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La Piazza Blog & Stories
Everything You Need to Know About Gelato
Food
February 07, 2020

Everything You Need to Know About Gelato

When you live in a country crazy about gelato, it’s hard not to know something about this amazing treat. Add that to relatively mild winters and you’ll see a lot of gelato all year round. It’s a culture – almost a religion to most people. After all, the World Cup of Gelato is a real thing. So gelato is constantly being produced, upgraded, and tasted by savvy patrons. It’s hard to know everything about this dessert, but we will tell you everything you need to know.

Ciclismo Classico loves gelato. We’ve even created a bike-trip series centered around this wonderful summertime treat. You can’t get enough of it while on the bike: there are few emotions as powerful as stopping for a cup of limone or nocciola after a forty-kilometer bike ride. Well, okay, maybe a beer is nice too!

But before we look what makes gelato so good, we need to set the historical records straight:

A Whipped-Up History

A little research on the internet will pull up some interesting information, like the name Bernardo Buontalenti. According to some food and tourism blogs, this is the man credited with having “invented” gelato. The legend unfolds that in the 1500s, the Medici family held a competition in Florence, looking to rival the outstanding desserts arriving from the French kingdom.

Caterina de Medici, herself a consort of the French aristocracy, tasted Buontalenti’s “invention” and brought it to the court of Henry II. Thus, giving it a place on the world’s stage. If it wasn’t Buontalenti, there is another story about a chicken farmer named Ruggeri as the inventor of this prized sweet.

There are a lot of holes with this theory. I mean, sure: Buontalenti probably introduced gelato to a major European court at the height of the renaissance, but to say he invented it is wrong.

Look to the East

The reality is ice cream was first produced in China during antiquity. Yet in Ancient Egypt, pharaohs had what appears to be a molds for ice-cream cones dating back to 2500 bc.  When you consider the Arab origins of gelato and their domination of southern Italy, you see that primitive gelato was consumed well before Buontalenti ever made it to Palazzo Pitti in Florence.

Furthermore, the creation of nivieri – ancient refrigeration systems – in Sicily and in North Africa may suggest Italian gelato is not of Florentine origin at all. It may have originated in Sicily, eventually migrating its way up the peninsula into Tuscany during the Renaissance.

“Nonno” Sherbet: The Birth of Ice Cream

Reinforcing this theory is the presence of an ancient Persian treat, called sherbet. From the ancient language sharbat, these iced desserts were introduced to the West from the Middle East. The ancients typically used three ingredients to make sherbet: fruit, sugar, and water.

Oddly enough, these are the same three ingredients you’ll discover in a popular Sicilian treat: granita.

Granita’s history stretches back before the Arab rule in Sicily. The Romans used to eat granita, as did ancient peoples in Mesopotamia. Nonetheless, to make granita you need ice, and Sicily has plenty of ice and snow.

Ice, Ice….Baby.

The commercial ice-market was a big industry in Sicily. Groups of men with horse-drawn wagons would climb Mount Etna at dusk, harvesting the ice found at the volcano’s peak during the night. They would bring the snow back into the valley and place it in the nivieri, covered then with rocks and hay. Not only was the ice used for simple refrigeration but it was also topped with fruit juices and sugar (sugar – by the way – was refined in India 2,500 years ago, and made its way to the West via Persia).

All this gelato development in Sicily made people crazy for ice cream. No wonder the Palermitano Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli also takes credit for having “invented” gelato. Although the real inventors of gelato come from the East, we can acknowledge Francesco as the owner and operator of the first-ever gelateria in the world, in Paris during the late 1600s.

Gelato: Tastes Better Than Ice Cream

One question remains after your first (or your thirty-first) spoonful of gelato: why does it taste so good?

There are a number of reason for this excellent flavor strategy. First, gelato has a higher percentage of milk, and a lower percentage of cream and eggs than ice cream. The density of cream and eggs (fats) diminishes the natural fruit flavors, rendering them bland. Gelato only has milk (when used for flavors like chocolate or stracciatella). You’ll find eggs only in flavors like crema and zabaglione. All the fruit flavors use water.

A Slow Churn

Second, gelato makers churn their product at a much slower rate than ice cream makers (almost 50% slower). Slower churning means less air incorporated in the mixing process. Less air means more full flavors and a denser consistency. Big flavors and thicker product equate to amazing yumminess in your mouth.

Lastly, gelato is served at a lower temperature than ice cream. Although gelato has a thicker consistency, it must be served warmer than ice cream to preserve than silky-smoothness (the typical holding temperature for gelato is between 10-22º F whereas ice cream needs to be held at 0º F). When gelato is served at its higher temperature, its savory nature is unveiled. In addition, a frozen tongue can’t actually enjoy ice cream. A “cool” tongue has activated taste buds, receiving more of the genuine flavor of this special dessert.

Face it: gelato is good for you. It has more flavor and less fat than ice cream. So why waste your time with the heavy stuff? Get gelatoed!

Know Your Vendor

Ever have bad pizza in Italy? It can happen. There are several knock-off places (especially along the touristy routes) that have no trouble serving you low-quality food. You pay for it, and then you wish you hadn’t stopped in the first place.

Keep a discerning eye always open when you walk into a gelateria. If you notice the gelato sitting in rectangular plastic bins, chances are the owner has it shipped in from a massive gelato distribution facility. Walk away.

Look at the tools of the trade. If the gelataio is using a wooden or metal paddle – NOT an ice cream scoop – that is a good sign. It means the gelateria owner understands the consistency of his product. He knows he must scrape it from the top to break it up.

True Colors

The true gelataio artigiano – or artisanl gelato maker – shows their craft in the color of their product. There are several flavors you can look at once you enter the gelateria to determine whether the gelato deserves your hard-earned euros.

For example, look for vanilla that is yellowish-brown. The true vanilla from Madagascar is not white. So if you look at the vanilla and it’s the same color as the owner’s apron, walk away.

Lemon has another give-away color. Contrary to vanilla, lemon should not look yellow. True artisan lemon should be white. The dark chocolate should look almost black. And many of these flavors should have unique shapes in their tins. That means the gelataio poured the product into the pans after churning (and hand churning is always better than machine churning).

You probably think pistachio should be green, right? Wrong. When crushed, it has a nice brownish hue to it. Don’t walk into a place that has green pistachio gelato. It will disappoint you.

Look for new and exciting flavors like spicy dark chocolate, ricotta, and carob. These unique flavors signify the owner has the capabilities of “creating” new flavors. And since she is an artisan gelataio her flavors are probably extraordinary.

If your a food lover in general (and gelato, of course, is a favorite food)–check out any one of our fabulous food and wine tours! Then, do tell us your best practices for spotting amazing gelato. Give us a ring or send us an email – we’d love to hear your secret gelato-tasting strategy!

 

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