Gelato Messina: The Recipes

This is an outstanding book for gelato enthusiasts. The shops in Melbourne and Sydney have stunning gelato, and it is obvious why. nick has an absolute passion for the art and craft of producing fine Australian gelato, produced with the outstanding local ingredients available. I have really enjoyed reading the book and making some of the recipes. I enjoyed understanding the science of the processes as well as learning to make gelato that did not involve always making a custard. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to take a deeper and more complex approach. if you just want a few recipes this is not the book for you.

This is an excellent recipe book to make gelato! It goes in detail on both the domestic and professional process as well as the ingredients to make good gelato. I was hesitant to buy it because of the reviews it had but I'm glad I got it because it was well worthy! Every recipe I try comes out perfect! The author is very generous in sharing all the information and secrets about gelato making. I recommend this book 100%!

I have read some of the other reviews here, none of the ingredients Nick uses (except maybe for an Italian aperitif used in one of the recipes) are hard to find - all can be sourced from Amazon easily or from Walmart for that matter. The analysis at the front brings some science to the principles of proportion and balance and purpose of ingredients (outside the basics of milk, cream, sugar). For me, the message was simply, getting these basics right and understanding the proportions in the context of the balance they bring to the texture and consistency of the end result then sets you up to think about variations you might want to make and what are the ways that you can diverge from the basics to create your own new combinations, or variations on some of the recipes, and still get good results. All of that said, for a home "chef" there's definitely effort involved in getting it right and staying in step with the recipes. Extended periods of whisking while trying to keep the bases at a pretty specific temperatures, then cooling (again with still fairly high intervention) and then, ideally, aging the mix for at least 4 hours before you actually get it into your machine. BUT, the end product definitely made the effort worth while and, when you're eating it, suddenly you start thinking that well, maybe you could do it all over again if what you'll get is this good every time. And a last little caution which may only apply to the kindle edition (as someone mentioned) make sure you check the quantities, many are right but there's definitely cases where a decimal place seems to have been missed and if you added the quantity as written, you'll be tossing the batch and starting over,

Great insight into the creation of good ice cream and gelato. The recipes are creative and the results have been excellent. You do have to search out some of the additives required if you are not into molecular gastronomy. These are not available in your local supermarket, but easy to find on Amazon.

This book in some cases is 5 stars and in others barely rates a single star. 5 stars for the science of making gelato. The author is really specific with regard to his recipes and overall does a good job of how gelato should be made from a bit of a scientific perspective. 3 stars for not stressing the really, really important aspects of making homemade gelato: stabilizers and temperature. When the author says stabilizer what he means is a commercial blend of stabilizer and emulsifier. It's easy to miss that point. My first batch of gelato used guar gum (5 grams is what all the recipes call for in the book) and the result was a slimy, gummy mess. The author states you should use a commercial stabilizer comprised of 2 g stabilizer and 3 g emulsifier. I bought a commercial stabilizer called avacream, but at 5 grams the ice cream was still too chewy/stretchy for my liking, although the taste was great. I think I just need to dial back the avacream until I get a texture I like. Avacream is made up of gura gum, carageenan and mono diglycerides but I don't know the percentage makeup. My guess is 4:2:1 ratio but that's just a guess since this is a proprietary mix from avacream. I dialed back my avacream to 3 grams and it's still a bit too chewy for my liking. Great flavor but I'm going to try one more time using 2 g of avacream. Note 1 gram of avacream = 1/8 tsp. The other thing is you'll need to store your gelato at 10F. If you put it in our freezer at 0 degrees your gelato will turn into a brick. What I did was buy a small freezer and replace it thermostat with a PID controller that I can adjust from -50F on upward. Setting it at 10F allows me to keep my gelato for days on end without it turning into an icy block. 1 star for a book that is really, really disorganized when it comes to a standard table of contents. I don't know who edited this book or if the author used an editor but not to have each recipe listed in the table of contents is unacceptable! Also, make the recipes using grams. The supposed equivalents in ounces are for the most part off. Motivates me to write an ice cream book since if a book like this can be published with its blatant mistakes and overall poor layout, then maybe there's room for one more ice cream book that combines science and craft! Hope that helps!

excellent book with a very thorough explanation of the production of ice cream. very interesting recipes as well!

Excelente libro, con bastantes recetas e imágenes; tengo con el casi un mes de compra y me encanto aun no pruebo la recetas pero el contenido es bastante bueno

This is a great book, especially if you're serious about gelato. The division of recipes into home and commercial use is really convenient. Even though there is a fair bit of technical info in here, it stay accessible and relatable through his short stories in each chapter. I would have liked another 10-15 recipes to be included. For example, he had regular milk chocolate, but his dark chocolate recipe was one that included honey, and his coffee recipe is for sorbet, but not dairy. This basically means that if you want some of those basic chocolate, coffee, etc.... recipes, you have to adapt his other staples to your chosen flavour. If you study this book and master its techniques, your gelato will really be incredible

Beautiful book. Fantastic images and great recipes. Only buy this if you're willing to pay for some exotic ingredients... go ahead and order some maltodextrin, commercial ice cream stabiliser (preferably some xanthan gum too for the sorbets), and dextrose. Dextrose is just a fancy name for glucose syrup and you can buy that in the baking section of most supermarkets, but the others you'll have difficulty finding anywhere other than the internet. When it comes to gelato, the more work you put in, the better your results. This requires a lot of work.

Read this book if you want to.make the best icecream ever

really good recipes and good guidance on making them. Didn't realise you should pasteurize your gelato!