim Chevallier, ''A History of the Food of Paris: From Roast Mammoth to Steak Frites'', 2018, , p. 195] Modern mousses are a continuation of this tradition.
Savoury mousse
Fish mousse with brown bread and butter was a popular meal of American cuisine and is still sometimes made as a party dip, although it is not as common as it was in the 1950s.
Gallery
File:Lemon mousse with peach compote (4455679740).jpg, Lemon mousse with peach compote
File:Smoked salmon and dill mousse in cucumber cups.jpg, Savoury salmon mousse
File:Mousse cake 7.jpg, Mousse cake
File:Debesmanna.JPG, Redcurrant semolina mousse
See also
References
{{Reflist
French desserts