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Chicken Mousse
This is made just like the ham mousse, the recipe for which has been given on page 18.
The whole recipe is a pointer: make the ham mousse, substitute chicken. That means the technique notes for the ham version carry over, with a few adjustments for a leaner, blander meat.
- Read the other recipe firstNothing here works without the Ham Mousse in Menu V, which supplies the proportions of gelatin, onion juice and whipped cream. Treat this page as a variation line, not a standalone method.
- Gelatin has changedOlder books generally assume granulated gelatin softened in cold liquid, then dissolved in hot. Modern envelopes run about 1 tablespoon (roughly 7 g) each and set 2 cups of liquid to a sliceable firmness; check whether the ham recipe measures by tablespoon or by envelope before scaling.
- Chicken needs more seasoning than hamCured ham brings its own salt and smoke. Poached or roasted chicken brings almost none, so taste the base before the cream goes in and correct with salt, white pepper and a little extra onion juice or lemon.
- Onion juiceGrate half an onion on a fine grater and press the pulp through a sieve, or squeeze it in a cloth. Whatever quantity the ham recipe specifies, it is there for background, not for onion flavour.
- Texture of the meatPeriod recipes of this type commonly pound cooked chicken to a paste in a mortar or pass it through the finest plate of a meat grinder. A food processor does it in seconds, but pulse rather than run it, or the meat goes gluey and the mousse turns dense.
- Fold, do not stirThe gelatin-and-chicken base must be cooled to the point where it thickens slightly but still moves before the whipped cream is folded in. Too warm and the cream deflates into soup; fully set and it breaks into lumps you cannot smooth out.
- Chilling and unmouldingGive it at least four hours in the refrigerator, six for a large mould. Dip the mould briefly in warm water and invert onto a chilled plate; a cold plate keeps the surface from sagging while it stands.
- YieldScale from whatever the ham recipe gives; a mousse of that general size will fill a mould of about a quart and serve six as a luncheon course, or more on a cold table with other dishes.
Cold moulded mousses of chopped meat, aspic and whipped cream were a fixture of American and British luncheon cookery from the late nineteenth century through the mid twentieth, helped along by commercial powdered gelatin, which spared the cook the long labour of boiling calves' feet, and by iceboxes and later mechanical refrigeration, which made a cold set easier to manage at home. Books organised as warm-weather menus, meant to be made ahead and served without a hot stove, leaned on them heavily, and the ham-then-chicken pairing here is typical thrift: one master method, two dishes, and the second recipe reduced to a single sentence. The dish also answered the perpetual question of what to do with leftover roast or boiled fowl.