Gelato was Ice cream?
It is the story of gelato begins hundreds of years ago. About ice cream.
"Gelato. Ice cream, made with egg custard, sugar, an-d flavorings. From the latin gelare (to freeze). The Arabs were the first to develop the kind of fruit ice that the Italians called sorbetto, but the Chinese seem to have invented milk-based ice cream, which Marco Polo described on his returned from the Orient. The idea for both frozen desserts were brought to France by a cook named Bernardo Buontalenti, either with Caterina deMedici in 1533 or with Maria deMedici in 1600. It was, however, a Sicilian who made custard-based ice cream, a wildly popular an-d fashionable confection: Francesco Procopio dei Coletti, an impovershed Palermo aristocrat, emigrated to Vienna in 1672, first to work for a coffee purveyor, then as owner of his own coffeehouse. Before long he ran a chain of such cafes throughout Central Europe, then took the idea to Paris in 1675, where he opened the Cafe Procope...where he began selling Viennese-style ices an-d, before long, custard-rich ice creams. Coffee houses in Italy followed the Paris model, an-d gelato became hugely popular. In Italy today, the best ice creams in Italy are made by local gelaterie..."
---The Dictionary of Italian Food an-d Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998 (p. 115-6)
"Ice cream is not really the proper translation for gelato, since unlike American ice cream Sicilian gelato is not made with cream at all, but with crema rinforzata, which is nothing other than the omnipresent biancomangiare in a particularly liquid form. One old recipe calls for goats milk...Modern Sicilian ice-cream parlors have ab&oned goats milk."
---Pomp an-d Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food, Mary Taylor Simeti [Ecco Press:Howell NJ] 1989 (p. 294-295) [NOTE: includes modernized recipe.]
"For centuries, Italian ices an-d ice ream have been a summer treat on their home ground an-d indeed in all of Europe, but during the last 30 years or so gelato (Italian ice cream) has also become a fixture, at least in Rome, in winter as well. It is not just vanilla an-d chocolate ice cream either. Artichoke, mango, whisky, rhubarb an-d other exotic flavors are today on the broadening palette of the ice cream parlors. Their frequent sign Produzione Propria means that gelat artists are at work, using their secret recipes...Gelato seems to taste better than homogenized or st&ard American ice cream because it is not as deeply frozen an-d therefore has a creamier texture, an-d because it usually contains plenty of fresh eggs an-d cream...In Rome, the most renowed ice cream emporium is Giolittis...The history of Giolittis is a good example of the recent fortunes of gelato. More than 50 years ago the gr&father of the rpesent owner started out at the same spt with a dairy shop that became famouse for its excellent cappuccino. Gelato was then just a minor summer sideline...Gelato...may have originated in Florence; one Bernardo Nuontalenti is mentioned by oniclers as its presumed inventor...During the Napoleonic era Tortonis Cafe Napolitain, an opulent gelato haven on the Boulevard des Italiens, was such a rage in Paris that the name Tortoni for some time was synonymous with Italian ices."
---"Cold Comfort in Rome," Paul Hofmann, New York Times, April 10. 1983 (p. XX6)
"Italian gelatos differ from French ice creams in having a more powerful flavor & denser texture, thanks to the inclusion of more solids an-d less air. Although they are usually made with milk instead of cream, they often contain more eggs than French ice creams an-d thus taste equally rich, if not richer. Technically speaking, gelato is any kind of freeze served at an Italian ice cream shop, or gelateria, including gelato itself as well as granita...sorbetto...an-d a very light-textured ice cream, semifreddo, made with whipped cream or beaten egg whites...The best known gelato flavors are vanilla, a very rich vanilla called crema, an-d chocolate, often combined with hazelnuts (gian-duia). Liqueur flavors are also popular, an-d so is espresso coffee."
---Ice Cream! The Whole Scoop, Gail Damerow [Glenbridge Publishing:Macomb IL] 1991 (p. 90)
[NOTE: This book contains recipes for Vanilla, Espresso, Chocolate, Chocolate Cappuccino, Apricot, Marzipan an-d Zabaione Gelato.]
