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The Bottle of Balsamic Vinegar in Your Kitchen Probably Isn't The Real McCoy

Too many choices, how do you tell the difference?

Food is so confusing these days! What you have in your kitchen labeled as balsamic vinegar probably isn't the real thing, no matter what it cost. 

In Italy, during the middle ages, aceto balsamico tradizionale was so highly prized it often became part of a young girl's dowry.  Among other things, it was used as a disinfectant.  It also had a reputation as a miracle cure for everything from sore throats to labor pains.  The word balsamic means curative or restorative. It was even thought to have helped cure the plague.

Until the late 1970s, even the nationally known restaurant chefs I interviewed at the time didn't cook with this product.  No one I knew in the food community used it, or had even tasted it, outside of Italy. Now you can find an overwhelming number of brands and prices of balsamic vinegar on every supermarket shelf and no upscale Italian restaurant would be without balsamic on the menu.

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Balsamic vinegar became widely available for distribution around the world, only when production companies figured out how to make it commercially, in large quantities, and in hours rather than in years.

In the food industry news I read daily, I see that balsamic vinegar now accounts for about 40 to 45 percent of the vinegar on supermarket shelves. Because there is no U.S. standard for balsamic vinegar, both the imported and domestically produced versions vary widely in price and flavor.   

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The real thing

The first time I tasted the real thing was in Italy. I had a drop of it on a chunk of Parmigiano Reggiano and later, on that same trip, was dazzled as balsamic was drizzled over strawberries.

Discussing the complexity of flavors of aceto balsamico tradizionale is akin to describing wine.  Sweet and sour is what hits your palate first. Then you feel the thick texture in your mouth. The flavors are caramel for sure, then hints of the types of woods the vinegar is aged in.  The depth and intensity are almost impossible to describe. The balance of sweet and slight acidity is true heaven.

Balsamic vinegar tradizionale is aged for a minimum of 12 years, up to 150 years. The modern industrial method is not aged at all, and in fact takes only a few hours to produce.

Balsamic vinegar tradizionale is made in only two regions of Italy, Modena and Reggio Emilia. Each province has its own competing consortium of experts (government protected domination of origination, or DOC) who approve the balsamic before sealing it.  They even control the bottle shape and the color of the cap.   

The production of balsamic vinegar tradizionale resembles wine making. Although it is called a wine vinegar, it is not a wine vinegar at all because it is not made of wine but from grape pressings that have never fermented to become wine.

Trebbiano and Lambrusco grapes, which have a naturally high sugar content, are reduced, or boiled down, to approximately half or one third of their original volume, creating a concentrate or a "must," which is then fermented with a slow aging process, further deepening and intensifying the flavors over the years. 

The thick syrup is aged for a minimum of 12 years in seven barrels of successively smaller sizes.  Each barrel is made of a different wood - chestnut, acacia, cherry, oak, mulberry, ash and juniper

And each type of wood adds character and complexity to the vinegar.  The casks are left uncovered so that the vinegar is allowed to evaporate, which thickens and concentrates what is inside the barrel.  

Per consortium rules, none of the product may be withdrawn until the end of the minimum aging period of 12 years.  At the end of the aging period, a small proportion is taken from the smallest cask and each cask is then topped up with the contents of the next largest cask.  Freshly reduced cooked "must" is added to the largest cask and in every subsequent year the drawing and topping process is repeated.  This process where the product is distributed from the oldest cask and then refilled from the next oldest cask is called "solera" or in perpetuum.

The longer it ages, the higher the quality and price.  There is a very small yearly production of aceto balsamico tradizionale. Consortium sealed tradizionale balsamic vinegar  in 100 ml bottles (about 3 ounces) can cost between U.S. $150 and $400 each.  

In Reggio Emilia, the ages are differentiated by label color. A red label means the product is aged for at least 12 years.  Silver label has been aged at least 18 years. Gold for 25 or more years. The bottle shape in Reggio Emilia is an inverted tulip. 

In Modena, there is a different system, a cream colored cap means the vinegar has aged for at least 12 years and a gold cap saying extravecchio (extra old) means the product has aged for 25 or more years.  Traditional balsamic vinegar of Modena is bottled in a rounded bulb shape with a long neck.

If you want the real thing make sure the consortium seal is over the cap as well as on the label.  And know that it can be stored indefinitely.

More affordable options

You can find balsamic vinegars for as little as $3 a bottle in the supermarket.

The reasons there are so many price variations is that demand for the product has prompted creative producers to find other ways of making balsamic for mass production and consumption and has thus lowered prices. Most imports are in the $12 to $25 range.

In case you decide to look at labels on the bottles, the ingredient you want to see first is "must," not wine vinegar. Then look at the age, then the production location. 

There are several classifications of imported balsamic vinegar. Authentic traditional artisan balsamic is the only kind that may legally be described as aceto balsamico tradizionale and it is doubtful, due to the high price, that you will find it in a supermarket.

Commercial grade balsamic vinegars are those produced on an industrial scale.  You will see these at the supermarket at the lower end of the price  the spectrum. 

In between these two most expensive and least expensive options, you will find many brands of "condimento" grade balsamic vinegar and some are even a mix of the two.

This condimento classification gets confusing. Some are made and aged in the traditional way in Modena or Reggio Emilia but without consortium supervision and approval. Others are made by producers of tradizionale balsamic vinegars but aged less than the minimum of 12 years so no consortium approval is possible.  Still others are made by the same method as the tradizionale vinegars (the casks) but produced outside of Modena and Reggio Emilia provinces, therefore not under consortium supervision, and some are made of wine vinegar with the addition of reduced grape juice in varying proportions but are manufactured without any aging. 

Not just for salads anymore

The balsamic brand I use most, Villa Manodori Aceto Balsamico di Modena 8.5 ounces, retails for about $52 to $60.  I use it sparingly when I want the flavor and texture. Thought I do use it in salad dressings, it is really not necessary as many of the less expensive brands are fine (sometimes even better due to the acidity) for that purpose.  Doing your own taste test for personal preference and for price is your best bet.  You might find many less expensive brands are perfect for salad dressings and you may decide to save the pricier ones when you want to add a droplet for flavor almost as you would a condiment. 

When I was catering, to get the same consistency I had tasted in Italy, I decided to experiment. The Villa Mandori brand I use is already thick, but we reduced it by two thirds until it became a viscous syrup. You will often find this method of concentration described as gastrique. I later read that people often add a bit of sugar when reducing balsamic but we never found it necessary as the brand I use is already sweet and complex. I have read that many have had luck with this same reduction procedure starting with lesser priced vinegars than we did.

For our purposes in the catering business, the flavor we created was rich, dense, sweet, yet a touch acetic, and definitely caramel. We kept it in a squeeze bottle in the fridge.  We developed several appetizers using it, and often brushed it on fresh fig halves, wrapped those in prosciutto, then piped a rosette of gorgonzola on top.  For seated dinners we sometimes added droplets of our balsamic gastrique to the entrée plate (usually fish, chicken or lamb.)

Besides being sensational on tomatoes, caprese salad, or any type of greens,  you will find that just a drizzle of balsamic adds character and richness to many desserts.  Try it on panna cotta, zabligione, strawberries or roasted peaches. A few drops work well on risotto. Cooking cipollini onions in butter until they are soft, and then mixing in balsamic vinegar, and reducing the liquid for a few more minutes, brings out the onion caramelization better than butter alone does, and also it adds a wonderful burgundy color to the dish.  

 

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