The best and cheapest Balsamico used in our house tastes like 35 years old at the price of the 5 years old! The recipe came from the book of Jeffery Nathan "Aventures in Jewish Cooking"
It calls for 50% - 60% reduction of 5 years old bottle with phenomenal results!
STRONG ADVICE: don't do it in the winter when windows are closed!!!!!! Your entire dwelling will smell like vinegar!
With windows opened, the vinegar smell will be only in the kitchen. The loving and caring wife would do it for the beloved husband while he is away from the house.
Posts: 281 | Location: South Florida | Registered: 07 November 2006
The point is that the average "balsamico" you get in stores is just vinnegar with added aromas and caramel syrup. Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale does not contain have any vinnegar at all! If your reduction tasted like the balsamico you got in Modena, you were scammed whe you bought that. Also, please, notice that Balsamico may be an itlian product, but it's a long way from the truth that it's a staple in italian cuisine. Balsamico is a product of a very tiny area that was at severe risk of disappearing until, some 15 years ago, someone rediscovered it and made it a famous ingredient. Usually abused in any sort of way (like using it to garnish salads).
Thank you, Alice, I didn't know that. Probably I used the wrong term. I thought Balsamico and Balsamic vinegar are the same thing. My Italian is less than rudimentary
Posts: 281 | Location: South Florida | Registered: 07 November 2006
They key word is "tradizionale". Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena and Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Reggio Emilia are two very peculiar products protected by a EU DOP (PDO) in extremely well-defined areas of the provinces of Modena and Reggio Emilia respectively, with selected grapes tht get pressed, the juice cooked and reduced, than aged for no less than 12 years, more commonly 25 years, but the aging can be far longer, in a series of barrles, made of diferent wood ans each year smaller. On.ly half of the content of each barrel gets yearly transferred to the next. The product is then labelled and sealed by the consortiums. Only bottles with the right labels and seals can be sold as "the real thing", the Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena or the Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Reggio Emilia. What you commonly find on the market is a cheap imitation made as I explained: vinnegar, flavors, caramel or, in the best cases, vinnegar and reduced grape juice. Essentially a scam.
Alice, friend of ours has bought a vineyard in Piemonte and we volunteered to give him hand with crop the next year. We'll be in your neck of the woods in September and I'd be more than delighted to share with you a good bottle of Barolo. I apreciate all the good info and your expanding my horizons.
Posts: 281 | Location: South Florida | Registered: 07 November 2006
Balsamico is a product of a very tiny area that was at severe risk of disappearing until, some 15 years ago, someone rediscovered it and made it a famous ingredient.
Was it Williams Sonoma who introduced Fini Aceto Balsamico di Modena to a larger market in the U.S.? I think that's how I first heard about it.
-Krista
Posts: 1694 | Location: Santa Barbara, California | Registered: 21 May 2004
Fini is exactly one fo those produvcts that mimick with very little success the true Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale. Essentially Fini's aceto is an almost-scam. Fini can save itself from being sued because the do not add the word "tradizionale" on their bottles, and at the same time to consortiums chose to protect only the "Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale" name, not the "Aceto Balsamico" name. This way several producers can get away with making these cheap, low quality imitations without being sued. Unfortunately, AFAIK; the consortiums cannot go back now, since the DOP (PDO) has been registered the both the EU and the Italian Government, so they have to accept producers selling so-called "aceto balsamico" that is usually just cheap vinnegar with added flavors and/or reduced grape juice. Essentially, junk.
Pardon the expression, but with the exception of the DeNegris, all the mentioned Balsamico in my mind are cr*p. Ther eis so much rank balsamico. I have never been a fan of Giusti's stiff as I feel it has a dirty chemistry. So its not surprising that cheap cr*p scored high against other more expensice cr*p. Sorry if this gets me going, but it does. Balsamico is siimply the most bastardized product I know of with most of it simply not being what the label claims it to be.
Most product has wine vinegar in it and is not simply the product of boiled musts. Most of it is not of any specific age but of a blending process. The stuff labeled 50 years old is fake because it would be like a jelly if it all was over 50 years old. Therefore it has younger vinegears in it. And this is the Consorzio stuff I am talking about.
The only guarantee you have is a family namefo quality on the label. If you see deNegris or Carrandini on the label, you know its the real deal. It won't be sweet, syrupy and sticky, but a brisk acidity will launch into the lush and complex sweet/sour yin/yang that is balsamico. There is just as good stuff made in other parts of the Emelia known as condimento. So you have to know who you are buying from and really, you have to taste.
