Gelato vs. ice cream
Gelato is just the Italian word for ice cream, and while there are customary differences between them, I don’t think that there exists an ice cream/gelato police that will put you in prison if you call standard American-style ice cream “gelato” to make it more appealing to SWPLs. You see, SWPLs love stuff that’s European and usually despise eating foods commonly eaten by Amercian proles unless it’s eaten ironically. Although there seems to be an exception for ice cream, a food that spans social classes and can be unironically enjoyed by SWPLs even though they have a preference for the fancier-sounding gelato.
Gelato is said to be denser than ice cream, but made with less cream and fewer egg yolks.
However, (1) I am unaware that there is any requirement that ice cream contains egg yolks, and (2) the density of ice cream tends to be related to whether it’s cheap ice cream or premium ice cream. Cheap ice cream is fluffy and has more air in it. Premium ice cream like Haagen Dazs is denser than cheap ice cream, but also contains more cream.
Given the variety of different ice creams, I can confidently say that all gelato fits somewhere within the American definition of ice cream. [WRONG WRONG WRONG. It’s a frozen dessert, not an ice cream, if it contains less than 10% milkfat.] But if made according to the customary Italian style, then gelato has the reduced fact content of cheap ice cream [frozen deserts], but the higher density of premium ice cream.
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UPDATE: I was wrong. There ARE ice cream police. Gelato does NOT pass as ice cream if it contains less than 10% milkfat.
“Someguy” pointed out 21 CFR §135.110
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I hope to find Haagen Dazs pistachio ice cream somewhere. That looks so much better than that pistachio yogurt crap I had yes.
Lion of the Blogosphere 
OT: If true, good news for people wondering whether the Trump admin will fight over Wall funding in the September budget: https://www.axios.com/trump-wanted-to-veto-bill-to-keep-government-open-2416977147.html
IHTG
May 22, 2017 at 12:10 PM
Terrorism in #Manchester. When are we getting that Muslim ban already? We really need it.
Or maybe omega male rage considering it was at an Arianna Grande concert.
Maybe an omega muslim male who hated the West, England and young White girls who rejected him.
Rifleman
May 22, 2017 at 11:24 PM
Manchester is a Muslim enclave. I imagine this was routine Islamic terrorism. The BBC for example has refused to even mention who might have carried out the attack and what religion they might be, even though the police might already know the answers given that it was a suicide bombing.
I have a 12 year-old daughter. I am now wondering whether she should be allowed to attend rock concerts as she grows up. That is my (and her) direct loss due to the wonders of diversity in the UK nowadays. But we are told we must shrug our shoulders and just bow to the inevitable future regular occurrence of these atrocities. My daughter asks when are we leaving the UK?
The lioncub
May 23, 2017 at 9:29 AM
Haagen Dazs is not premium ice cream. The name is fake Danish (it really comes from NJ). Why would you buy an ice cream with a fake name?
Zack
May 22, 2017 at 12:38 PM
You have to differentiate to charge premium. This is exactly what they are doing. They actually claim it is super-premium.
My Two Cents
May 22, 2017 at 3:45 PM
Haagen Dazs is the best of the national ice cream brands. Breyers and Ben and Jerry’s used to be better, but both were bought out and drastically reduced the quality of their ingredients (Breyers to the point the FDA no longer allows them to even label it as ice cream, it is instead “Frozen Dairy Desert”) so Haagen Dazs is now the champ by default. Interestingly, Haagen Dazs introduced a “gelato” product within the past year that is basically just a cheaper version of their regular ice cream that is sold for the same price. Haagen Dazs is the only “premium” ice cream on the national market. There are super-premium products that you can buy at Whole Foods or Fresh Market and in some regular supermakerts on a local basis.
One of the worst things about living in Europe is the lack of good ice cream. Almost everything is that cheap gelato crap. Ben and Jerry’s (which isn’t even good anymore) sells for like $8 a pint over there.
