The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving. Because of this, as we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know. We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know fun food facts we will look at Mousse.

The Facts: Mousses are almost always cold dishes, sweet mousses sometimes being served frozen. Savory mousses are frequently prepared from poultry, foie gras, fish, or shellfish, to be eaten as a first course or light entree. They may be stabilized by the addition of gelatin. Chocolate and mocha mousses are sometimes made with a custard base. For a fruit mousse, pureed fruit or juice replaces the milk in the custard.

• The word “mousse” is the French word for “froth” or “foam”. A fitting name for this light, fluffy, and decadent confection!
• April 3rd is National Chocolate Mousse Day.
• Novemebr 30th is National Mousse Day.
• Savory mousse dishes were an 18th century French achievement. Dessert mousses (generally fruit mousses) began to appear much later, in the second half of the 19th century.
• The first written record of chocolate mousse in the United States comes from a Food Exposition held at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1892.
• Chocolate mousse really came into the public eye in the U.S. in the 1930s, about the time as chocolate pudding mixes were introduced.

Mousse Facts We Missed

Please feel free to let us know if we may have missed some in the comment section below. We always love to add to these lists. If we can verify that the facts is just that, a fact, we will give the reader credit in the article.

Reference: Wikipedia: Fun Facts about Mousse

Try out this recipe for chocolate mousse which was adapted from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.