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Mousse-de-Poulet, No. 2
Mould the mousse in small cups; turn out on to a slice of chilled tomato resting upon a lettuce leaf; garnish with mayonnaise dressing, decorating both the tomato and the mousse.
This is the second of a pair: it assumes you have already made the chicken mousse from No. 1 and tells you only how to mould and plate it. Read it as a serving formula rather than a standalone recipe.
- You need the base recipeNo quantities appear here because the mousse itself is No. 1 in the same section. Any chilled chicken mousse set with gelatine and lightened with whipped cream will behave the same way in the mould.
- The hinge is the unmouldingThe recipe says nothing about how to turn out; a gelatine mousse will usually release after a brief dip in warm — not hot — water, a few seconds only, followed by a firm shake onto the plate. Left in too long and the outer surface softens and loses its edge.
- Small cupsIndividual moulds of this kind generally hold somewhere around 4 to 5 fl oz. Dariole moulds, ramekins or teacups all work; rinse them with cold water or brush with a neutral oil before filling.
- Chill timesNo setting time is given here. Allow at least four hours, and preferably overnight, for a cream-and-gelatine mousse to set firm enough to turn out with sharp sides.
- The tomato sliceCut thick, about half an inch, so it supports the mousse without weeping. Chilling it firms the flesh and keeps the plate from flooding as the mayonnaise sits.
- Decorating with mayonnaise"Decorating" here probably implies piping rather than spooning — a stiff, homemade-style mayonnaise held in a paper cone or a small piping bag. Commercial mayonnaise is looser and will tend to slide off a cold, damp mousse; a spoonful of whipped cream will stiffen it.
- Raw egg in the dressingIf you make the mayonnaise from scratch, it will not be cooked at any point in this dish. Use pasteurised eggs if serving anyone elderly, pregnant or immunocompromised.
- Yield and timingCount one moulded cup per person as a luncheon course. Assemble no more than half an hour before serving; the mousse softens quickly at room temperature and the lettuce wilts under the dressing.
Moulded mousses of chicken, ham or salmon were a fixture of the American luncheon table from roughly the 1890s through the 1920s, in books of salads, sandwiches and cold cookery aimed at the light midday meal: cold, made in advance, easy to plate. The French spelling is part of the appeal; mousse simply means froth or foam, and the dish is little more than cooked chicken pounded or ground fine, bound with aspic or gelatine, and lightened with whipped cream. Commercial powdered gelatine, which became widely available from the 1890s, gradually displaced the long labour of boiling calves' feet and brought moulded work within easier reach of the household kitchen. Numbering a variation "No. 2" and giving only the presentation shows where the interest lay: the mould, the tomato and the piped mayonnaise, with the chicken as the medium.