GeoffHamer

Of course gelato is ice cream. That doesn't mean that Italian ice cream is the same as American ice cream, any more than Italian cheese is the same as American cheese, British cheese or French cheese, or Italian beer is the same as British beer. If you gave a US ice cream to an Italian, they would call it a gelato even though they'd recognize that the recipe was different.
For me the main feature of Italian ice creams is that most are made by individual family-owned shops rather than in a factory, so the recipe varies and some shops are better than others.

ira

Hi CE,

>...the US is not the only place in the world which has a version of ice cream.<

I didn't think it was.

In Canada, "ice cream must have 10 per cent milk fat or, where cocoa or chocolate syrup, fruit, nuts or confections have been added, 8 per cent milk fat".

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/fo...cream_faq.html

I have found several references to "ice cream" as being "Ghiaccio italiano"
(Glace italienne in French), but there seem to be many more equating "gelato" to Ghiaccio italiano.

It seems that in the UK, "ice cream" can have as little as 5% "fat".

See http://www.ice-cream.org/

I was shocked to discover that "Most of the UK's ice-cream would not be classified as REAL ice-cream in European terms as about 80% of UK sales contains no milk fat".

See http://tinyurl.com/d8js9

Hope this sheds more light than heat. I don't want to melt the gelato.

CYork

What I want to know is why hot chocolate in Europe is a million times better than here in the US. Their hot chocolate is so thick and creamy, it's like melted pudding.

As for Gelato, it's just something you "must do" when in Italy. You know, when in Rome...

ira

Hi CY,

>..why hot chocolate in Europe is a million times better than here in the US..<

A. It is actually hot chocolate, not cocoa

B. Better chocolate

Ghirardelli makes a very good chocolate/cocoa mix for making hot chocolate. See http://www.ghirardelli.com/

travlsolo2

I've decided that Italian gelato tastes better because it has natural flavors rather than artificial flavors. Love that limone!

maitaitom

Tracy and I hosted a party last weekend, and one of our guests was making Gelato Mai Tais (I kid you not) at the end of the evening. He made his own gelato and got the mai tai flavor by incorporating mai tai mix. The first effort wasn't so good, but after adding limoncello to the concoction, it was quite tasty (but this was at about midnight).

We are going to his house for dinner on December 23rd. If they are really good (I'll try them before the martinis this time), I'll get a recipe.

aj

Not to change the subject from Gelato but, I had the best coconut icecream in Barcelona last May! I could not get enough of it. I will have to go home and check my scrapbook for the name of the shop!! Yummy! Now I am hungry and it is only 4pm. While in Rome we enjoyed Gelato at a certain shop every day...by the last day the server would say GRANDE when she saw us (for the sizeof the cup not for us) since the normal small European size cup was not big enough for us!! Oh well, we Americans have a bad report for eating too much but really, can you get too much Gelato?

CYork

Thanks, Ira! I'm going to give it a try - just in time for the frigid Chicago temperatures.