| Sorry I didn't notice this earlier.
"Gelato" is just Italian for "ice cream" (actually, it literally means
"something frozen"). It always contains milk and cream. If you do it
without milk or cream, you have "sorbetto" (sorbet or sherbet).
The secret to the consistency of Italian gelato is the proportion of
sugar to other ingredients, and the amount of air which is mixed in.
Here are the proportions of ingredients you'll need to make about one
quart of either:
150 grams sugar (preferably superfine) -- anyone know how much this is in cups?
450 ml total liquid (2 cups)
plus
approx 2 tbs alcoholic drink
The alcohol is optional, but leaving it out will result in a more icy,
less smooth mixture, and may require more sugar to prevent icing up.
You can also add 1/2 tsp egg white, which will change the consistency
(I can't figure out how to describe what it does). Some people prefer
it, some don't.
The air content is less in gelato than in American ice cream. You get
this by mixing for a shorter time (about 10% to 15% less time). We have
an automatic Italian gelato machine, which runs for about 20-25 minutes
for gelato, and about 25-30 minutes for sorbetto. I don't know how long
other machines would take, but reduce the machine's instructions by a
bit and it should work ok.
Other things to note:
When you use ripe fruit, this will increase the sugar content somewhat.
You may find that you have to reduce the sugar, but do this carefully,
because too little sugar will ruin the recipe.
The procedure is essentially to heat the sugar in about 1/2 cup of the
liquid (preferably liquid which won't be damaged by the heat -- milk
and water are ok, but fresh fruit will change flavor). When the sugar
is *completely* dissolved, add the rest of the ingredients (except the
alcohol) and allow the mixture to cool, either in the fridge, or in a
double boiler in which the bottom contains cold water (to speed up
chilling). Finally, pour it into the ice cream machine, add the
alcohol, and start mixing. When the mixing is finished, transfer it to
a freezer container (if necessary) and put in freezer for at least two
hours before serving.
When making gelato, most recipes call for 1/2 part whole milk and 1/2
light cream (the light cream in Italy seems to be different in some
way; not sure what the fat contents are).
For fruit sorbetto, try to get all of the liquid from pureed strained
ripe fruit. If you add too much water, it will be thinner, and can
become icy. When making herb sorbetto, you'll use mostly water, so
watch the sugar and alcohol quantities, being careful not to use too
little of either.
For herb sorbetto, simmer finely chopped herbs in 1/2 cup water plus
all of the sugar, stirring constantly. It's ready in about ten minutes
to add the rest of the water.
For both fruit and herb sorbetto, it often improves the flavor to add
finely chopped citrus fruit peel (zest) to the simmering mixture. This
allows the essential oils to be extracted. When using zest, make sure
not to get the white pith, because this is bitter, and contains less of
the fruit oils.
Naturally, all mixtures should be strained before putting in the
machine. If you plan to add chunks of fruit, add these toward the end
of the mixing. Otherwise, they'll just get mashed into the mixture and
result in an icy texture. Also, it helps a lot if they've been allowed
to soak in sugar and/or liqueur so that they don't become little chunks
of ice in the mixture.
Last point: the sugar content is the critical factor, and these
instructions will give only approximate results, because fruits have
varying amounts of sugar. The only sure way to get it right all the
time is to adjust the sugar content of the final mixture by measuring
its specific gravity with the appropriate instrument (I forget what
it's called -- you can buy them at commercial suppliers -- they're not
too expensive). Unfortunately, we don't have one, and I don't know what
the correct specific gravity is, so we occasionally get bad results
(e.g., too icy). But usually, the instructions above work pretty well.
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