"Mousse" at Delmonico's

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:33 PM -0500 3/23/00, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>    What does the online OED have for "mousse"?

Here are the first few of the listings.  You remembered the 1892 date
correctly, but I suppose it's fairly arbitrary when a word like MOUSSE
counts as having entered English.  The reference to "biscuits Tortoni"
brings back childhood memories--at the end of every meal in the
neighborhood Italian restaurants I grew up on in NYC (late 1940s, early
50s), the choice for dessert was always "ice cream spumonior biscuit
Tortoni", the former being rainbow [choc/van/straw].  I would never have
thought of those tortonis as belonging to  the same category as mousse,
though.  Of course, it has been a while.

larry
===============

1. Cookery. A frothy dish made with a savoury or sweet purée or other base,
stiffened with cream, gelatine, or egg whites, and freq. served chilled;

       1892 Encycl. Cookery (ed. Garrett) I. 366/2 Chestnut Mousse.-Mix
[etc.]... To serve, dip the mould in hot water, wipe it, and turn the
Mousse out on a folded napkin.

       1892 Encycl. Cookery 949/2 Mousse.-Fr. for froth or foam, and
applied to some forms of culinary preparations, such as Chestnut Mousse,
Chocolate Mousse, Coffee
       Mousse, Strawberry Mousse, &c;

       1899 Daily News 15 July 7/5 While strawberries are still with us,
the following Mousse should be tried.

       1899 Daily News, 15 July 7/5 A peach or apricot Mousse would be made
very similarly.

       1899 Daily News, 15 July 7/5 These Mousses should turn out quite
solid, but will never be hard on account of the cream.

       1906 Mrs. Beeton's Bk. Househ. Managem. xxxiii. 989 Parfaits,
mousses, and soufflés differ from ordinary ices, inasmuch as the cream
preparation is at once moulded
       and placed on ice;

       1908 Daily Chron. 22 July 7/4 A mousse is nothing more than the
addition of whipped cream instead of plain cream when making ices.




>    I'm also away from the OED books right now.  I remember an 1892 citation
>from Toulouse Lautrec (the BDE has 1892).
>    John Ayto's A GOURMET'S GUIDE: FOOD & DRINK FROM A TO Z (1993) states
>"English took over the term from French as recently as the 1890s."
>    An American classic (not online in the MOA or American Memory databases)
>is Charles Ranhofer's (Chef of Delmonico's) THE EPICUREAN: A COMPLETE
>TREATISE OF ANALYTICAL AND PRACTICAL STUDIES ON THE CULINARY ART, INCLUDING
>Table and Wine Service, How to Prepare and Cook Dishes, an Index for
>Marketing, a Great Variety of Bills of Fare for Breakfasts, Luncheons,
>Dinners, Suppers, Ambigus, Buffets, etc., and a Selection of Interesting
>Bills of Fare of Delmonico's, from 1862 to 1894 (1894).
>    Delmonico's (New York City) was perhaps America's most celebrated
>restaurant in the 19th century.  How could John Mariani have possibly written
>that the first "lobster Newburg" printed recipe appeared in 1895 when it's
>here in this 1894 classic?  How could it not make his bibliography??  (Maybe
>he was eating too many mashed potatoes.)
>    Here are the menus (with some "Tortoni" added):
>
>Pg. (?):  Menu from May 1863.  "Glace mousse au cafe."
>Pg. 1076:  Menu from November 5, 1863.  "Mousse aux amandes."
>Pg. 1080:  Menu from October 30, 1865.  "Mousse a l'orange."
>Pg. 1085:  Menu from November 1867.  "Biscuits Tortoni."
>[John Mariani's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN FOOD & DRINK has "...(and often
>called 'biscuits tortoni').  The word was first printed in English in 1922."
>This guy owes me a free dinner by now--ed.]
>Pg. 1089:  Menu from April 1869.  "Mousse cafe."
>Pg. 1091:  Menu from December 1871.  "Gateau mousseline."
>Pg. 1093:  Menu from January 1871.  "Parfait au cafe garni de Tortoni."
>Pg. (?):  Menu from May 1874.  "Glace mousse aux bananes."
>Pg. 1102:  Menu from December 1877.  "Mousse aux marrons."