nukesafe

I love Gelato in its infinite variety of colors and flavors, and I would like to think that each Italian shop has a grandmother in the back room mixing up that wonderful stuff from secret family recipes handed down over the generations. Wandering from shop to shop trying to find just the "best" gelato in Italy is a competitive sport for many tourists, me included.

However, my suspicious nature makes me wonder, in this industrialized world, if at least the basic components of this lovely summer delight are not probably made in a single huge factory outside Rome, flavored, stuff added, dies mixed in, then shipped to the individual outlets to be displayed with fanciful decorations to confuse the gullible public into believing there is a difference.

Would someone who really knows enlighten us all on how gelato is made and distributed?

(Be kind, I would like to still believe in the Easter Bunny)

confused20s

Great question, I wonder the same when I was in Italy. If anybody can enlighten on what is so different about gelato, that would be amazing as well.

BigAleinstein

Based on pure supposition, I would imagine the answer is yes. There are independent stores that produce their own and others that may have a source. As you know food takes on a greater importance in countries like France and Italy and if a place like Vivoli in Florence or Gelateria del Teatro in Rome were found to have their gelati made by a machine in Palermo there would be a scandal.

Also as you know, even before the intervention of the EU there are strict laws in Italy regarding food and their origin and how things are aged or prepared. I am not sure how they pertain to gelati however.

asps

Obviously ice creams sold in packages are industrially produced, and sometimes also full bowls to be resold on cones and cups are industrially produced. - This is more common with bars where the gelato is not the main product sold. - When the gelateria is declared as artigianale (handcraft) the gelato is produced on site from water, sugar, milk, milk derivatives, eggs and usually some base powder providing tastes and consistence. The use of base powders is actually quite ancient as it goes back to the beginning of 20th century and in this way the production is more reliable and probably even more hygienic that treating all ingredients on site (say, roasting the few nuts needed to flavor a bowl). Even top gelateries like Grom prefer to use their own pre-produced bases for reliability. As gelato artigianale does not travel and does not age well, it is usually mixed and made on site (if you look carefully you will see some form of laboratories on the back of the shop).

Dukey1

I get the impression that if something isn't individually produced or produced in "small" amounts it is always inferior to that which is.

cathies

I read somewhere that when buying gelato in Italy, if it's stored in a plastic tub then it's been brought in from somewhere else, if it's in a metal tub thn it was made in that store. No idea if its true or not.

adrienne

Some gelato is mass produced. I have a friend who knows the owner of a gelato factory somewhere near Verona. I'll have to get more information from her and post it.

Just because gelato is mass produced doesn't mean that it's not good. I still remember the gingerbread gelato (seasonal) that I had at a local restaurant - it was delicious!

Years ago I read in Let's Go that if the banana ice cream in a gelateria is yellow then you should avoid buying at that establishment as bananas turn brown soon after exposure to air. Banana gelato should be grayish; not as appealing as the lovely yellow color you sometimes see but more authentic. I've remembered that advice and turn away any time I see gelato in garish colors.

ThulaMama

We went on a wonderful food tour of the Testaccio district in Rome where we learned that most of the gelato was mass produced - something like 95% - which explains the uniformity of taste throughout Europe.

We were taken to a gelateria which was the genuine nonna-out-the-back kind of place and shown how to taste and what to look for. For example, real gelato doesn't puff up in huge billows. Adrienne is correct in the garish colors, too. Mint gelato is not vivid green, it should be white. Pistachio is not bright green but pale murky-green.

Once we had tasted the real gelato and knew what the characteristics were, it became pretty easy to distinguish between that and the mass produced stuff.

adrienne

You can always ask for a taste of a particular flavor and the shops will give you some on a small spoon. Then you can decide if you want to buy your gelato there or move on to somewhere else.

Now what someone needs to do is to put together a list of gelateri that create on premises.

ThulaMama - is there any way to tell if the gelato is made by the shop? A particular sign indicating such or other way to distinguish the "real" gelato from mass produced? Most gelateri I've been in have gelato in true colors rather than adding food coloring so that's not a way to distinguish.

adrienne

Some things to watch for (but mostly discussed above):

http://www.cntraveler.com/daily-trav...ream-explained

This article states that gelato made on prem has the label "DOC" to identify this.

http://voices.yahoo.com/just-time-su...86.html?cat=16

And here's something interesting from TA:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...a_Tuscany.html

Cathinjoetown

Hagen Daz or however it's spelled is mass-produced, still damn good.

vincenzo32951

I'm not sure what the word is, but I'm the opposite of a gelato snob.

jelopez33

Really, I don' t care, I enjoy!

tdyls

As a variation on the "If it sounds too good to be true" theme: If the color of the gelato looks too colorful/too vivid to be real, it probably is.

I've used the pistachio-color test to screen out inferior gelati, and I have rarely been wrong. Pistachio gelato, made with real pistachios and not artificial color, should be a muted grayish-greenish-brown, not slime green or avocado green. And if it is that muted gray-green-brown, it's probably made on-site.

That's not to say that mass-produced gelato is bad. But it's the difference between drinking, say, Guinness versus the stout at the local craft brewery down the street. Guinness is very good, but it's still mass-produced.

nukesafe

Thank you for your very informative replies. I love pistachio gelato, and now I will know not to buy the kelly green variety.

I also did some looking on line and found that in Italy gelato must contain at least 3.5% butterfat, while American ice cream must contain at least 10%, so it looks like all that walking in Italy is not the only thing that keeps me from gaining weight there.

BigAleinstein

I'm not sure what the word is, but I'm the opposite of a gelato snob.
_____

Ghiottone? Gavone is just too rude for someone I do not know.

nukesafe

I had to look those up, Big Al, and Google Translates gives me "Gourmand" for Giottonne, which makes sense. It translates Gavone as "storage locker", however, which seems to miss the point a bit.

BigAleinstein

Gavone is an Italian-American slang word for pig or someone who is unclutured. It is from the Italian cafone meaning boor or peasant. But the Italian-American accent makes it gavone. The same for cannoli, you will hear some Italian-Americans ask for gannol.

stevewith

Like high end chocolate makers in Europe, gelaterie with reputations for outstanding quality make their own gelati using real fruits and nuts (not chemical flavorings) . These are the gelaterie pointed out to you in quality guidebooks. You don't mention where you are going in Italy, but there are reliable places to get artisinal gelato throughout the country. You don't need to eat mass produced gelato, which of course is also available on many street corners in Italy, just as are mass produced chocolate bars.

The fantasy you will need to part with, however, is a nonna who makes gelato in the back kitchen. Making small batch gelato is a fairly energetic undertaking, even with the help of machinery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJYiHykhnx0

ThulaMama

Adrienne - the places we found (2 in Rome and 1 in Florence, couldn't find any in Venice) which made their own from scratch made it very clear on their signs and it was borne out in the taste. They are very keen on distinguishing themselves from the mass produced markets. But I don't have any more to go on than that.