The French Chef (1962–1973): Season 1, Episode 14 - Cheese and Wine Party - full transcript

ANNOUNCER: The French Chef is made possible

by a grant from Safeway Stores.

JULIA: This is a French chocolate mousse,

mousseline au chocolat,

one of the most delicious desserts you can imagine.

We're making it today on The French Chef.

Welcome to The French Chef.

I'm Julia Child.

Today we're making

one of the loveliest kinds of French desserts.

I don't say that it's a no-cal dessert,



'cause it's made with egg yolks and cream

and butter and beaten egg whites.

But it's a light and lovely one.

That's why it's called a mousseline.

"Mousse" means foamy,

and "mousseline" means even more light and foamy.

And how it is made is with egg yolks and sugar,

which are beaten over hot water with orange liqueur,

and then butter is beaten into that,

and then egg whites are folded in,

and that's all there is to it.

And, you see, it's very quickly made

and is just delicious.

We have in here four egg yolks,



and I'm going to add three-fourths cup of sugar.

I'm using this instant, or superfine, sugar,

because you want to be sure that the sugar melts.

That you can find in almost any supermarket.

Several of the big sugar companies put it out,

and just look for instant, or superfine, granulated.

And that just gets beaten around

till it gets a little bit thick.

And then we're going to put in

one-fourth cup of orange liqueur.

Now, if you're gonna use any kind of liqueurs

or rums in cooking, particularly desserts,

use a very good quality of it,

because if they're bad, it's just, it's terrible.

And so if you're going to use them,

you have to spend the money.

Otherwise, you can just use orange juice.

Or you can use rum or you could use strong coffee.

Now, these are gonna be beaten over hot water

until they become thick.

This is rather like making a hollandaise sauce,

where you start out with egg yolks and...

and beat them until they're warm.

And quite a few French desserts start this way.

And the reason you want them to thicken up

is because you want the mousse to hold its shape.

And as with egg yolks, they always...

you have to be careful

that you don't heat them over direct flame,

because then they might curdle into scrambled eggs.

And this takes about, oh, three or four minutes,

and you don't have to beat hard, you just stir them.

If you were making a zabaglione,
you'd do it just the same way,

but you'd use whole eggs and sugar and Marsala wine.

So when you have whole eggs, of course, it gets foamy.

In this instance, it just thickens

as though it were like a mayonnaise.

And also, if you were making a genoise cake,

which is one of the very fine French butter cakes,

you start out with whole eggs and sugar

and just beat them until they're thick.

You can keep changing hands and doing whatever you like.

When you make hollandaise, of course,

it's very much the same way, because you have...

you don't have any sugar, but you have egg yolks

and you have a little liquid,

and it's the same system of just beating

until they slowly thicken into a cream.

There wouldn't be any sense in beating these

with your... with, um, an electric beater,

because you couldn't get the water hot enough.

Now, while I'm letting that thicken,

I'm gonna do the... melt the chocolate for it.

I can beat this with one hand and put the chocolate in also.

I've got one cup of...

of chocolate bits.

That's six ounces.

I frankly like the chocolate bits, because...

they melt much more quickly.

As you see, you can do things together,

both stirring with one hand and beating with the other.

And I'm melting this in four tablespoons of...

very strong coffee.

I've used four tablespoons of water,

and then...

two tablespoons of instant coffee,

and that makes a good, strong mixture.

I'm gonna take that off the heat a little bit,

'cause the water's boiling a little too hard.

Then I'll go back to my chocolate.

And when you're melting chocolate,

you want to be very careful that you don't have...

that you melt it just over water that's hot

and not actually boiling.

And once it starts melting like that,

you can just take it off the water

and just let it sit for a minute.

There. We'll go back to our egg yolks.

As you can see, it's thickening up a little bit.

And now it's about the consistency of a mayonnaise.

Can you see?

See that holds slightly in the wires of the whip.

So, we take it off the water,

and then we have to beat it until it's cold

and makes the ribbon.

And I'm gonna beat it in some...

a bowl of ice,

because it'll... it's a little quicker.

And you just get it started that way,

and then we can go on to the rest of our mousse.

I'll just put that to the side for a minute.

