Gelato stabilizers: function and dosage

Water is the trickiest ingredient in gelato, and only true gelato makers can claim to have mastered it. And if water is the trickiest element, stabilizers are my defensive line. Stabilizers may be what you need to take your gelato to the next level, turning a homemade recipe into something worthy of a professional gelato shop.

Stabilizers are products that regulate the consistency of foods and, in gelato making, they make the difference between gelato that stays creamy without melting immediately and one that collapses as soon as it leaves the freezer.

There are many stabilizers in the food industry. I will focus exclusively on stabilizers of natural origin, obtained from plant-based raw materials through extraction and processing. In particular, the main ones we will explore together are locust bean gum and guar gum.

What they are used for

The hydrocolloid stabilizers used in gelato are mainly polysaccharides: gums made of long carbohydrate chains, not proteins. They hydrate by absorbing and retaining a large amount of water. They therefore reduce the mobility of the free water in the recipe, limit the formation and growth of ice crystals, and add body to a mixture in which water is the main ingredient.

Stabilizers act at two stages:

• during pasteurization, when they disperse, hydrate, and interact with water;
• during aging, when the molecules continue to hydrate and interact with one another over time. This is precisely why aging in the refrigerator is essential: flavors and aromas not only become more harmonious, but stabilizers, sugars, and other ingredients also reach a more uniform balance.

During these stages, stabilizers form a network of hydrogen bonds with water, reducing its mobility and increasing the viscosity of the mixture. The increased viscosity helps stabilize the tiny air bubbles that are distributed throughout the gelato in the batch freezer, promoting more uniform overrun.

In practical terms, their main functions are:

• facilitating the incorporation and distribution of air;
• improving body and consistency;
• improving stability during storage (fewer crystals over time);
• preventing the gelato from melting too quickly once served.

The main stabilizers used in gelato making

The most fascinating thing is that these chemical properties occur in substances found in nature. That is why I strongly prefer stabilizers of natural origin, which come from raw materials such as seaweed, seeds, and fruit, although they still require extraction and processing.

Here are the most commonly used stabilizers and their origins:

How they differ

Stabilizers are not all the same: each works in its own way and at different temperatures, so they are often used in combination (which is exactly what commercial blends do).

• Locust bean gum: one of the most widely used and undoubtedly my favorite. It provides creaminess and excellent structure. It is one of the main stabilizers used in professional gelato making. However, it must be heated above 85ºC to hydrate correctly.
• Guar gum: excellent in small doses; it hydrates even when cold and is highly viscous. It is often paired with locust bean gum to balance its behavior in a 2:1 ratio.
• Alginates: derived from brown seaweed, they are excellent thickeners. They are sensitive to calcium ions, so they behave differently in dairy and water-based mixtures.
• Agar-agar: it gels strongly and should be used sparingly because it tends to produce firmer, more gelatinous structures.
• Pectins: obtained from apples (and citrus fruit), they are particularly suitable for fruit sorbets because of their affinity with acidic environments.

In my home gelato kitchen, the ones I keep and use are locust bean gum and guar gum, in almost every gelato at a 2:1 ratio.

• This is the locust bean gum I recommend (Amazon)
• And this is the guar gum (Amazon)

If a recipe cannot be heated above 85ºC (for example, a sorbet with no added water), I use only guar gum.

How to dose stabilizers in a recipe

Stabilizers should be added to recipes in small proportions, around 2-4g per kg of recipe. The exact dose depends on how much water the recipe contains. The proportion also varies according to the overall composition of the mixture and the presence of other ingredients, such as skim milk powder and sugars, which affect the amount of frozen water and the consistency. You can therefore expect the dose to be higher in sorbets and lower, for example, in cocoa-based gelato.

The perfect amount? It is a matter of experience: after a few tests, you will get the hang of it.

Every fraction of a gram matters. We recommend buying a precision scale with a resolution of at least 0.1g, preferably 0.01g.

Here is the one we recommend from Amazon: Precision scale

The risks of overdosing

Stabilizers are used in tiny quantities, which is precisely why weighing must be rigorous. An error in either direction is immediately noticeable. The defects you will find in the gelato are:

• Too much stabilizer → the gelato becomes elastic and gummy, with that unpleasant “chewing gum” effect. Each spoonful stretches the gelato in an unexpected, unnatural way.
• Too little (or none) → a dry, fragile, crystalline structure.

The desired texture is full-bodied, creamy, and stable.

Neutral blends in gelato making

Neutral blends are premixed products made by specialist companies and generally contain all the elements needed to develop dairy gelato and sorbets.

Essentially, neutral blends have solved the problem of dosing stabilizers and other ingredients, such as emulsifiers, for most people who want to make gelato without worrying too much about the details.

They are added in fixed doses, usually 5 grams per kilo, leaving the precision of recipe balancing to the expert manufacturer.

We will soon take a closer look at neutral blends and my favorites, but for now it is enough to know that there are blends designed for sorbets and blends designed for dairy gelato and chocolate gelato, with different properties and ingredients depending on their use.