Gelato calculator
Gelato balanced before it goes into the machine
Build the recipe in grams and the calculator shows, line by line, what it does to the sugars, the fat, the solids and the freezing point. Every metric is compared with the range for your base type, and when one falls outside, the screen says what to do about it.
The classic white base, no fruit.
Batch size
1 L
Mix mass
1,100.0 g
The default is 1.10 g/mL, the weight of a litre of mix in Clarke. The syrup mass comes from litres × 1000 × density. Corvitto works with 1.00 — if your mix is lighter, change it here.
Changing the volume or the density rescales the whole recipe, keeping the proportions.
Showing the first matches. Narrow the search to see the rest.
| Ingredient | Amount (g) | % of batch | Remove | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole milk | 66.7% | 91.7 | ||
| Fresh cream 35% | 11.1% | 50.1 | ||
| Skimmed milk powder | 3.9% | 41.5 | ||
| Sucrose | 13.3% | 146.7 | ||
| Sugar (dextrose) | 4.4% | 45.0 | ||
| Stabiliser blend | 0.6% | 6.1 | ||
| Total | 1,100.0 g | 100% | 381.1 |
Every amount is editable and the balance updates as you type. Up to 2 L values show in grams; above that, in kilos.
Base balance
Balanced- Average serving temperature
- -10.5 °C
- Total mass
- 1,100.0 g
- Protein
- 4%
Estimated as PAC ÷ 25. It is the temperature at which the base usually scoops well in the cabinet.
Sugars
Range for this base type: 14% – 22% · % of mass
Sucrose and equivalents. They pull sweetness, body and freezing point all at once.
Fat
Range for this base type: 5% – 12% · % of mass
Total fat, whether from dairy, egg, chocolate or nuts. This is what makes it creamy.
Range for this base type: 8% – 12% · % of mass
Milk solids non-fat: protein, lactose and minerals. They give structure and hold water.
Other solids
Range for this base type: 0% – 8% · % of mass
Solids that are neither sugar, fat nor MSNF: fibres, cocoa, stabiliser, fruit pulp.
Range for this base type: 34% – 42% · % of mass
Everything that is not water. Sets the yield and the resistance to melting.
Water
Range for this base type: 58% – 66% · % of mass
Free water in the mix. Whatever is not bound by sugar or solids turns into ice crystals.
Range for this base type: 135 – 200 · per kg of mix
Sweetening power per kg of mix, measured against sucrose.
Range for this base type: 220 – 300 · per kg of mix
Anti-freezing power per kg of mix. This is what decides how hard it sits in the cabinet.
The optimiser adjusts the other lines and aims total mass at the batch target. Each line may only move between a quarter and four times its current amount. Without that floor it would zero the stabiliser, which barely moves the metrics and therefore looks disposable.
Nutrition estimate
Derived from the composition in the spreadsheet, not from lab analysis. It is guidance for whoever is building the recipe, not a label, and no substitute for a report.
| Nutrient | Portion of 50 ga small scoop | 100 greference | Whole batch1,100.0 g |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | 84 kcal | 169 kcal | 1,854 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 12.2 g | 24.4 g | 268.6 g |
| of which sugars | 8.7 g | 17.4 g | 191.7 g |
| Fat | 3.1 g | 6.2 g | 68.4 g |
| Protein | 2.0 g | 4.0 g | 44.0 g |
Carbohydrate comes out by difference (total solids minus fat and protein), the way labelling does it, and therefore includes fibre and polyols. Energy uses Atwater: 4 kcal/g for carbohydrate and protein, 9 for fat.
Using their own energy factor instead of Atwater (polyol, fibre or alcohol): Stabiliser blend.
The air, and what a litre weighs
Balancing is what goes into the pan. What comes out of the machine also depends on how much air went in — and no balancing spreadsheet gives you that, because it belongs to the machine and the process. You can measure it on the bench with a scale and a glass.
Corvitto sets the quality band between 30% and 40% overrun, and picks 35%. It is not a machine limit, it is a choice. Too little air leaves gelato heavy; too much strips its body, and it "loses freshness and flavour, looking like mousse and leaving an empty taste in one’s mouth".
Corvitto, p. 44Industrial ice cream plays a different game. Clarke measures samples from 17% to 50% air by volume — 20% to 100% overrun — and says the structure still holds up to around 120%. A hundred per cent overrun is one litre of mix becoming two litres of ice cream. That is why gelato weighs more than a supermarket tub, and the difference is a maker’s choice, not a limitation of whoever lacks the machine.