And we don't need our boiling water over here anymore.

And just take a look at our chocolate.

I think... I had the coffee in there so long

that I think... that...

some of the water evaporated,

so I'm just putting in a tablespoon of water there

and just take a look at it every now and then.

And now we're going to have... butter.

And this is a stick and a half of unsalted butter.

And we want to cream it, and the easiest way to do it is

just in the machine like that.

And then we go back to our coffee.

I mean, to our chocolate.

Now, one of the most important things

in the melting of the chocolate

is that you just stand over it,

and it should be an absolutely...

perfectly smooth... mass.

And if you melt it over too hot water--

I'm gonna put in a little bit more water in;

another tablespoon--

if the water is too hot, the chocolate turns grainy.

And particularly in a dessert like a mousse,

it has to be very carefully melted

so that it's a smooth and velvety consistency.

See, that's coming.

Now I can heat that water just a little bit more.

But you'll also notice if you try to melt chocolate

in a hurry, that it becomes grainy and a dark color.

There. Now, that's nicely melted,

and it hasn't turned dark, either, which is important.

And so, we simply pour the chocolate...

into the butter.

You want to make sure that all the chocolate and the butter

get thoroughly blended.

The reason we're using butter in this

is because when the mousse is chilled in the refrigerator,

the butter gives it body.

You'd either use butter or you'd use whipped cream,

and in this case, the butter gives

a lovely and different taste to it.

And you want to be sure, when you're doing this part,

that you get all the pieces of butter and the chocolate

intimately blended.

And just... if you see any little pieces

of yellow butter there,

you know that you haven't blended it quite enough.

There.

Then we...

see how...

...this has gotten.

Just beat it up a little bit more.

That's still too warm.

You can tell, also, how...

whether you've gotten it...

hot enough over your hot water here

by sticking your finger in it,

and if the mixture is too hot for your finger,

then it's done.

But particularly, if you want to unmold your mousse,

you want to be sure that... that it is thick enough.

Now, see, that's thick,

and that's forming a ribbon.

When it falls off the whip like that,

you can see that it forms a little bit of a ribbon

down on the surface of the mixture.

So that is now ready to go into our chocolate mixture.

Oh, there's a pie plate stuck on there.

There.

Now, when that's thoroughly mixed up,

all we have to do is to add our egg whites to it.

Just take those off and put them away.

And now we have our egg whites to beat.

And as usual, I'm gonna beat them by hand

with this big wire whip.

This is about five and a half to six inches across.

And this is an unlined copper bowl,

which is about ten inches across.

I find that it beats... does such a good job

that I really never use anything else.

The principle is that you get as much air

into the egg whites as possible.

And having a large whip and a relatively small bowl,

it goes much more quickly.

Then after the egg whites have begun to foam,

you add just a little pinch of salt.

And that, with the copper,

makes an acid which is a stabilizer,

which means stabilize.

It means that after you've beaten the egg whites,

they don't break down into granules

and get sort of watery.

Now, if you're doing this by machine,

I recommend that you hand-hold the electric beater

and circulate it around

so that you get as much air in as possible.

Some electric beaters have a beater that circulates,

and in that case it's fine.

And as it stabilizes, you can add--

we've got four egg whites here-- and you would add

a scant one-quarter teaspoonful of cream of tartar.

Now...

Want to see if they're done.

They're holding in the whip, but they don't still have that...

quite have that little point we want.

But we can add now some sugar,

which will also help make them stiff.

I'll put in two tablespoons

of this instant superfine sugar again.

Now, that's almost ready.

We're looking for that little bit that holds up.

There.

See, we have that little point that goes over like that,

so they're all ready.

Now...

you see this... this mousse really goes very quickly.

And then we're gonna do that old folding technique,

which we've done several times before,

but it's always good to see it again.

You put in about a third or a fourth of the...

about a fourth of the egg whites and stir it in,

so that you...

so it's thoroughly blended.

And then you put the rest of the egg whites on top.

This business of folding is...

you just run into continually

when you're making desserts and cakes.

Now, your... hold your rubber spatula like that,

and it's gonna come down into the edge and up.

And every time it does that,

it brings a little bit...

of the bottom up over the egg whites.

