Some think that “gelato” is just the Italian term for what we Americans know as “ice cream”. While they are both frozen dairy desserts, there are enough differences between them to make a clear culinary distinction from one another. The differences mainly stem from the ingredients and processing methods.

Ingredients:
Ice cream includes much more fat (or butterfat) than gelato. By lawful definition, ice cream includes a minimum of 10% fat, and can have up to 18%, defined by its higher cream content. Gelato recipes call for milk (low-fat to whole), and generally use little or no cream, making the fat content between 3% to 8%.

Egg yolks are used in higher quantity in gelato than in ice cream; more so in custard based gelato, such as chocolate or caramel flavors. Eggs aid in thickening the milk base for frozen desserts.

Gelato is typically known for using fresh and high quality ingredients, as opposed to ice cream, in which artificial ingredients, such as syrups, can be found along with other preservatives. This is one of the reasons that gelato is best consumed within a day or two of a freshly made batch.

Sugar content also plays a role in the differences between ice cream and gelato. Ordinarily there is less sugar in gelato; as low as 16% in gelato and as much as 21% in ice cream, according to wikipedia.org. Some culinary experts even go as far as to balance the sugar and water content to prevent the gelato from freezing solid to maintain the traditional creamy consistency.

Flavor & Consistency:
Gelato is churned at a much slower speed than ice cream with the goal of introducing as little air as possible into the mix. This creates a density that is associated with creamy rich gelato. Ice cream, on the other hand, aims to be light and fluffy, and incorporates 50% or more air whipped into it by using faster mixing speeds, thus creating a higher volume of the frozen dessert. Special gelato equipment is necessary to create the desired low air infused, or whipped affect. Gelato machines are usually only available at the professional level and may be the reason why so many gelaterias are popping up all over the country.

While the serving temperatures of gelato and ice cream are both under the freezing mark, gelato is presented at 5