What Is the Difference Between Ice Cream and Sorbet?

There are several types of ice cream, including sorbet. While milk products can be used for fruit ice cream, milk ice cream, and cream ice cream, sorbet is usually prepared without milk or cream. The fruit content must be at least 25 percent or 15 percent for citrus fruits. Otherwise, sorbet usually consists of water, beaten egg whites, and sugar. Overall, however, this fruity ice cream is less sweetened than the milk ice cream. A good example of a classic sorbet is our lemon sorbet recipe. The sorbet is cleverly hidden in our mochi ice cream recipe. You can prepare the refreshing counterpart with dairy products using our recipe for lemon ice cream.

According to the guidelines for ice cream in the German Food Code, in contrast to sorbet, fruit ice cream only has to have a fruit content of 20 percent or ten percent for citrus fruits. This can be crushed fruit as well as fruit pulp, fruit juice, or fruit preparations.

Milk ice cream is another type of ice cream. It consists of at least 70 percent whole milk, but it can also contain other milk products whose milk fat content corresponds to that of whole milk. Cream ice cream, on the other hand, is only 50 percent milk. In addition, for this type of ice cream, eggs are added to the mass, but no additional water.

If only ice cream is mentioned and this is not specified further, vegetable fats and additives in the form of binders and flavors, as well as ice cream powder, can also be included. However, if one of the designations mentioned is specifically on the packaging, the product must meet the associated minimum requirements of the guidelines for ice cream.