I think the FAKE balsamic vineger was made for Americans.. that have bad vinegar to start with.
So someone in Modena ( I do think Fini was the first to cash in on it) took great red wine vinegar.. and added some carmelized sugar to it, and some reduced grape must.. that they use to make balsamic vinegar.. and sold us a $1 bottle of vinegar from $10.. great marketing! and it was soooo much better than our vinegar!
Real vinegar is great!
Even in modena, they are serving the FAKE stuff.. on the tables in restaurants..
once you have had the real stuff.. it is hard to go back! It is not for everyday.. and for me.. the fake stuff is NOT for my strawberries over ice cream.. like the traditional is!
Thanks for the info. I have not yet had the pleasure of tasting tradizionale.
Our local deli can get various types of LA VECCHIA DISPENSA, but you say that is croip, Dino.
Does anyone know where to obtain tradizionale in Australia.
Gavin?
BTW Dino. When I was in dining in a restaurant in Trequanda in June there were a couple of DC blokes to whom I recommended your restaurant. They had heard of Dinos, but had never dined there.
John "There are two types of problems: those that solve themselves, and those which you can do nothing about" Isabel Allende's grandmother
Posts: 1607 | Location: Mullumbimby, NSW, Australia | Registered: 26 March 2003
I feel sorry I started this thread, as my stupid suggestion is now bumped all the time futher exposing my initial ignorance on the subject.
Dear MODS, please, for the love of humanity, move informative posts in it's own thread and delete my initial post, as I can't look at it anymore as it's a constant reminder of my ignorance.
Posts: 281 | Location: South Florida | Registered: 07 November 2006
Originally posted by Serge: Dear MODS, please, for the love of humanity, move informative posts in it's own thread and delete my initial post, as I can't look at it anymore as it's a constant reminder of my ignorance.
Serge, Do you really care what other people think about something you like?
Some folks on this message board would rather not drink coffee at all than to walk into a Starbucks. Mostly I agree with them but sometimes I *must* get my coffee fix and Starbucks is the only option. So Starbucks it is, and I'm happy to have it.
If you were content with your $6 balsamic vinegar a month ago, a lecture or two shouldn't make you feel that it's any less tasty.
And John is right - this isn't the first thread on "true balsamic," and I'm sure it won't be the last.
and for almost the WHOLE WORLD .. that is all they know.
I just think people should know that the stuff that sells for $95 to $125 a bottle in the states.. is different..and just not boiled down $6 stuff!
I hve been watching the food network, and see everyone doing as you suggested! It is a great tip! Try adding brown sugar.. for more of a carmelized flavor!
This thread has prompted me to check out the range of balsamic offerings at my Italian grocer. I suspect that it is everything from the $6 to the $100 range -- something to fit everyone's budget.
If the "real" stuff that Alice has helpfully described is available here, I might be willing to treat myself to a bottle, but it is more likely that I will be buying the fake stuff at $6 because it will also fit my needs.
We have all made boo boo's. I was just thinking today that I made a spectacular gaffe in my last trip report. I wrote that at the Italian restaurant we ate at in Paris, Sonnet was served Alfredo with an egg in it for her to mix herself at the table, when in reality it was Carbonara. (Hey Kim can I fix that????) And the worst humiliation of all, I didn't even recognize my own in a photo, I thought it was Pauline, but it was Leslie.
Have you been to Lorenzo's Market in North Miami Beach? It's on Dixie Highway around 167th St. I haven't been in a few years but they used to have fabulous wines, vinegars and a deli with fresh pasta, anchovies, prociutto, etc.
Originally posted by Colleen: Serge, Do you really care what other people think about something you like?
Colleen, usualy not and I will still reduce "Balsamic" and serve it, even if it doesn't taste like 35 aged REAL Balsamico. This doesn't bother me, I have sensetivity of an elephant skin.
What does bother me is when I make a statement which I believe is correct and it's smashed into little pieces because it is not, like it happened in this thread.
On the other hand, I am not Jack Woltz from Godfather, so I don't feel as strong as he did: "Jack Woltz: And then Johnny Fontane comes along with his olive oil voice and guinea charm, and she runs off. She threw it all away just to make me look ridiculous! And a man in my position can't afford to be made to look ridiculous!"
Posts: 281 | Location: South Florida | Registered: 07 November 2006
Slow Travel Talk 
. (Hey Kim can I fix that????) And the worst humiliation of all, I didn't even recognize my own 
in a photo, I thought it was Pauline, but it was Leslie. 
