GELATO VS. ICE CREAM

What's the difference between gelato and ice cream?

If you've ever visited Italy, you probably experienced creamy, delicious gelato. And maybe you assumed that the only reason it seemed richer and more intensely flavored than American ice cream back home was because you were enjoying it on the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome, rather than on your couch back home.

But there are actually a few main differences between gelato and ice cream. To find out.

While ice cream legally has a minimum of 10 percent fat, gelato is made with a greater proportion of whole milk to cream, so it contains more like five to seven percent fat.

But don't expect to be able to get Italian gelateria-style results by making a gelato recipe in your home ice cream machine: Gelato is churned at a slower speed than ice cream, so it's denser because not as much air is whipped into the mixture. (Gelato contains about 25 to 30 percent air, while ice cream can contain as much as 50 percent air) Finally, while ice cream is typically served frozen, gelato is typically stored and served at a slightly warmer temperature, so it's not quite completely frozen.

As for that amazing, rich flavor,"Since there's not as much fat in gelato, it doesn't coat the mouth in the same way. So the flavors are more intense."

But one thing ice cream and gelato do have in common: you won't be able to resist just one more scoop!

HISTORY OF ICE-CREAM

#Nero (37-68 A.D.), The Roman Emperor, is said to have eaten a sort of water-ice.

#The Chinese claim that they have been making and consuming Ice Cream since ages.

#Supposedly, Marco Polo (1254 – 1324) carried the Chinese Ice Cream recipes back with him to Venice.

#These were then introduced to the French by Italian chefs retinue of Catherine de¢ Medici when she married Henri II of France.

#Royal Ice Cellars were built in Mesopotamia in around 2000 B.C.

#These were used to cool wines and foods.

#During the late 1600s, The French King Louis XIV was known to have feasts with colored water-ice and liqueurs.

#Nicholas Lemery’s Recueil de curiositéz rares et nouvelles de plus admirables effets de la nature, published in 1674,contained the first recipe for flavored ices.

#The Quaker colonists who brought their ice cream recipes with them introduced ice cream to the United States.

#It is said that Ice Cream was regularly consumed by Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson.

#During the eighteenth century, the spread of ice pails and cookery books with ice recipes, almost everywhere around the globe, resulted in the delicacy becoming more common.

#Robert Green, in 1874, is supposed to have invented the Ice Cream Soda, which took ice cream consumption in America and other parts of the world to great heights.

#The twentieth century saw an explosion of sorts in the popularity of ice cream owing to availability of cheap refrigeration.

#Italian confectioners made Gelato, their own form of Ice Cream, which became immensely famous due it’s texture and lightness.

#During the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, cones were used for the first time to serve Ice Cream.

#A chemical research team in Britain came up with the soft ice cream, which had more air in it. It became immensely popular because of its creamy yet light texture.

#Today, it is popularly known as the ‘Softy’ ice cream.

#In the 1980s, the older, thicker ice creams made a comeback and were referred to as ‘Premium’ Ice Creams.