ice cream machine: Lello 4090 Gelato Pro Quart Ice Cream Maker

Great Deal Lello 4090 Gelato Pro Quart Ice Cream Maker

Not only is this machine convenient, it also stirs a bit more air into the mixture than my Donvier (freezer bowl type) ice cream maker, which makes its consistency when fully frozen more scoopable and palatable. Commercial ice cream makers are actually required to stir in a certain percentage of air. It's called overrun. And since the Gelato Pro can freeze more of the moisture in the mixture if you wait, the ice crystals when completely frozen are smaller. So yes, it makes better product more conveniently. But I can't say it's faster at freezing than my freezer bowl maker.

The reviews here can be confusing about how fast the machine is. Various people make offhand comments about times without saying how much of what they were freezing, whether the mixture was pre-chilled and whether the machine was pre-chilled. Here's my experience: For one quart of a custard-based chocolate gelato, (4 egg yokes, 2 cups of whole milk, 1 cup of heavy cream and a cup of sugar) where the mixture was pre-chilled to 42° in the refrigerator and the machine was starting up from room temperature, the mixture appeared thick enough to take out at 45 minutes, and it was. But it was only a little harder than the batches I used to get from the freezer bowl maker. For one quart of a "Philadelphia style" ice cream (one and a half cups of milk, one and a half cups of heavy cream, 3/4 cup of sugar) again pre-chilled to 42°F, I decided to wait for more thorough freezing. At 55 minutes the mixture was turning almost as one mass at the same speed as the stirrer. It wasn't actually rock solid, but when I took off the cover and pulled up on the stirrer, it did very convincingly lift the ice cream and the container out of the machine with it. Now that's more like it!! Note, I later found that if I pre-chilled the machine by turning on its compressor 10 or 15 minutes before using it, that took about 10 minutes off the freezing time.

Technical Note: It can make you impatient to watch the process, because we're inclined to think that once freezing starts the whole mixture should "kick" over to frozen quickly. Not so. Freezing is gradual for some good reasons. First, it's a physics fact that when a quantity of water is cooled to exactly 32°F, there is still a lot more thermal energy that has to be removed to convert it to 32° ice. Almost as much as it takes to cool it from boiling down to 32°F. Plus, the rate of energy transfer slows down as the temperature difference between the chiller and the mixture gets smaller. Plus, you're putting mechanical energy into the mixture by stirring it, and that changes to thermal energy (which is why stirring ice cream in a bowl with your spoon softens it). Plus, there is less contact between the partially frozen stirred mixture and the chilled wall of the container. Yikes, let's just be grateful that it ever freezes!

Anyway, the machine has a nice look, with fit and finish suggesting quality. Cleaning is extremely easy. The compressor is very quiet. Most of the noise comes from the gearbox that makes the stirrer so strong. It's not so loud that I couldn't easily converse with a guest next to it, but we would probably choose to talk somewhere else. It's capable of freezing deserts to a high degree of hardness, but figure on an hour for a quart of chilled mixture, not 45 minutes unless you want soft serve. Again, pre-chilling the machine during preparations will shorten the time a bit. Two quarts would be longer, but not twice as long.

By the way, drizzling melted dark chocolate into a stirring vanilla ice cream or gelato batch during the last several minutes of freezing gives something far superior to conventional chocolate chip ice cream. The chocolate doesn't blend in, it freezes into strands and other random shapes and sizes that make for a very pleasing feel. Italians call this strachiatella. For a quart, use about 4 ounces of melted sweet dark chocolate with a teaspoon of vegetable oil added. Melted chocolate chips (2/3 to 3/4 cup) give a delicious result, but you need to add 3 tablespoons of butter in addition to the oil to make it flow. I make a squeeze bag by cutting one corner off a sandwich size zip lock bag and tuck it in to the Gelato Pro's cover slot.

Bottom line, if you have taken the time to read this long review you probably care enough to get this machine. I recommend it.

FANTASTIC!! - S. Jones -
Quick, quiet and convenient PLUS easy clean up. This is an ideal machine for making frozen treats. Extra benefit of not requiring salt. We have used this machine regularly for a couple of years with no problems.

Great Unit! (BUT EASILY DAMAGED IN SHIPPING) - 320Flyer - Minnetonka, MN USA
This is a great like ice cream/gelato machine. We also considered the Lello 4080 Musso Lussino 1.5-Quart Ice Cream Maker, Stainless but after reading the reviews of both units we went with this less expensive 4090 model. The exterior is plain white plastic instead of stainless steel, but we are quite happy with the trade-off due to the EASY cleanup of this unit. Remove and rinse the bucket and you are ready for the next batch!

I'd also highly recommend Making Artisan Gelato: 45 Recipes and Techniques for Crafting Flavor-Infused Gelato and Sorbet at Home as a great introduction to making gelato. The author goes to great length to explain the methodology and processes involved before he presents his recipes. Very interesting and a great read.

A note of caution to first time ice-cream/gelato makers: this device is only one step in the process and produces a fantastic, but "soft" product. Yum! You will, however, need to freeze your ice cream for a few hours if you want "hard" ice cream--and this is true for ALL methods of making ice cream. There are a few low-rated reviews of this device that should probably be ignored for this reason.

As an added bonus this unit also makes great frozen margaritas. :)

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EDIT: AFTER PERUSING THE OTHER REVIEWS, WE DISCOVERED THAT OUR UNIT WAS DAMAGED IN SHIPPING...JUST LIKE MANY OTHERS.

A plastic bracket was broken in the rear and the upper case does not seat properly. So back it goes...

EASE OF USE AND FUNCTIONALITY: 5 Stars
PACKAGING: 1 STAR

AVERAGE: 3 STARS

Hopefully the replacement will arrive in good shape.