See? Like that.

Then keep turning your bowl.

There.

And you do it rapidly.

And you can see how that goes down, up.

See, a little bit of that comes up over.

But the idea is to fold

so that you don't deflate your egg whites.

That's why it's so important

and why you always hear so much about it.

And then get down in there,

so that you have all of the bits of chocolate up.

There.

And now we're going to mold it.

We're not... Oh, I'm gonna...

You've seen it already molded,

but I'm gonna show you what you can serve it in.

You would either serve it

in little individual glass dishes like this,

or in a mold, and we have enough here

so that I can put some in each.

See, that's... the egg whites make it so light and nice.

There.

And try and put it in as neatly as possible

so that you don't get any chocolate

on the edge of the cup.

It's usually best when you're doing this

to put it down from the tip of the spoon, that way.

And now in the bowl.

Now, if you want to mold it,

which, as you saw at the beginning--

and I'm gonna bring out our molded one again.

It's a little bit hard to get... to get it unmolded

because it's rather sticky stuff.

I find the best way to do, if you want it molded,

is to mold... put it in the mold

and then freeze it.

'Cause you can freeze this mousse just as well as not.

And now it's gonna go into the icebox.

The refrigerator.

I always say "icebox" 'cause I was out of the generation

before we had electric ones.

And this should chill two or three hours,

or you can make it ahead of...

you can make it a day or two ahead of time.

Or you can freeze it.

Now, here is the molded one that we saw.

And I'm also gonna make some whipped cream.

But before I do the whipped cream,

I'm gonna read you out the ingredients.

Because I... even if you've been taking notes,

it's rather hard to follow how they go.

Now, first,

you melt one cup of chocolate bits

with four tablespoons of strong coffee.

And set aside.

Then beat to the ribbon: four egg yolks,

three-fourths cup instant sugar.

Add one-fourth cup liqueur.

Or you can use strong coffee or orange juice.

Then beat over warm water

till warm and foamy.

Then beat over cold water till cool.

And as you remember,

that was about the consistency of mayonnaise.

And then beat six ounces of unsalted butter

into the melted chocolate.

Or vice versa. We did this in the machine.

And then beat in the egg yolk mixture.

In other words, combine them all.

Then...

beat egg whites till stiff.

Four egg whites.

Stir one-fourth into the chocolate mixture.

Fold in the rest.

And then you chill for several hours.

And now I'm gonna show you how to make

French-type whipped cream, which is called Chantilly.

And the whipped cream is very much like the egg whites,

in which you want to beat as much air as possible into it.

And it's not beaten terribly stiff.

It's beaten so it's sort of rather light

and the beater leaves traces on the cream.

And if you're gonna beat cream, be sure that you have

your beater and your bowl

and your cream thoroughly chilled.

And if you're... if it's on a hot day,

you might even beat over a bowl of ice.

I'm using a very heavy cream here,

which beats up quite quickly.

If you use that all-purpose cream, it's really...

it'll take you a little bit longer,

and it's better if you beat it over ice.

So you just beat, just like that.

And if everything is thoroughly chilled,

it won't take you more than about two minutes.

The all-purpose cream usually takes about...

oh, four or five... four or five minutes,

unless you beat it over ice.

So you don't have to beat very hard.

And if you want to beat with an electric mixer,

hold the electric mixer by hand

and circulate it around.

An electric blender is just awful,

'cause it makes terribly...

terribly stiff cream.

And what we want is this lovely, light type.

See? That's beginning to thicken up now.

There.

It's not quite... See, it's quite thick now,

but the beater isn't leaving traces on it.

If you've never had cream this way,

I think you'll enjoy it, because it...

I don't know, it's sort of softer and velvet-ier.

Now, that's almost right.

You see, when you move your beater around,

it almost leaves little traces.

Well, not quite.

But of course, if you over-beat, you churn it to butter.

There. Now, that's called Chantilly,

or lightly whipped cream.

As you see, when you lift it,

it just leaves a little bit of a shape.

You can go a little bit farther than that.

And if you're making a Bavarian cream,

this is the-- you know, that's the dessert

that has gelatin in it.