"Gelato. Ice cream, made with egg custard, sugar, an-d flavorings. From the latin gelare (to freeze). The Arabs were the first to develop the kind of fruit ice that the Italians called sorbetto, but the Chinese seem to have invented milk-based ice cream, which Marco Polo described on his returned from the Orient. The idea for both frozen desserts were brought to France by a cook named Bernardo Buontalenti, either with Caterina deMedici in 1533 or with Maria deMedici in 1600. It was, however, a Sicilian who made custard-based ice cream, a wildly popular an-d fashionable confection: Francesco Procopio dei Coletti, an impovershed Palermo aristocrat, emigrated to Vienna in 1672, first to work for a coffee purveyor, then as owner of his own coffeehouse. Before long he ran a chain of such cafes throughout Central Europe, then took the idea to Paris in 1675, where he opened the Cafe Procope...where he began selling Viennese-style ices an-d, before long, custard-rich ice creams. Coffee houses in Italy followed the Paris model, an-d gelato became hugely popular. In Italy today, the best ice creams in Italy are made by local gelaterie..."
---The Dictionary of Italian Food an-d Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998 (p. 115-6)
"Ice cream is not really the proper translation for gelato, since unlike American ice cream Sicilian gelato is not made with cream at all, but with crema rinforzata, which is nothing other than the omnipresent biancomangiare in a particularly liquid form. One old recipe calls for goats milk...Modern Sicilian ice-cream parlors have ab&oned goats milk."
---Pomp an-d Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food, Mary Taylor Simeti [Ecco Press:Howell NJ] 1989 (p. 294-295) [NOTE: includes modernized recipe.]
"For centuries, Italian ices an-d ice ream have been a summer treat on their home ground an-d indeed in all of Europe, but during the last 30 years or so gelato (Italian ice cream) has also become a fixture, at least in Rome, in winter as well. It is not just vanilla an-d chocolate ice cream either. Artichoke, mango, whisky, rhubarb an-d other exotic flavors are today on the broadening palette of the ice cream parlors. Their frequent sign Produzione Propria means that gelat artists are at work, using their secret recipes...Gelato seems to taste better than homogenized or st&ard American ice cream because it is not as deeply frozen an-d therefore has a creamier texture, an-d because it usually contains plenty of fresh eggs an-d cream...In Rome, the most renowed ice cream emporium is Giolittis...The history of Giolittis is a good example of the recent fortunes of gelato. More than 50 years ago the gr&father of the rpesent owner started out at the same spt with a dairy shop that became famouse for its excellent cappuccino. Gelato was then just a minor summer sideline...Gelato...may have originated in Florence; one Bernardo Nuontalenti is mentioned by oniclers as its presumed inventor...During the Napoleonic era Tortonis Cafe Napolitain, an opulent gelato haven on the Boulevard des Italiens, was such a rage in Paris that the name Tortoni for some time was synonymous with Italian ices."
---"Cold Comfort in Rome," Paul Hofmann, New York Times, April 10. 1983 (p. XX6)
"Italian gelatos differ from French ice creams in having a more powerful flavor & denser texture, thanks to the inclusion of more solids an-d less air. Although they are usually made with milk instead of cream, they often contain more eggs than French ice creams an-d thus taste equally rich, if not richer. Technically speaking, gelato is any kind of freeze served at an Italian ice cream shop, or gelateria, including gelato itself as well as granita...sorbetto...an-d a very light-textured ice cream, semifreddo, made with whipped cream or beaten egg whites...The best known gelato flavors are vanilla, a very rich vanilla called crema, an-d chocolate, often combined with hazelnuts (gian-duia). Liqueur flavors are also popular, an-d so is espresso coffee."
---Ice Cream! The Whole Scoop, Gail Damerow [Glenbridge Publishing:Macomb IL] 1991 (p. 90)
[NOTE: This book contains recipes for Vanilla, Espresso, Chocolate, Chocolate Cappuccino, Apricot, Marzipan an-d Zabaione Gelato.]
