Our father, Ron Crafts, was a young man working as a sous chef at Caesar’s Palace when the executive chef suddenly dropped dead of a massive heart attack in the middle of a special service for 50 Vegas high rollers. Ron jumped in and finished that service, then took over the kitchen for a while until a new head chef was found. At age 25, he left Vegas and struck out on an adventure that would shape his life and change Utah’s culinary landscape forever.
It was 1981, and Ron was backpacking all over Italy learning everything he could. In Palermo he discovered Marsala wine, and in a little village in Puglia he learned to make bread the way Italians had made it since the 11th century. When he came to Florence, he stumbled onto a gelato shop called Vivoli. He was blown away by the gelato he tasted there and, despite living on a shoestring budget, came back to enjoy their gelato every day for a month until the owner finally agreed to teach Ron his family’s tradition for making gelato.
Gelato is a traditional Italian frozen dessert made primarily with milk, sugar, and flavorings, churned slowly to create a denser, smoother texture and more concentrated flavor than ice cream.
To be clear, the Italian word gelato refers to frozen dairy desserts in general, including what Americans call ice cream. If an Italian encountered American-style ice cream, they would usually call it gelato, although they might qualify it as gelato americano (American ice cream) or gelato industriale (mass-produced ice cream).
So, while you might be forgiven for thinking of gelato as “Italian ice cream,” that wouldn’t be correct. Italian gelato and American ice cream are very different desserts.
The short answer is, gelato has a creamier texture and more intense flavors than ice cream. But the differences go beyond that.
1. Fat Content
Since gelato tastes silkier and creamier than ice cream, it’s easy to assume that gelato must have a higher fat content. Actually, the opposite is true.
American-style ice cream is made with a lot of—surprise!—cream, so it typically has anywhere from 10-16 percent butterfat (the natural fat found in milk and cream). Premium ice cream brands have even more butterfat. Although some American brands use 5-7% butterfat, these cannot be labeled “ice cream” under U.S. law, so they might be labeled “ice milk” or “frozen dessert.”
Gelato, on the other hand, uses little or no cream, so it has a much lower percentage of butterfat, generally around 3-9 percent. This explains why gelato flavors are more intense. Even though the buttermilk in ice cream is delicious, it coats the palate and masks other, more subtle, flavors. Gelato allows its flavoring ingredients—chocolate, stracciatella, caramel, hazelnut, berries, crema, pistachio, zabaglione, and so many more—to shine through.
2. Air Content
Part of the reason gelato tastes smoother and creamier than ice cream is because of their relative air content. Ice cream is churned quickly which beats a lot of air into the mixture, making it fluffy and easy to scoop. When you take a bite of ice cream, as much as half of what you’re eating is air!
By contrast, gelato is churned slowly and incorporates far less air, making gelato both denser and creamier. The very creamiest, richest, and densest type of gelato (like the zero overrun gelato made by Culinary Crafts) has no added air at all.
3. Serving Temperature
Since gelato is so much denser, it can maintain its structural integrity at warmer temperatures than ice cream can. Ice cream needs to be stored at 0° F or below, and it’s best served at 10° F or colder. (Those low temperatures are what lead to the notorious “brain freeze” experience of eating ice cream too fast.) Traditional Italian gelato is ideally served about 5 to 10 degrees warmer, which had several advantages.
First, cold temperatures numb the senses, making it more difficult to taste the flavors of ice cream fully, With gelato’s slightly higher serving temperature, we can experience the flavors more fully and intensely.
Second, the higher temperature makes gelato smoother and creamier. Have you ever noticed how gelato looks shiny and silky in a display case? The slightly higher temperature of gelato signature smooth and velvety look and mouthfeel.
Zero overrun gelato is gelato made with little to no air incorporated during the churning and freezing process.
The term overrun refers to the amount of air that is whipped into a frozen dessert as it is churned. Traditional ice cream may contain up to 100% overrun (meaning that a gallon of ingredients will be expanded to two gallons of finished ice cream). Authentic gelato typically has much less overrun, and the gelato made at Culinary Crafts has no overrun at all.
Zero overrun gelato brings out flavors in their purest frozen form. Without air pockets separating the ingredients, each spoonful contains a higher concentration of flavor. Fresh fruit tastes brighter. Chocolate becomes richer. Pistachio, hazelnut, vanilla, and seasonal flavors reveal subtle notes that would be lost in lighter, over-aerated frozen desserts.
Our zero overrun gelato is made the traditional Italian way, one small batch at a time, in the same mantecatore our father brought back from Florence This time-honored process preserves the integrity of each ingredient, creating a gelato experience that is remarkably pure, intensely flavorful, and unlike anything you’ve tasted before.
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