PerezHBD
May 22, 2017 at 6:27 PM
I don’t care about the “national” brand as long as there’s something locally available that’s good, and there always seem to be a good ice cream shop. Ofc, NY has plenty: laboratorio del gelato, grom, mo gelato, Morgenstern’s, Amorino, L’Albero del Gelati, etc It doesn’t seem to take much to make good ice cream — you just need good and fresh ingredients. I can see how the “national” brands can’t compete just because their ice cream has to have a long shell life and it’s probably better for the bottom line to use cheap ingredients anyway. The snobby people will prefer the local shop no matter what anyway
Zack
May 22, 2017 at 9:13 PM
Pints of Haagen Daz, Ben & Jerry’s, etc. were on sale for 2 for $7 at my local CVS over the weekend.
Dave Pinsen
May 23, 2017 at 2:28 AM
What about Perry’s? Or Turkey Hill? I would consider them a nationwide brand.
Otherwise this is an interesting comment.
DdR
May 23, 2017 at 9:14 AM
For those not in the know, you have to check the ice cream ingredients list for gum. Xanthan or guar gum, usually. If it has no gum in it, then it is premium. The gum is also not good for you. Well, it has the tendency to give lab animals colon cancer at least.
Haagen Daz is now the only national ice cream brand that is not cut with gum.
bobbybobbob
May 23, 2017 at 7:28 PM
Premium ice cream is now so outrageously expensive that an automatic ice cream maker machine is a sensible purchase. Buy cream, milk, sugar, and vanilla. Throw it in the machine. Not complicated.
bobbybobbob
May 23, 2017 at 7:34 PM
I don’t care if it is am invented name, Haagen Dazs is excellent ice cream.
Daniel
May 23, 2017 at 5:17 PM
There is no Gelato police, but there are Ice Cream police who will come and get you (21 CFR §135.110) if you call your <10% milk fat frozen desert Ice Cream).
If it has eggs, it's not Ice Cream, it's Custard.
SomeGuy
May 22, 2017 at 12:47 PM
I was totally wrong, there ARE ice cream police.
Lion of the Blogosphere
May 22, 2017 at 1:43 PM
Cream is less dense than milk or water. Generally more cream is considered higher quality and less cream is cheaper. I suppose an ice cream could be made with evaporated milk or powered milk such that it had more milk solids such as casein, whey and lactose which would make it denser. But for as long as I can remember it has been things like more cream, fresh fruits, real vanilla, real chocolate and other higher quality ingredients that make an ice cream premium as opposed to cheap imitation filled with artificial flavors, colors, soy, carageenan, etc., and made with very little real cream.
not too late
May 22, 2017 at 5:24 PM
I thought that ice cream with eggs was French-style ice cream. Without eggs, its Philadelphia-style ice cream.
I have an ice-cream maker that came with a separate gelato paddle. I haven’t been able to tell what difference it makes.
Half Canadian
May 22, 2017 at 2:26 PM
Technically there is a dividing line for %egg yolk between Ice Cream and Custard. Less is Ice Cream, more is Custard.
Some Guy
May 22, 2017 at 11:09 PM
The five Haagan-Dazs flavors I just checked have eggs yolks listed as an ingredient. So did my one pint of Graeter’s Salted-Caramel Chocolate Chip. I was surprised to see that a supermarket in Charlotte, NC, now carries Graeter’s premiium ice cream. I’d had their ice cream only a few times before when visiting my wife’s relatives in Cincinnati, where the original Graeter’s store is located.
Mark Caplan
May 22, 2017 at 2:32 PM
Graeters is the best ice cream from a super market that I’ve ever had. Probably a good thing that it is so expensive.
Half Canadian
May 23, 2017 at 1:35 PM
Italian Gelato couldn’t pass as even cheap ice cream. From wikipedia: “In Italy, by law, gelato must have at least 3.5% butterfat.[citation needed] In the United States, there is no legal standard of definition for gelato as there is for ice cream, which must contain at least 10% butterfat.”
Furthermore, in addition to 10% milk fat, icecream needs an additional 10% that can either be milk fat or milk solids.
