Ice cream and gelato differ in ingredients and preparation. A standard ice cream recipe has twice as much cream as milk, while gelato has more milk than cream.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration states that ice cream needs to have at least 10% milk fat before you can call it ice cream, while the FDA has no such standards for gelato.

Additionally, the churning process for gelato is different. The ingredients are churned much more slowly than regular ice cream, which makes the gelato more dense as a result.

The slower churning process traps less air in the cream, resulting in a richer texture. In contrast, ice cream is much lighter due to the air bubbles introduced by heavy churning.

They're also stored differently. Ice cream is served at zero degrees F (-18 degrees C), but gelato is stored at a slightly warmer temperature of 15 degrees F (-9.5 degrees C).