What is the difference between gelato and ice cream?
Gelato contains substantially less fat than American ice cream; it is frozen in a way that allows for much less air buildup (referred to as overrun), and is served at a slightly higher temperature. Due to this, it tends to release much richer flavor tones than what youre used to tasting in your local traditional ice cream parlor.
I am a former chef and in a nut shell, Gelato is made with milk, sugar, a binder (modified starch, Xanthan Gum or Locust bean gum), fruits and other ingredients and is less sweet, less fattening and is not as hard or solid a texture. Ice Cream is milk, sugar, cream, some have eggs or egg products, fruit and the same type of flavourings as Gelato, I have made both a number of time when I was a chef for 20+ years, we used the same machines, but the gelato also is not cooked as there is no egg products in it. Ice Cream from the cheaper supermarket stuff or Haagen Daz are primarily similar except for the quality of ingredients, level of fat from the cream used and the cheaper stuff is mostly air. The one explanation is detail has a number of flaws in it not all she said is correct.