Most American icecream, including high quality brands, does not include egg yolks.
Spoons
May 22, 2017 at 1:38 PM
I’ve always like the soft ice cream at Dairy Queen and McDonalds. Prole?
Also, isn’t it gelati for plural?
Andrew E.
May 22, 2017 at 2:09 PM
You have to ask if McDonalds is prove?
Lion of the Blogosphere
May 22, 2017 at 2:13 PM
Are you using a non-QWERTY keyboard? Unusual typo.
Richard
May 22, 2017 at 3:21 PM
McDonald’s is considered NAM in NYC, which is worse than prole.
JS
May 22, 2017 at 9:28 PM
I think soft-serve like DQ is what all ice cream is before they refreeze it from what I remember. I do like soft serve too.
I remember White Hen Pantry used to have Whippy Dips which was soft serve and it was very good.
ttgy
May 22, 2017 at 7:07 PM
> soft ice cream
technically called frozen custard.
bobbybobbob
May 22, 2017 at 9:22 PM
The only place that I know which serves real gelato in Manhattan is Eataly.
JS
May 22, 2017 at 2:17 PM
Do we consider Ciao Bella as “real gelato?” I used to eat it in Grand Central.
Gozo
May 22, 2017 at 5:35 PM
Not sure, but the Eataly chain comes directly from Italy. The NYC store is a zoo, and full of rude and rapacious people trying to get what they want. I’m sure the crowds in Italy are a lot more civilized.
JS
May 22, 2017 at 9:33 PM
Looks like the Ciao Bella stand in Grand Central closed after I left NYC. Sad!
Gozo
May 22, 2017 at 10:30 PM
I don’t care how gelato is made, just so long as the eggs are broken at the little end.
Njguy73
May 22, 2017 at 2:40 PM
Ice cream is realy supposed to be unhealthy. I don’t think we should either eat it or blog about it. It’s tons of calories and chemicals. A deadly combo.
Yakov
May 22, 2017 at 3:34 PM
Cream, sugar, and vanilla and maybe an egg is tons of chemicals?
How is that much different from eating a breakfast of eggs and a cup of coffee with cream and sugar?
not too late
May 22, 2017 at 5:29 PM
Ice cream is mostly diary. Diary is poison.
JS
May 22, 2017 at 9:43 PM
Dear diary.
Lion of the Blogosphere
May 22, 2017 at 10:15 PM
*dairy
JS
May 22, 2017 at 9:47 PM
Maybe in colonial times they made it like that, but all these butter pecan, mint chocolate chip, rum raisin and pistachio taste like chemicals to me. The ingredient of Hagen-Das are plain scary.
Yakov
May 22, 2017 at 9:49 PM
JS’s diary:
Dear Diary, Surrounded by proles yet again today. Might not survive.
More on my struggle tomorrow.*
* PS that is if I live. Sigh.
Rifleman
May 22, 2017 at 11:28 PM
American Gelato is exactly as much Italian, as Häagen-Dazs is Danish.
My Two Cents
May 22, 2017 at 3:37 PM
True. Haagen-Dazs is made by Nestle, which means it’s Swiss.
Mark Caplan
May 22, 2017 at 6:06 PM
I used to save money on Haagen-Dazs by buying them in low income NAM neighborhoods (NAM as in Hispanic).
JS
May 22, 2017 at 9:35 PM
It was worth the saving to shlepp there for ice cream? How much would you eat already? You are a riot.
Yakov
May 22, 2017 at 11:01 PM
It’s only a 15 minute walk from Astor Place to Alphabet City in downtown Manhattan.
I never understood the obsession with jogging and treadmills with certain Manhattanites. I walked and I walked to fulfill certain objectives, and that’s how I got my workout. It was killing 2 birds with 1 stone.
What a waste with these people?
And now you know why many of these people have poor finances!
JS
May 23, 2017 at 8:57 AM
It’s quite amazing how the average 20/30 year old in Manhattan with a six figure salary, blow all their money in rent and eating out.
