The difference between ice cream, gelato, sorbet, and Italian ice

Why this legally can't be called 'ice cream'

Dairy Queen doesn't technically sell 'ice cream' and it all comes down to milkfat. According to FDA rules, anything labeled 'ice cream' must have at least 10% milkfat. Dairy Queen’s soft serve only has 5%, which means it's legally in a different category.

Ice cream’s unfrozen consistency is thanks to sugar

Making ice cream is a complex, multistep scientific process. But the treat’s scoopable, chewable consistency is due to the product’s dissolved sugar.

Tasty vegan ice cream depends on fat

Making delicious ice cream without dairy is a challenge for food scientists because most nondairy milks have more water than fat, which creates tasteless ice crystals when frozen. The key is finding a base with enough fat to give the finished product its signature creamy mouthfeel.

The first gelateria, a precursor to the ice cream parlor, opened in 1694

Francesco Procopia dei Coltelli, a restaurateur from Palermo, Sicily, opened the gelateria in Paris. Gelaterias serve gelato, which is similar to ice cream but uses milk rather than cream.

A guide to making ice cream with liquid nitrogen by flash-freezing dairy

Only existing in liquid form at extremely low temperatures, nitrogen can rapidly freeze cream, coconut milk, and other liquids into small crystals, producing smooth, creamy ice cream. As a safety precaution, liquid nitrogen should be handled in a well-ventilated area with safety goggles and protective gloves.

Freezer burn is the result of moisture leaving ice cream

The ice cream death knell occurs when water crystals melt and then refreeze on the surface of the treat, creating a crunchy (but far from delectable) shell. The best way to prevent this unfortunate outcome is by storing your ice cream in a freezer that’s colder than 0°F.

In the 19th century, ice-cream-related illnesses were somewhat regular in America

Ice cream was a popular dessert, but it was also a dangerous one, with numerous reports of vomiting, diarrhea, and—in some cases—death. Historians argue this was likely due to vendors' poor hygienic practices.

Kulfi, an ice cream predecessor, dates back to the 16th century

Historians believe India’s royal court began freezing condensed milk, pistachios, and saffron in conical molds to create the sweet treat. Today, it’s often served on a stick and covered with chopped pistachios.

A breakdown of gelling agents used to modify a liquid's texture

Gelatin, agar, and other substances form a structural network that traps liquid, making it appear solid and enabling chefs to create stable layers in pastries and confectionery products. In different concentrations, they can also be used to thicken liquids into gels or encase them in gelatinous spheres.

Distinguishing club soda, seltzer, and sparkling water

The three forms of drinking water are similar, but their differences lie mostly in the presence and proportion of minerals and carbonation. Read this quick explainer on the major differences.

What's the difference between an ale and a lager?

The major distinction is that ales are typically fruitier, while lagers are cleaner and crisper. This video breaks down several more of the nuanced differences between the two styles.

Some people in Italy enjoy a cheese with live maggots in it

From squeaky Wisconsin cheese curds to the squirmy Sardinian casu marzu, cheese around the globe comes in myriad forms. Exploring the work of seven cheesemakers in seven countries, this video shows each cheese has traditions and flavors unique to its part of the world.

Differences in the ratio of sugars help distinguish Mexican and American Coke

Mexican Coke is sweetened with cane sugar (sucrose), which dissolves into equal amounts of fructose and glucose, whereas American Coke, which uses high-fructose corn syrup, contains more fructose than glucose.

Prosecco—Italy's sparkling wine—is produced using the tank method

Italy’s best-known sparkling wine, Prosecco, has many similarities to Champagne. However, Prosecco performs its secondary fermentation in a different manner. Rather than taking place in the bottle using the French method, fermentation of Prosecco takes place in large, pressurized steel tanks, making it easier to produce on a large scale. The technique results in light, fresh flavors and plenty of bubbles.

Ice ages are periods of glaciation that last tens of millions of years

During these periods, Earth grows cold and is covered in massive continental ice sheets. Scientists have outlined at least five major ice ages, which result from the alignment of complex factors, like the flow of ocean currents and the movement and location of tectonic plates.

A taxonomy of restaurant types

What's the difference between "fast food" and "fast casual"? Is there any real difference between a "diner" and a "family style restaurant"? This guide from DoorDash explores the industry's fine distinctions, along with some deeper dives into specific enterprises that found success.

Viscosity is a fluid's resistance to flow, which varies with temperature

Liquids become less viscous as temperature increases, while gases become more viscous and therefore flow more slowly. The increased gas collisions at higher temperatures contribute to greater friction between streamlines, increasing viscosity.

Iftar foods from around the world

The global population of Muslims eats and fasts in distinct way around the world. This photo survey spans Morocco's harira soup to Indonesia's kolak (a sweet dessert soup) and Turkey's pide (like pizza but without the tomato sauce). The one universal aspect for most iftar meals is dates and water, following Muhammad's practice. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

'Neapolitan pizza' is a highly specific (and tightly regulated) distinction

The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana claims to protect the tradition of Naples' pizzamaking and has codified precise requirements for what constitutes a "Neapolitan pizza," specifying ingredients, preparation, fermentation, condiments, and more.

Coffee contains an average of 15mg of caffeine per fluid ounce

Coffee has three times the amount of caffeine contained in most caffeinated sodas, but significantly less than espresso and cocoa powder.

Eggshell color doesn't indicate taste or superiority

Brown, white, and blue eggs taste and cook identically. Despite popular notions that brown eggs are superior, the shell color reflects the genetics of the hen alone. What actually determines egg quality is freshness and the diet of the hen (where grass and leafy greens lead to denser yolks). And freshness can go both ways: older eggs peel more easily than fresh ones.

View the ten basic cloud types, categorized by height and composition

Among the features of these types, cirrus clouds can display various colors at sunrise and sunset, while altocumulus clouds can produce a corona phenomenon around the sun or moon. Nimbostratus clouds are thick enough to block out the sun entirely.

Opera terminology heavily relies on Italian

Most commonly used Opera terms are not in English. This glossary provides definitions of keywords like “libretto,” the text of a piece, “tenor,” the highest natural adult male singing voice, and “diva,” a female opera star.

Day of the Dead differs from All Souls’ Day in several important ways

The holidays share a calendar date and both honor lost loved ones. However, All Souls’ Day is intended to help guide souls in purgatory to heaven, while Day of the Dead celebrates the temporary return of loved ones’ spirits to Earth.

What happened on WWI's Italian Front?

The battle in the Dolomites, or the White War, might have been the roughest, most arduous, and deadliest conflict during World War I. Italian and Austrian troops fought for control of the Dolomites mountain range over the course of three years, leading to the deaths of 700,000 Italian soldiers and 350,000 Austro-Hungarian troops. A grim account of a dirty little war high in the Dolomites.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

Poison ivy is in the same family as mangoes, cashews, and pistachios—and they all produce oily urushiol in their raw, unprocessed state—but they are typically prepared in ways to avoid causing human discomfort.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.