Caffè Gelato
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Dominic Armato | |
For some reason, a common misconception seems to be that what gives gelato its richness is a heavier egg content, when in fact the opposite is usually the case. Generally speaking, gelato is lighter on the "rich" ingredients. Though the southern Italian gelati frequently contain eggs, many (if not most) in the north don't contain any eggs at all. And gelato is usually made with whole milk, and rarely, if ever, contains any cream. Of course, the misconceptions persist simply because it doesn't seem possible to achieve gelato's incredible intensity of flavor without the richer ingredients. But there's one factor that makes the difference.
It's all about air.
Ice cream makers incorporate a lot of air into the mixture during the freezing process, increasing the volume and lightening the texture of the final product. The goal of a good gelato, on the other hand, is to incorporate as little air as possible. The end result is that one spoonful of gelato could contain 2-3 times as much of the base flavoring as one spoonful of ice cream. This is the same reason that extremely low-quality ice creams frequently have so little flavor. It isn't necessarily that the ingredients aren't any good, it's that the manufacturers incorporate even more air than with typical ice cream, so that they get more volume out of the same ingredients and can charge less. Also, since the richness of gelato is achieved by means of its density rather than its butterfat content, the base flavors predominate. Of course, this also means that the base flavors are more exposed. If you aren't using good quality chocolate, for example, it can't hide behind the cream. This is another reason you don't see true gelato very often... it's harder to get away with lower-quality ingredients.
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Dominic Armato | |
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