the chocolate mousse : a French invention whose easy recipe is here

A little history of chocolate in France

Before the discovery of cocoa by the European conquistadors, nobody in Europe had heard of cocoa and therefore chocolate. In France, chocolate arrived in the 17th century through the Netherlands, close to Spain, and Queen Maria Theresa of Austria, who, as her name does not indicate, was Spanish and loved chocolate. Liquid, full of spices and cream since Spanish monks had the idea to mix cocoa with sugar and milk, chocolate was for a long time a drink only. It was served in the beautiful French houses with "chocolatières", containers with bulging bellies. The solid chocolate that we like to crunch only arrived in the 19th century.

Marie-Thérèse of Austria, Queen of France and wife of Louis XIV by Henri and Charles BEAUBRUN (collections of the Château de Versailles).

The chocolate mousse: a Swiss idea :

It is believed that the first to have tasted the chocolate mousse is King Louis XVI, therefore at the end of the eighteenth century. It would have been concocted by Charles Fazi, a Swiss cook who worked for the king.

Louis XVI in coronation costume. 1777 by Joseph Duplessis

Chef Fazi probably referred to chocolate mousse because it reminded him of the hot chocolate mousse of the time, which was very strong and was frothed with a stick.

The chocolate mousse: a French delicacy.

What is certain is that the first person to speak of chocolate mousse was Joseph Menon, the author of numerous culinary works in the 19th century. In 1820, the chocolate mousse was featured in the best-seller "Le cuisinier royal" by André Viard, which has been republished 32 times, and which gives the recipe. And as "impossible is not French" we meet one of the most famous painters of the nineteenth century above the bowl of chocolate mousse because it is to him that we owe, between two sessions of drawings at the Moulin Rouge, the idea of mixing eggs with cocoa ...

Mousse au chocolat / Image par Olinda/Shutterstock.com 

Here is my easy french recipe:

Ingredients:

• 200 grams of dark chocolate
• 30 grams of butter
• 30 grams of sugar
• 6 eggs.
• 1 pinch of salt
• (you can also add a spoonful of rum)

Process:

1. In a bowl: You need to melt the chocolate in a double boiler with the butter.
2. Meanwhile, you take your eggs and separate the whites from the yolks.
3. In another bowl, you whisk the yolks vigorously.
4. (and this is where you can add a spoonful of rum...)
5. Remove the melted chocolate from the heat.
6. Gently fold the yolks into the melted chocolate and butter.
7. Whip the egg whites by adding a pinch of salt and making them firm. When they are firm, add the 30 grams of sugar and whip vigorously.
8. Fold the egg whites gently into the chocolate and egg yolk mixture. Take a spatula and do it gently to avoid breaking the whites.
9. Pour into bowls or your nicest bowl.
10. Chill for at least 3 hours.

Sorry for the translation errors. Whoever is doing this has finished the bottle of rum we used to make our chocolate mousse