And you cool the gelatin and then beat the...

fold the whipped cream in.

And you don't want very, very stiff whipped cream,

or you have a stiff, uh...

Bavarian cream.

And, now, to flavor it, use powdered sugar.

But... and you always have to sift it,

'cause it has little lumps in.

I'm gonna sift in about two tablespoons.

I had about a half pint of cream.

And then just stir it up.

Then you can put vanilla or any other flavoring you want.

I'm gonna put in some more of this orange liqueur.

It's very good with brandy or with...

kirsch, whatever you like.

Vanilla's also fine.

Then just beat it up enough...

so it's all mixed.

And then taste it and see if you've got enough liqueur in.

Mmm. Very good.

If you have too much liqueur in, then it becomes watery.

And, now, you can beat your cream ahead of time,

and if you do, you'll just put it into...

put it into a sieve lined with wet cheesecloth

over a bowl.

And you can do this, Heavens, even a day ahead of time.

And as the cream sits,

there's always a little bit of liquid

that seeps down into the bowl.

There. And then you just will cover that up

and put it back into the refrigerator.

And then you can use it whenever you want.

So, well, we're gonna use it right now,

so I'll put it...

into our chocolate mousse.

Now, you can serve the chocolate mousse

just as it is without any cream,

but it's sort of nice with cream.

And particularly this very light cream.

Now, this kind of cream,

you can sometimes decorate with whipped cream.

In that case, you would have to beat a little harder

until it's a little bit stiffer, and then you can put it

into a pastry bag and make designs on it.

But because you get the designs,

you don't have this lovely, light quality of the cream.

There.

And now, as a final decoration,

we will...

grate a little bit of chocolate on.

These little graters are awfully useful

for cheese or chocolate or anything else.

Oh, I think I'd better... Yeah.

And that just grates on.

There.

Oh, I got a little bit too much on there.

There.

Now, as you see, we've done that in just about 15 minutes.

And there isn't anything difficult about it.

The only slightly tricky thing

is the beating of the egg yolks and sugar over hot water.

And then that, you have to count on about four or five minutes.

And remember that you just...

the water's almost...

or not quite simmering,

and then you keep beating it rather slowly

until it thickens up into very much like a mayonnaise.

And if you want to put this into a mold--

this was a regular six-cup ring mold--

you wet the mold, and then you spoon your mousse into it,

cover it with wax paper, and then put it in the freezer.

And the frozen mousse is just as good as the chilled mousse.

In fact, well...

as always, because of the egg whites,

it doesn't become thick and stiff.

That keeps it very nicely.

So... this makes about five to six cups

and serves...

well, it depends on what you've had for the rest of your meal.

It really will serve about eight people.

So we're now ready to serve it.

There.

I think I will...

I will cut a piece of it,

so you can see how it...

how it looks.

There.

It's really one of the... one of the nicest mousses I know.

But, as it is a fairly rich one,

as you can see with all of that butter

and, then, with the cream,

you would be very wise to serve a fairly simple main course,

such as a roast chicken-- you remember the roast chicken

we did in one of our early shows--

or a roast lamb or broiled chicken,

something like that which isn't too heavy.

And with it, we're serving a chilled sauternes wine,

which is one of the noble wines of France,

and goes perfectly beautifully with any kind of a dessert.

It's a sweet wine,

but it has so much body to it that it doesn't seem sweet,

and it's a wonderful thing to drink

with either cake or a mousse like this.

Now, next time,

we're going to do a glamorous meat pâté.

It's sort of like a... it's like a French meat loaf,

and you can use it for a first course

or on a buffet,

and it's wonderful with summer meals.

And I think you'll enjoy very much seeing that.

Well, I wonder if there's anything else I haven't told you

about this chocolate mousse.

You have had the ingredients,

and you'll remember about beating the egg yolks over...

and sugar over hot water.

And remember that trick about sticking your finger

into the yolk mixture.

When it's too hot for your finger, it's done.

Well, I think that's just about all for today

on The French Chef.

This is Julia Child.

Bon appétit, and enjoy your mousse.

ANNOUNCER: Julia Child is coauthor

of the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

The French Chef is made possible
by a grant from Safeway Stores.