Many years ago, while touring around and visiting the great cheesemakers of Italy, I took my first taste of gelato from a street side vendor and I was not the least bit impressed. I mentioned my disappointment to a food writer friend of mine, who made it his personal mission to convert me.
He took me on an impromptu tour of gelaterias around Rome and Florence and my attitude changed completely. You see, the first thing I learned about gelato is that there is as much variety as there is with ice cream in this country: premium, super premium, good ones and not so good ones. But the added intrigue of gelato is that there are regional tendencies and fierce loyalty to those differences.
Gelato vs. Ice Cream
First and foremost, gelato is Italian ice cream. It has the same ingredients as ice cream, but the percentages are different. The result is that gelato has a much more intense flavor. Ice cream has more butterfat and a rich dairy taste; the butterfat coats the tongue and mutes the flavoring. Gelato has much less butterfat to coat the tongue and that allows the flavor to burst through.
One of the other major differences is air. You won’t see it listed on the ingredients, but ice cream can have up to 50% air. This, among other things, allows you to scoop ice cream even when it’s hardened. Our gelato has about half that amount of air so it is much denser than typical ice cream and a little bit goes a long way.
Regional Distinctions
As I toured around Italy visiting with different gelato makers, the regional versatility became evident. In Florence they tend to make their gelato richer, and I often found eggs being used in the mixes. In Sicily, very little cream was added to the gelato and the butterfat tended to be lower than in other areas. The recipes I fell in love with came from gelato makers in Ragusa and Palermo. What I loved about these recipes was that they allowed the flavoring of the gelato to overpower the dairy taste. So there are some elements of each of those mentors in our gelato.
Gelato at Zingerman’s
Though we can’t provide you with the atmosphere of Italy, we can bring a little of the taste to you every day. We’re using an authentic Sicilian gelato machine brought over from Italy and we’re definitely putting a lot of fresh Michigan flavor into our gelatos. This summer saw the debut of blueberry and strawberry gelato featuring fruit we picked up a the farmer’s market. New flavors are coming all the time so keep an eye on the website or just come by the Creamery retail shop for free tastes!
