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What is gelato, anyway?

Gelato is the Italian word for ice cream. So the bottom line is: it’s just another name for ice cream.

However, there are some differences between Italian-style ice cream (gelato) and American ice cream. Generally gelato has less air whipped into it than ice cream does, resulting in a denser product. It is also typically served at a warmer temperature than ice cream. That can make the flavors more intense -- just like drinking wine at the right temperature can make the flavors burst. Sometimes gelato is also made with less milkfat than ice cream.

Your ice cream questions, answered:

What exactly is in ice cream?

By federal law, ice cream must contain at least 10 percent milkfat. In addition to milk, it usually contains sweeteners and flavorings such as fruits, nuts and chocolate. Often ice cream includes stabilizers and emulsifiers, which help maintain the creamy texture as it sits in the freezer for a long time. But some artisanal ice creams and really fresh ice cream don’t have that stuff. 

What about custard, sherbet and sorbets?

Frozen custard has egg yolks in addition to having 10 percent milkfat like ice cream. The egg yolk can make it smoother and richer.

Sherbet originated in the Middle East. In the U.S., it has less milkfat (between 1 and 2 percent) than ice cream and more sweetener.

Sorbet doesn’t have any dairy products, so it’s usually fat-free and a great choice for our vegan friends.

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Source: International Dairy Foods Association

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Who invented the ice cream cone?  When did the sugar cone and waffle cone follow?

The cone (sans ice cream) has been around since antiquity in Greece. The first recipe calling for ice cream to be put in cones happened in Europe, in Francatelli’s Modern Cook in 1846.

Although not first, Americans are generally believed to have come up with the idea independently and the ice cream cone is most often traced to the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Many people have emerged to take credit, but one frequently cited is Syrian immigrant Ernest Hamwi. His waffle stand was next to an ice cream stand when inspiration allegedly struck.

The World’s Fair popularized cones, but two people already held patents for machines that made biscuit cups to hold ice cream. Antionio Valvona, a Brit, got a patent in 1902, and Italo Marchiony, an Italian immigrant with an ice cream cart on Wall Street, received his patent in 1903. Their edible ice cream dishes looked more like cups with flat bottoms than a pointy-ended cone.

People were making cones with all sorts of flavors and ingredients before putting ice cream in them, and waffle cones and were among the first type to become popular. When the country faced a wheat shortage during WWI, some manufacturers in Philadelphia even made cones out of crushed, sweetened popcorn!

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Sources: Of Sugar and Snow: A History of Ice Cream Making and Chocolate by Jeri Quinzio and Strawberry and Vanilla: A History of Ice Cream by Anne Cooper Funderburg

with the messengers and the office boys.”

Scooponcones:  How did the ice cream sodas and soda fountains get their start?

JQ: Soda fountains started out as part of the pharmacy where therapeutic drinks and medicines were dispensed. Gradually, the druggists added flavorings and fruit syrups to the soda waters and the fountains became less medicinal and more fun and flavorful.

They sold iced cream sodas – a mixture of soda water, fruit syrup, ice, and cream – but they didn’t sell ice cream until after the ice cream soda made its debut in 1874. Once soda fountains began selling ice cream, they became everyone’s favorite spot. In fact, the in 1906, The New York Herald Tribune reported that soda fountains were more popular than saloons.

Scooponcones: Most ice cream today is served either in a cup or cone. Tell us about some of the more interesting shapes in which it was served in Old Europe.

JQ: Back in the eighteenth century, when ice cream

was still a treat for the privileged few, confectioners delighted in serving ice cream in fanciful ways. Ice cream molded into the shape of a swan was served surrounded by reeds and rushes made from pulled sugar. Spears of ice cream asparagus were served tied in a ribbon. Confectioners molded and colored ice cream to resemble everything from fruits to fish to fowl. Sometimes to the point of fooling diners.

Scooponcones: How old is ice cream, anyway?

JQ: As far as we know, ice cream was first created in the seventeenth century, probably in Italy. Scientists had discovered that adding salt to ice or snow allowed them to freeze other substances, and shortly thereafter cooks put the scientists’ experiments to delightful use and made the ices and ice creams we all love.

Scooponcones: How much ice cream did you eat during your research?

JQ: Lots. My system is – have some ice cream, do some yoga, Repeat.

Find Quinzio’s book here

Scooponcones: What are  some of the interesting things you’ve discovered about the City’s early love affair with ice cream?

Jeri Quinzio: When it came to ice cream, New Yorkers were early adapters. One of the earliest ads featuring ice cream ran in the New York Gazette in 1777. In it, a confectioner named Philip Lenzi promised that ice cream “may be had almost every day.”

The famed New York restaurant Delmonico’s started out as a small café that was known for its cakes, bonbons, and fancy ice creams.

By the early nineteenth century, street vendors were selling ice cream hokey-pokeys, which were slices from a brick of ice cream. The bricks were usually layered with three different flavors and customers bought a slice for a penny.

The ice cream sandwich was first created in New York, most probably by an vendor selling ice cream from a Bowery pushcart. The sandwiches were so popular that, according to one account, Wall Street brokers “got to buying ice cream sandwiches and eating them in a democratic fashion side by side on the sidewalk