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Fruit Mousse
Whip 1 pint of cream very stiff, turn it into a sieve to drain, so that it will be perfectly dry. Mix with it 1 cupful of any fruit pulp, the juice drained off, and the pulp mixed with enough powdered sugar to make it of the same consistency as the whipped cream; add a little vanilla, pour into an ice-cream mould, lay a thin paper over the cream before putting on the cover, and pack in ice for three hours.
An unchurned frozen dessert from the era of the ice cave: the air whipped into the cream does the work a machine would otherwise do. The one thing to get right is dryness — any free fruit juice will freeze into gritty shards and slacken the foam.
- Drain the cream, and mean itWhipping a pint of cream releases a surprising amount of thin liquid. Set the whipped cream in a fine sieve over a bowl for 20-30 minutes in the refrigerator and discard what collects; the base should hold a firm peak.
- The fruit pulpA cupful means sieved or crushed fruit with the loose juice poured off — raspberry, strawberry, apricot, peach. Sweetening it "to the same consistency as the whipped cream" is a texture instruction as much as a taste one: powdered sugar thickens the pulp so it folds in without thinning the foam. Expect roughly 1/3 to 1/2 cup of sugar per cup of pulp, adjusted to the fruit.
- "Pack in ice" means ice and saltThe original assumes knowledge the modern cook lacks. A mould buried in plain ice will not freeze; the packing is crushed ice mixed with coarse rock salt, about three or four parts ice to one part salt, filled up around the sides and over the lid.
- A freezer works insteadCover the filled mould or loaf pan tightly and freeze for four to six hours rather than three. A home freezer will usually set the mousse harder than a salted ice pack would, so let it stand at room temperature 10-15 minutes before unmoulding and slicing.
- The paper over the creamA round of parchment laid directly on the surface keeps ice crystals and any salty brine seeping past the lid off the mousse. Worth doing even in a freezer, where it limits freezer burn.
- No churning, no eggsThis is a still-frozen dessert with no custard base and no stirring during freezing. Do not be tempted to beat it partway through — that collapses the aeration the whole method depends on.
- YieldAbout a quart of finished mousse, serving six generously. It is best the day it is made; after a day or two the foam begins to coarsen.