Gelato and ice cream. What's the difference? Both are comfort foods and we love them especially on summer. Whether it is chocolate, vanilla, rocky road or marshmallow, when it comes to ice cream or gelato, anything will do.

When you come across the ice cream shops, have you ever wondered the difference between gelato and ice cream? As both can have the same taste, what else could be different?

First, gelato is an Italian word for ice cream. In Italy, it is a frozen dessert that is prepared with the use of whole milk with milk fat that is about 3.8 percent. Gelato has no eggs and other stabilizers.

Ice cream is a frozen dessert in the United States that is made of 10 percent fat or more, and not more than 100 percent overrun.

Gelato has elastic texture, soft and has slow-to-melt "milkiness" while ice cream has a creamier and richer texture. So let's be clear. What is really the difference between gelato and ice cream?

The varying factor is temperature, fat and air.  Remember that gelato is fully made of milk, so it has lesser fat. Ice cream is prepared with the use of cream so it has additional fat content compared to gelato.

But above all the difference, everyone could notice that the two have different texture. The main reason for this is the churning process and the air whipped in to make them.

Because ice cream is churned fast, it incorporates more air as the volume increases. This makes ice cream fluppy. Gelato is denser, slower-to-melt and milkier because it is slow-churned.

Gelato and ice cream differs in temperature. Gelato and ice cream is served at different temperature. As we all know, ice cream is eaten at cold temperature. Of course we don't want melted ice cream. This is the reason it is best served at around 10 degrees F.

Gelato is best served at 15 degrees lesser than ice cream is served. Gelato is appreciated for its elastic texture and serving it in lower temperature like ice cream is not good as it will lose its elastic property.

So what do you think, will you for gelato or ice cream?