Page 118 - #62 eng e-mag

I Ice Cream

What do you think about the trend of replacing ent regions. Without any changes in the recipe, using the
milk with plant-based dairy products such as soy same amount of milk to make gelato, the hardness and
milk, coconut milk, almond milk etc. to make gelato? expansion ratio in gelato is going to be different if you
use different milk.
Yu Li: Generally speaking, dairy products can be used as
ice cream ingredient. For most of the plant-based diary Yu Li: The difference is obvious, even the regulations
product, it is hard to be a part of the recipe of ice cream, in those countries are different. For example, ice cream
due to flavor conflict with other ingredients. Hence, the with fat content less than 20% is not allowed to be sold
plant-based dairy products are used as flavor ingredients as ice cream in USA, while, in Italy, the fat content
rather than raw material as dairy in gelato. requirement is only 8%. The gap in food regulations
impacts the flavor and smoothness of ice cream in these
Hongwu Guo: There are different reasons for becoming two countries.
vegetarian: they vary from religion, animal protection,
environment protection to using antibiotics while breeding Hongwu Guo: Milk is produced everywhere in the world.
etc. An excellent gelato chef has the capability to operate The difference in components are in protein, fat, lactose,
with soymilk, coconut milk, almond milk, cashew milk, active calcium and volatile matters. Volatile matters in
pistachio milk, walnut milk and other plant-based milks to milk set different flavors of gelato. It is because the con-
make vegan gelato for these people. In the design of recipe, tent of proteins and fat can be adjusted in recipe, but the
the combination with products like sweet potato, pumpkin, volatile matters can not be adjusted. Fresh, less processed
taro, chestnut etc, that are rich with fiber, starch and pro- milk will have more volatile flavor compounds. So fresh
tein is a good choice. milk is the guarantee of gelato’s quality. From my point
of view, it is better that gelato chef adopts the principle
Viv Li: It is always good to have multiple choices. No mat- of proximity by picking up the most fresh milk in the
ter soymilk, or coconut milk, these plant-based dairy region, which is produced by well-fed fine cows living in
products have their own flavor, within which the gelato the well-managed farms, it is perfect to make gelato.
can meet more needs in flavor choice. Moreover, these
plant-based dairy products help lactose intolerant popula- Viv Li: Ratio of milk and cream and their content in ge-
tion to enjoy gelato, which also provides a solution for lato sets the fat and calories in final product. In my un-
vegetarians. It is important to emphasize one point, that derstanding, healthy ratio of low sugar and low fat is the
milk-based gelato is still the most acceptable and classical, best option for gelato. Normally the total fat of gelato is
no matter in texture or in flavor. And it will be hard to 8-12%, the gap in fat content is from other raw material,
replace. for example, nuts flavored gelato will have higher fat
content usually. This point is not very different across
Is there any difference in milk con- countries or regions.
tent in gelato around the world?
How will it influence processing Alfred: Comparatively speaking, ice
steps and the taste after? cream made from milk from good re-
gions tastes better. Hence, the one made
Stella: The variety of cows, their habi- by ambient milk tastes not that good. It
tats and different feeding methods influ- is because fresh, high fat and rich fla-
ence milk’s flavor and nutrition, reflect- vored milk will bring a full texture and
ing in flavor and smooth taste of gelato. natural flavor base for ice cream. The
Take the well-known Hokkaido milk as The less milk that was transported for a long time
an example, Hokkaido milk cow is well and distance will be weaker in this mat-
fed and living in a good natural environ- fresh milk is ter. It is the same as good milk brings
ment so that the milk’s fat content is wonderful taste to coffee. I used to use
very high, that benefits rich flavor of processed, only the freshest milk, that has been in
milk. However, milk is just one of the a fridge no more than 24 hours, to make
raw materials to make gelato and there the more gelato during a competition. Although
are still many other ingredients that are we did not evaluate formally, I think it
not that important, we can use high qual- pleasant the was good. For sure that if gelato is made
needed. For flavored ice cream, milk is
from fresh milk directly from farm, the
ity local ingredients to make gelato. taste must be much better. Due to the
volatile flavor sterilization and milk flavor issues, we
Cindy: In general, the content of fat and need to treat it in special way or adjust
proteins is different in milk from differ- will be. the gelato recipe.

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