Gelato Messina: The Recipes Hardcover – May 5, 2015

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!

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,

I am not sure what the 5 star rating reviewers are rating, the gelato or the book? Clearly it must be the gelato. I personally have tried the gelato in Sydney and it is fantastic. HOWEVER, the book is a different story. As a recipe book, 2 stars is generous. If I had a hard copy I would have returned it.The base recipe is; Milk (650g),Cream (120g),Sugar (145g),Skim milk powder (45g),Dextrose (35g),Stabilizers(5g). This is a standard gelato recipe which is published all over the web.The key to great gelato lies in the choice of stabilizers. The book goes into some explanation but falls short on details. It tells you to buy a generic stabilizer from a gelato supplier. Any artisan gelato/ice cream maker understands the devil is in the details. As an example if you look at Ben&Jerry's ice cream ingredients on a pint, different gums are used and vary in quantity, since logically, different ingredients attract different stabilizers.I thought I would save the best for last, this is a quote from the book "achieving great results at home is extremely difficult ". He spends a page detailing the shortcomings of domestic ice cream makers. This should be a disclaimer in the front of the book, unless you are buying this book for informational purposes regarding the authors story on how lucky he was to discover gelato (yawn)Google search "Stabilizers in Ice Cream" and save your money, since gelato is all about stabilizers

Beautiful book, very well made, great design, awesome flavors and cool pictures too.All recipes have two versions, a home made version and a professional one.This is actually what I like the most. I am a professional pastry chef and gelato maker and in my case it is very useful because only few gelato and Ice cream books are oriented for both uses.

If you are in the gelato business, this book is filled with inspiration for recipes. The photography is good, this book is a nice little resource.

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.

Gives a really good understanding of different types of ice cream & gelato, the main ingredients and their effects, and how to control this and try variations. The only thing I miss: I would like to see more recipes with "basic domestic ingredients" even if he explains why the "old school" recipes are abandoned. Plus for different recipes for domestic and professional users!

Stunning book, inspiring and perfect coffee table material

Brilliant! Thank you.