With no fat and no protein, as in sorbetto, going past 60% is hard even if you want to — so says Clarke. That is a technical ceiling, not a target: neither book publishes a separate quality target for sorbetto, and this page does not invent one. (60%)
Clarke, p. 153, p. 73How to measure yours, with a glass and a scale
The arithmetic is Corvitto’s and fits on one line: divide the weight of the mix by the weight of the gelato, in the same container. The two decimal places are the overrun. Weigh the empty glass for its tare, fill it to the brim with mix and note the weight; fill the same glass with finished gelato, leaving no bubbles, and note that. Two hundred and seventy grams of mix to two hundred of gelato gives 1.35, which is 35%.
Measured overrun
Both weights with the glass tare already removed, same container.
Clarke arrives at the same place through density, and it is the same equation: weighing the same glass twice is measuring density with the volume cancelling out. Two books that do not cite each other, writing one calculation two ways.
For hardened gelato the glass will not do — forcing hard ice cream into it would change the volume. Clarke uses a displacement chamber: weigh the portion and measure the water it displaces.
Corvitto, p. 44 · Clarke, p. 80, p. 77Worked out from the syrup density in the batch field. If your litre weighs more than this, less air went in than you wanted; if it weighs less, more did.
Clarke, p. 81Where the two books disagree
Clarke writes that a litre of typical mix weighs 1.1 kg. Corvitto never states a density, but his arithmetic assumes 1.0: he starts from 1,000 g of mix to conclude that a litre of gelato at 35% weighs 740 g. With Clarke’s figure the same litre would weigh 815 g. That is 75 g per litre, nearly 400 g in a five-litre tub.
- Clarke · 1.10 g/mL
- 815 g
- Corvitto · 1.00 g/mL
- 741 g
The calculator does not break the tie. The default is 1.10 with Clarke’s page beside it, the field stays editable, and both numbers stay in view. Neither author publishes the composition of the mix he describes, and without that there is no telling which one matches your syrup — which is exactly why the glass matters: whoever weighs does not have to believe either of them.
Clarke, p. 81 · Corvitto, p. 44The 105% caveat
Water grows about 8% when it turns to ice, so part of the volume the calculation reads as air is not air. Clarke shows the case: 100% nominal overrun is really 105%. He says himself the effect "is often ignored", and this page ignores it too — correcting for it would require the recipe’s ice content at serving temperature, which the course spreadsheet does not supply. It stays a caveat, not a calculation.
Clarke, p. 81How the balancing works
Every ingredient in the spreadsheet is described as the composition of one gram of it: how much is sugar, how much is fat, how much is milk solids, how much is other solids, how much is water. The whole recipe is those fractions multiplied by the grams on each line, and nothing else. That is why swapping 50 g of milk for 50 g of cream moves four metrics at once.
Six of the eight metrics are fractions of total mass, so they read as a percentage of the mix. POD and PAC are different: they are normalised per kilo of mix, because they measure intensity rather than quantity. Two recipes with the same amount of sugar can be very differently sweet depending on which sugar it is.
The range for each metric changes with the base type. A sorbet works with more sugar and more PAC than a milk gelato precisely because it has no fat and no milk solids holding the water: without that support, the antifreeze has to do the job alone. Changing the base type does not touch the recipe, only the ruler it is measured with.
The batch is sized in litres and turned into mass by an adjustable density. The 1.10 g/mL default was a declared working value until September 2026, when it gained a source: it is the weight of a litre of mix in Clarke. Changing the volume rescales every line in the same proportion — the recipe stays the same, just bigger. If you edit a line by hand and the total drifts off target, the scale-to-batch button appears.
One thing this calculator still does not do, and now says why better: the air. Balancing is what goes into the pan; how much air goes in depends on the machine, the draw temperature and the recipe. What can be done, and what the page now does, is hand you the bench ruler — the weight a litre of your gelato should reach for the overrun you want, and the division that measures what you got.
Common questions
How much air should my gelato have?
Between 30% and 40% overrun, with 35% as the target — that is the band Angelo Corvitto sets for maximum-quality gelato. Industrial ice cream plays much higher: Clarke measures 20% to 100%, and a hundred per cent means one litre of mix becoming two litres of ice cream. To measure yours, weigh the same glass filled with mix and then filled with gelato, and divide one by the other: the two decimal places are the overrun.
Why is the default density 1.10 g/mL?
Because that is the weight of a litre of mix in Chris Clarke’s The Science of Ice Cream. Corvitto works with 1.00 without saying so, and the gap is not small: at 35% overrun a litre of gelato would weigh 815 g by Clarke’s figure and 740 g by Corvitto’s. Neither publishes the composition of the mix he is talking about, so the calculator shows both and leaves the field editable.
What are POD and PAC?
POD is sweetening power and PAC is antifreezing power, both measured per kilo of mix. They explain why two recipes carrying the same amount of sugar can taste and scoop very differently: each sugar sweetens and lowers the freezing point at its own rate.
How much sugar goes into gelato?
Between 14 and 22% of the mix in a milk gelato, and between 23 and 32% in a sorbet. Sorbet needs more because it has no fat and no milk solids holding the water: there, sugar does the job alone.
