Any experts out there? In an attempt to live up to my food snob status, I’m slowly phasing out junk food and bulk items in favour of high quality ingredients that I enjoy e.g. fleur de sel, homemade cheeses, quality chocolate, etc.
But the balsamic in my cupboard is cheap and tart- not the feeling I’d like dinner guests to leave with- and I use A LOT of it.
So, any recommendations? Preferably a kind that can be found in North America. Price isn’t really a problem (though I’m looking for quality, not brand name), and I’d like to get something nice for cooking and one to be used sparingly e.g. over strawberries.
99% of the balsamic vinegar you see on the shelves in the US is nothing more than regular vinegar with food coloring added. Real BV is *very *expensive and used exceedingly sparingly.
I use balsamic sparingly, because I can’t afford it. It’s delicious, though.
I want to share an “Iron Chef” moment. (japanese version) The Challenger brought with him a bottle of 60 year old BV (the stuff was thick and looked DE-LICIOUS.)
The Iron Chef was heard to remark “well, he’s going to win. that’s just not fair”.
Hah, your about as likely to get a hold of some of the worlds best balsamic as you are some of the world’s best wine and the prices are similarly catostrophically high.
Balsamic falls under a few general levels:
Fake balsamic - Red wine vinegar tarted up with some caramel and food colouring
Industrial balsamic - Balsamic made in huge batches and aged for 3 - 6 years in steel drums
Artisinal balsamic - Balsamic aged in small oak casks for 10 - 25 years with regular blending and cask changes made on small, family producers.
Obscenely stupidly expensive balsamic - The “select” range of artisinal balsamics that show some outstanding or exceptional charecteristics which are then further aged for another 20 - 150 years and then sold in tiny bottles for vast sums of money.
There are some very good artisinal balsamics that will run about maybe $100 - $200 per litre which isn’t especially obscene if you consider how little you need to use to get the full impact of it. Fortunatly, balsamic is perfectly shelf stable and ships very well so it’s possible to build up a nice collection of different balsamics for different price ranges and charecteristics. There are lots of internet gourmet shops that you can order them from.
Marcella Hazan made a point in one of her books that you should never be using a LOT of balsamic in anything. Buy the best you can and swirl a tiny bit into some good red wine vinegar. The red wine should provide the base flavour and the balsamic should serve as the accent.
Also, it’s quite possible to get some industrial balsamic and reduce it by 1/2 or 2/3 until you get a thick glaze which will replicate many of the base flavours of a much better balsamic but without much fo the subtlety. This is good when you need something with the texture and flavour of balsamic but are going to drown it with stronger flavours. I know some people who make a balsamic ice-cream with industrial balsamic which is to die for. They said they tried it with better vinegar but you couldn’t taste the difference.
I can’t afford the pricey stuff, but I have found a very tasty, inexpensive balsamic vinegar that I like a lot. It’s bottled by B.R. Cohn.
I recall watching an episode of Follow That Food a year and a half ago or so, and they tracked a bottle of Balsamic Vinegar from its origins in Modeno, Italy to Dean & Deluca in New York, and then to a very fine restaurant. IIRC, the bottle the restaurant used (sparingly, as was pointed out by the restaurant’s owner) cost around $140 for a 3.5 ounce bottle. At one point the host, Gordon Elliott, tried it. It was presented to him in a tiny spoon that held only a drop or two. He said it tasted like a fine sherry. I remember also that at some point in the show – while still in Italy, I believe – it was used sparingly on ice cream. Yum.
One of the places Follow That Food tracked its bottle to was Dean & Deluca in New York City. They have several bottles available. I never learned how to do the link thing, so here is the Dean & Deluca selection the hard way. Clicking on the bottle links will give you a little info on each one. Hope this helps.
http://www.deandeluca.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/store/framescat.d2w/report?psearch=psearch
So my $4 bottle bought from Publix isn’t even real balsamic? Oh man, I am so bummed out right now.
(I still love it, though. Balsamic vinegar is perfect on EVERYTHING.)
So true. I use the grocery store stuff all the time. Combine with some olive oil and a little garlic or garlic salt and eat with a big old piece of Italian or French bread…works just peachy. Or put some in a small dish and eat with chunks or slices of Parmesan. Yum!
First of all traditional balsamic vinegar is a name protected (as wines and cheeses are given similar protection) product of Italy. If you want authentic (and more expensive) blasamic vinegar look for a product that has the official seal stating either aceto balsamico tradizionale di Modena or aceto balsamico tradizionale di Reggio Emilia (please note the latter designation also accounts for the infamously superior name protected cheese Parmigiano Reggiano). I can also say that the only authentic balsamic vinegars that I have seen for sale in the US all bear the seal of Modena.
Authetic balsamic vinegar is made in a process similar to (though by no means identical to that) used for the production of Sherry in Jerez. Authentic balsamic vinegar is made from the must of white trebbiano grapes and goes through two fermentation processes to first convert it to alcohols and then to acetic acid over a period of three years. After this it is aged in different barrels (mulberry, chestnut, cherry, oak and ash) over a period of years that, to receive the tradizionale seal, I believe is a minimum of 12 years of further aging. I have seen, smelled and tasted (though not purchased) 100 year old balsamic vinegar that will knock your socks off and cause you to take out a second mortgage.
Quality balsamic vinegar must have one of the two above referenced seals and from there on its a matter of aging and price. I have had and purchased 30 year old balsamic vinegar ($30 for 100 ml.) that one or two drops imparts such an incredible aroma and taste you would think you were heaven.
I can suggest some places that I have seen it for direct purchase if you are interested.