Is this one of the reasons why America is in such a mess?
JS
May 23, 2017 at 9:00 AM
Is it prole to actively prefer the cheap, low fat ice cream that’s kind of crystal-y?
Also, what are your thoughts on granitas and semi-freddos?
Jesse
May 22, 2017 at 4:47 PM
Authentic gelato is legitimately better than standard ice cream, both in taste and flavor. What swpls love is the fru fru flavors such as blood orange and Frangelico. Although if you are a prole at heart like me you will opt for Breyer’s Oreo Blast or the Neopolitan “Texas Pint”.
B.T.D.T.
May 22, 2017 at 4:52 PM
Depends on the flavor. Gelato works better for chocolate than standard ice cream. Vanilla or pistachio work better with standard. Hazlenut makes a great gelato, but not good ice cream. You can’t have a decent gelato butter crunch or maple walnut.
Peter Akuleyev
May 23, 2017 at 3:17 AM
I like gelato better than ice cream because there is less cream although I haven’t found gelato in the US that is as good as the gelato I had in Italy. I don’t know why.
Maybe I should open a gelato shop that serves it like they do in Italy.
ttgy
May 22, 2017 at 7:10 PM
Looks like there is a terrorist attack in the UK. Good for Trump if true.
On NeoGaf they are insisting that it isn’t terrorism but just the helium balloons bursting. These are some very, very delusional people.
Otis the Sweaty
May 22, 2017 at 7:28 PM
I wonder if swpls know that gelato contains more sugar than ice cream?
CamelCaseRob
May 22, 2017 at 7:53 PM
How’s Blue Bell ice cream? Is it worth the hype? I heard a lot about it but cannot find it in NYC.
Jimi
May 22, 2017 at 10:39 PM
It’s a Texas only ice cream.
I know that from the song “Come Back to Texas” by Bowling for Soup.
Lion of the Blogosphere
May 22, 2017 at 11:25 PM
My NM grocery store would beg to differ. But Texas and surrounding environs would probably be accurate.
Some Guy
May 22, 2017 at 11:45 PM
Most ice cream found in the supermarkets are not good. Although, my favorite are the cheap choco/vanilla mini cups. The cream is airy and artificial, but it’s cheap and it happens to taste good.
JS
May 23, 2017 at 7:20 AM
Most ice cream found in the supermarkets are not good. Although, my favorite are the cheap choco/vanilla mini cups. The cream is airy and artificial, but it’s cheap and it happens to taste good.
HAHAHA…………couldn’t be more prole.
Low class ice cream……IN PLASTIC!
Everything in plastic is prole.
Rifleman
May 23, 2017 at 10:43 AM
They have that junk in Canada? You keep saying cheap, cheap – how expensive is an ice cream already? You, a single guy paying no taxes, shop for cheap ice cream? Man, you are ridiculous.
Yakov
May 23, 2017 at 3:03 PM
Those mini cups go for $3 in a dozen count at a NAM supermarket. Is that cheap or not?
JS
May 23, 2017 at 7:50 PM
Why eat the junk? Doesn’t the price tell you what it’s worth?
Yakov
May 23, 2017 at 10:11 PM
The cheap mini cups taste good.
$5 box of Breyer’s does not.
Both are laden with fake chemicals and sugar. Pick your poison!
JS
May 24, 2017 at 8:19 AM
Terrible. Like lion says, it was originally Texas based so they cater to the overly sugary tastes of the Mexican demo. Also artificial flavors and high fructose corn syrup. Turkey Hill makes a “Natural” version of their ice cream that is similar to what Breyer’s was before being sold to Unilever.
PerezHBD
May 23, 2017 at 6:11 AM
Many of the ice cream like Breyer’s and Dolly Madison are too sweet. They are like the Hostess and Drakes cakes, when it come to frozen sweets. Most ice cream sold at the supermarkets are crap.
