Gelato vs. Ice Cream: What’s the Difference? Ask Paul

However, if we’re talking about real gelato—the kind bought in a gelateria, as opposed to a grocery store, and spooned out with a flat paddle—that gelato is a significantly different frozen dessert. 

Here’s the scoop on what distinguishes the two treats. 

True gelato differs from ice cream in how it’s churned, how it’s stored, and how it's served. These factors add up to a dessert with a different taste, texture, and mouthfeel than ice cream, and one that also behaves differently.

Gelato is commonly (though not always) made with less cream and more milk, along with less sugar. It's churned in a machine designed to incorporate significantly less air than gets mixed into ice cream, which gives gelato a more concentrated flavor. It’s also typically made no more than a couple of days in advance; fast turnover and simple ingredients give it a fresh, refreshing appeal. 

Gelato is also stored and served at a higher temperature than ice cream, around 12 degrees Fahrenheit versus the 0 degrees that a home freezer maintains; the warmer temp keeps it from becoming overly hard. Serving at such a relatively warm temperature means that real gelato melts right away in the mouth, releasing its intense flavor quickly. Because it's softer, it can be scooped with a paddle rather than a scoop.

American ice cream, on the other hand, is churned until it as much as doubles in volume, turning airy and fluffy. It’s also served a fair bit colder, stiff enough to stand up on a cone, and requires some warm-up time in the mouth before it melts in its luxurious, creamy way. The flavor it imparts is thus richer, more gradual to emerge, and longer-lingering. 

To that end, ice cream formulations contain more of the ingredients that keep a dessert soft at roughly zero-degree freezer temperatures: more fat and more sugar than gelato. 

To qualify for the name “ice cream,” a frozen treat must contain a minimum of 10 percent fat, and some brands have twice that. And, because sugar tastes less sweet at colder temperatures, ice cream often contains more sugar than classic Italian gelato. The sweetness and the flavor of cream is often as prominent as the flavor that's added.

There are two reasons gelateria-style gelato isn’t sold in a grocery store: the temperature of the freezer and the the time spent at that temperature. 

Inside your grocer’s freezer, the temperature is at or below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature, gelateria-style gelato, with its lower proportion of fat, would be hard and brittle. 

And even if a grocery could store gelato in conditions closer to those of its natural habitat—keeping it at 12 degrees—long-term storage at that temperature would quickly degrade the dessert, turning it icy and making it lose its impeccable freshness of flavor.

So gelato that’s sold in containers is formulated differently than in a gelateria, with more fat and sugar so it’s more easily scoopable straight from the freezer – that is to say, formulated more like ice cream. Like ice cream and other frozen treats destined to be stored cold rather than served right away, it also often contains some stabilizing ingredients, such as locust bean gum, which limit the growth of large, coarse ice crystals, and also help keep all the ingredients perfectly mixed together as it sits in the freezer. 

Thus, the distinction between this sort of gelato and ice cream becomes somewhat less clear, and the products overlap a bit.

To assess a pint you’ve bought, regardless of what it says on the label, set a scoop of it in a bowl on the counter. If it slowly subsides into a creamy soup, it’s definitely ice cream. If it quickly slumps into a thin milk, it’s on the gelato end of the spectrum. (Unfortunately, this test destroys the dessert.)

Because of the need to store it at a higher temperature, making gelato at home presents minor challenges. But they're surmountable. I have developed a system for making gelato with no more than 30 minutes notice (not counting prior prep) that results in a dessert along the lines of what you’d get in a gelateria.

First, I make a liquid base with milk, a little cream, fruit puree or other flavor, and sugar (and sometimes egg yolks and/or starch to thicken the texture, which is an advantage for a dessert served cool rather than icy-cold). I keep that base handy in the refrigerator for up to a week. (Our pistachio gelato recipe works very well.) 

When I want gelato, I use an ice cream maker to churn just enough of the base to serve (which takes around 30 minutes, depending on the machine). Then I have two options: I can dole out the gelato straight from the canister, when the texture is quite soft, as long as we're ready to eat it right away. Or, I can put it in the freezer after churning to firm up, as I would for regular ice cream, but no more than a couple of hours. Any longer than that and it becomes firmer than gelato should be, and as the temperature continues to drop … it starts to become ice cream.