Gelato

Gelato
Italian gelato, with two tower-shaped biscuits.
Type	Ice cream
Place of origin	Sicily, Italy
Serving temperature	Cold
Main ingredients	Milk, cream, sugar, flavoring ingredient (e.g. – fruit or nut puree)
Cookbook:Gelato  Gelato

Gelato (Italian pronunciation: [dʒeˈlaːto]; plural: gelati) is the Italian word for ice cream, derived from the Latin word "gelātus" (meaning frozen). In English this word commonly refers to varieties of ice cream made in a traditional Italian style. Gelato can be made with milk, cream, various sugars, and flavoring such as fresh fruit and nut purees. It is generally lower in calories, fat and sugar than ice cream.^[1]

Gelato is a type of soft ice cream containing a relatively small amount of air.^[2] By statute, gelato in Italy must have at least 3.5% butterfat, with no upper limit established.

The sugar content in homemade gelato, as in traditional ice cream, is balanced with the water content to act as an anti-freeze to prevent it from freezing solid. Types of sugar used include sucrose, dextrose, and inverted sugar to control apparent sweetness. Typically, gelato—like any other ice cream—needs a stabilizing base. Egg yolks are used in yellow custard-based gelato flavors, including zabaione and creme caramel, and non-fat milk solids are also added to gelato to stabilize the base. Starches and gums, especially corn starch, are sometimes also used to thicken and stabilize the mix.

In the United States there is no standard of definition for gelato set forth by the United States Food and Drug Administration, as there is for ice cream.^[3] Whereas ice cream in the U.S. is defined by the Federal Code both by its ingredients, which includes milk fat (also known as butterfat) of 10% or more, gelato in the U.S. covers a wide range of products including frozen desserts eaten like ice cream; products that are identical to ice cream with the exception of their butterfat contents; and premium ice cream containing butterfat far exceeding the minimums set forth in Italy.

History

The history of gelato dates back to frozen desserts in Sicily, ancient Rome and Egypt made from snow and ice brought down from mountaintops and preserved below ground. Later, in 1686 the Sicilian fisherman Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli perfected the first ice cream machine.^[4] However, the popularity of gelato among larger shares of the population only increased in the 1920s–1930s in the northern Italian city of Varese, where the first gelato cart was developed. Italy is the only country where the market share of handmade gelato versus industrial one is over 55%.^[5][6] Today, more than 5,000 modern Italian ice cream parlors employ over 15,000 people, mostly Italians.^[7]

Production

Gelato in Florence, Italy

The mixture for gelato is typically prepared using a hot process first, where the sugars need to dissolve. White base is heated to 85 °C (185 °F) completing a pasteurization program. The hot process to make chocolate gelato is essentially the same for conventional ice cream, and depending on recipes, it is meant to be traditionally flavored with cocoa powder and cocoa butter.

See also

• Stracciatella
• Frozen custard, a frozen dessert made with cream and eggs
• Italian ice, a frozen dessert made from either concentrated syrup flavoring or fruit purees.
• Ice cream
• Semifreddo, a class of semi-frozen desserts.
• Sorbet
• Spaghettieis, the German style of frozen dessert made to look like a dish of spaghetti, sometimes made with gelato
• Granita, a semi-frozen dessert made from sugar, water and various flavorings.
• Frozen yogurt, the cultured, frozen milk product, with a tart flavor
• Gelato University

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gelato.

References

Sources

• Ferrari, Luciano (2005). Gelato and Gourmet Frozen Desserts - A professional learning guide. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1-4092-8850-3. 

External links

• Italian Gelato Flavors Decoded