GELATO VS ICE CREAM

Well,  I made gelato.  For 2 days.  And then I started inviting people over to have taste tests.  Because I wanted to see if there was a difference between gelato and ice cream.

So here's what I did.

I have 2 machines, an ice cream maker and my recently bought gelato maker.  I also have an excessive number of recipe books for frozen desserts.  I made four different recipes; two traditional gelato recipes with lower fat contents (crema and mascarpone) and 2 traditional ice cream recipes (chocolate and espresso).  I then put half of each batch in the machines and made them according to the instructions.  Next, I called friends to see if they were interested in participating in my taste test.  The deal was that after they taste-tested everything, they could make their own "ice cream sundaes" with all the toppings.  I didn't have to pay anyone an honorarium to get them to participate!

Here are the very unscientific results.  Because people have flavour preferences, I can't really say if they prefer ice cream over gelato, except to tell you what I have left over and the comments that I heard.

ICE CREAM

Chocolate
2/3 of people preferred the one made in the ice cream machine, but did complain about the texture in both of the batches.  I've never found a recipe where that has not been a problem.  Which is a problem for me, since it seems everyone loves chocolate ice cream.  If there is anyone out there who has a great chocolately ice cream recipe that does not have a grainy texture to it, please share.


Espresso
This came out 50/50 for which machine they preferred.  This flavour was a favorite for many of the tasters.  I wonder if that might be a function of the fact that many of the tasters were doctors, who are known to live on coffee in the early stages of their careers?

Now on to the gelato...............

GELATO

Crema
By a 3:2 majority, this was preferred in gelato form, and was the second most popular.

Mascarpone
This was very interesting.  Just about everyone preferred this one made in the ice cream machine.  No one said this was their favorite ice cream and yet, as I watched everyone kept putting their spoons back into this one "for one more bite".   Not quite sure what this means.  I really liked it and will make it again.  But then tiramisu is a favorite dessert of mine and mascarpone is the cheese that is used to make that dessert.  What also is interesting about this gelato is that it is the only one that doesn't use eggs so it is easier to make than the others.  And I have no egg whites from it to figure out what to do with them.  Perhaps it comes out better in the ice cream machine because the cheese is denser and the ice cream machine puts more air into the dessert.

One of my tasters is a native Italian.  She admitted before the taste test she always preferred ice cream to gelato, and true to form she did in this taste test.  The one kid to participate only wanted chocolate and after much hemming and hawing, she decided, "by just a little bit(e)" she preferred the ice cream.


Gelato is the the healthier choice.  Perhaps Rachel would like to chime in on what she thinks about my results as all the tasters (except the kid and one young adult) were in their 40's and older.  I think that we need to devise a nerdier test with some of her friends, to get a better age range and scientific test to add to her original research on the matter.

(For those of you who want to read more about the difference of gelato and ice cream, see my other blog, DrVickisBytesonTykes.blogspot.com.)