JS
May 23, 2017 at 7:47 PM
FWIW, when I lived in Filthy, I used to get some awesome gelato. A smoking guidette worked in that place. Good times, good times…
Vincent
May 22, 2017 at 11:47 PM
Where is “Filthy?” And was the guidette smoking cigarettes, or did you mean she was smoking hot?
Maryk
May 23, 2017 at 10:51 AM
I assume that was a derogatory name for Philly, but I could be wrong about that.
Lion of the Blogosphere
May 23, 2017 at 7:27 PM
I think Amorino Gelato on University Place is an Italian chain, if you want something similar to what you might find in Italy.
R P
May 23, 2017 at 6:39 AM
It seems one reason that gelato is supposed to taste better is that it is served at warmer temperatures than ice cream. But I’ve had gelato in Italy many times and never noticed that it tasted better than U.S. ice cream.
CamelCaseRob
May 23, 2017 at 7:20 AM
Posh people in France like gelato but only in Italy. In France it is considered a fatty prole imitation like american one included the false danish brand.
What is posh is natural hand made ice cream with many fruits and very unfatty almsot like a sorbet. Poshest brans is Berthillon. They are so posh that they choose to close for 2 months every summer allowing their resellers to do the business for them. Every morning i see the fresh fruits coming to their shop to be processed. They are delicious only when you get unused to ultra sweet tastes. Not for every american …
Bruno from Paris
May 23, 2017 at 10:56 AM
Years ago I had good chocolate gelato at a chocolatier in Pittsburgh on the Strip, I think Mon Aimee.
Pittsburgh is kind of a fun town: interesting views, some decent little stores with imported food, used books, etc.
Gozo
May 23, 2017 at 11:11 AM
Lion, you should take the 7 train out to Corona one day and enjoy Italian ices from the Lemon Ice King of Corona. They’ve been around for over 60 years. You can start your lunch at Leo Lattcini–Mama’s and finish up with some ices.
Lewis Medlock
May 23, 2017 at 2:30 PM
Goodbye to Rosie? (Although that could refer to something X rated.)
Lion of the Blogosphere
May 23, 2017 at 7:31 PM
Starting in the late 1800s, Italians came here by the millions and brought some elements of their cuisine with them, but not gelato. Whoever heard of a gelato shop in America before the year 2000? Italian-Americans recognized that their native product couldn’t hold a candle to American ice cream.
Mark Caplan
May 23, 2017 at 2:48 PM
“Whoever heard of a gelato shop in America before the year 2000?”
There was a gelato shop in downtown Scottsdale, Arizona in the 1990s.
Lion of the Blogosphere
May 23, 2017 at 7:31 PM
I love Mr. Softee too. When I was a kid in Queens we could hear it from blocks away. As the truck got closer the anticipate rose into a fever pitch. I’m gland that Mr. Softee is still around.
Daniel
May 23, 2017 at 5:19 PM
It’s quite embarrassing for a grown adult to line up for Mister Softee ice cream with a group of kids.
JS
May 23, 2017 at 7:38 PM
Damn right. Push those little rats outta the way!
Vincent
May 24, 2017 at 10:32 PM
Lion — Shake Shack serves up a frozen confectionery. I’ve never eaten it. I hear it’s a type of ice cream custard hybrid.
JS
May 23, 2017 at 7:34 PM
Eddie’s Sweet Shop in Forest Hills has outstanding ice cream and some candy. Nothing else. I believe it’s over 100 years old. They still have much of the original interior.
Itgen’s Ice Cream Parlor in Valley Stream, NY is excellent. They’ve been around since 1960. It’s an old-school luncheonette that serves home-made ice cream.
Holsten’s in Bloomfield, NJ has been around since 1939. Very good home-made ice cream with standard luncheonette items.
When you walk into any of these places, it’s like going back in time.
Lewis Medlock
May 24, 2017 at 3:40 PM
“I assume that was a derogatory name for Philly, but I could be wrong about that.”
No, you are correct. And when I didn’t hear gunfire at night, it was weird.
Vincent
May 24, 2017 at 10:21 PM