Why does my gelato freeze rock hard?
Almost always a low PAC. In a milk gelato the range runs from 220 to 300 per kilo of mix; below that there is free water left to freeze and the scoop turns to stone. The calculator flags whichever metric falls out of range and says what to change.
What are total solids for?
They are everything in the recipe that is not water, 34 to 42% in a milk gelato. Too few solids and the gelato turns watery and full of ice crystals; too many and the texture goes heavy and rubbery.
Why POD and PAC matter
POD (potere dolcificante) measures how sweet the recipe tastes, not how much sugar it holds. Sucrose is the ruler, at POD 1. Dextrose is less sweet (0.74), fructose much sweeter (1.45), maltodextrin barely sweet at all (0.02). POD is what explains how you can take sweetness out of a cloying gelato without losing body: swap part of the sucrose for maltodextrin or glucose powder and the solids stay exactly where they were.
PAC (potere anticongelante) measures how far the sugars push the freezing point down. Sucrose is the ruler again, but the order changes: dextrose 1.8, invert sugar 1.9, maltodextrin 0.25. Salt and alcohol weigh heavily here, which is why a spoonful of liqueur can wreck the texture of a whole batch.
The two travel together but not in the same direction, and that is what balancing lives on. Dextrose is the classic lever for softening without over-sweetening, because it raises PAC a lot and POD a little. Fructose and invert sugar raise both. Maltodextrin adds body without touching either. Too little PAC and it is a rock in the cabinet; too much and it melts before it reaches the table.
Glossary
- POD#
- Potere dolcificante, or sweetening power. How sweet the recipe tastes relative to sucrose, per kilo of mix. Sucrose = 1; dextrose = 0.74; fructose = 1.45.Lulo Fouet, Tabela de ingredientes
- PAC#
- Potere anticongelante, or anti-freezing power. How far the sugars push the freezing point of the mix down, per kilo, again measured against sucrose. It is what sets the hardness in the cabinet.Lulo Fouet, Tabela de ingredientes
- MSNF#
- Milk solids non-fat: the protein, lactose and minerals left once fat and water are taken out. They give structure and bind free water. In excess, the lactose crystallises and the texture turns sandy.Lulo Fouet, Tabela de ingredientes, Parâmetros de tolerância (bloco S4:AA22)
- Total solids#
- Everything that is not water, adding up sugars, fat, MSNF and other solids. The more solids, the better the gelato resists melting, and the less free water is left to become ice crystals.Lulo Fouet, Tabela de ingredientes, Parâmetros de tolerância (bloco S4:AA22)
- Overrun#
- The air whipped in, measured as increase in volume: 100% overrun is one litre of mix becoming two litres of ice cream. Corvitto puts the gelato quality band between 30% and 40% and settles on 35%; Clarke, writing about industrial ice cream, measures 20% to 100%. It does not enter the balancing — it belongs to the machine and the process — but it can be measured with a glass and a scale.Corvitto, p. 44 · Clarke, p. 153, p. 18
- Stabiliser blend#
- A ready-made mix of stabilisers and emulsifiers, sold in Brazil as "neutro". It counts as other solids and barely moves the metrics, but it is what stops the water organising itself into large crystals in storage.Lulo Fouet, Tabela de ingredientes
- Serving temperature#
- Estimated here as PAC ÷ 25, with a negative sign. It is the temperature at which the base scoops: colder and it hardens, warmer and it melts.Lulo Fouet, Parâmetros de tolerância (bloco S4:AA22)
- Mix density#
- How many grams fit in a millilitre of mix before churning, which turns a batch in litres into a mass in grams. The 1.10 g/mL default is the weight of a litre of mix in Clarke. Corvitto’s arithmetic assumes 1.00 without saying so — both numbers are on the page, and the field stays editable.Clarke, p. 81 · Corvitto, p. 44
Sources for this calculator
The balancing in this calculator does not rest on a published work: the 164 ingredients, the POD and PAC coefficients and the bands for the five base types come from the balancing spreadsheet of the Gelato Direto ao Ponto course, by Luis Paulo dos Santos Barros, known as Lulo Fouet. It is teaching material rather than bibliography — no page, no chapter — so the citation points at the spreadsheet tab instead of dressing up as a book. The air and the weight of a litre, which the spreadsheet does not cover, come from two books: Clarke for the chemistry of ice cream and Corvitto for gelato on the bench.
Gelato Direto ao Ponto: planilha de balanceamento
Lulo Fouet · Lulo Fouet
Tabela de ingredientes · Parâmetros de tolerância (bloco S4:AA22) · Gelato de Leite (receita de conferência)
Los secretos del helado
Corvitto · Grupo Vilbo
p. 44
The Science of Ice Cream
Clarke · Royal Society of Chemistry
p. 153 · p. 73 · p. 81 · p. 80 · p. 77