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Balsamic Vinegar
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| Food History | Culinary Dictionary | Diet, Health & Beauty | |||||
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The best balsamic vinegars have nothing else added to them - only the grapes.
There is a lot of confusion about balsamic vinegar. On the grocery shelves you will find $3.00 bottles next to $25.00 bottles (often the $3.00 bottles have fancier labels). But, buyer beware! Not all balsamic vinegars are what they appear to be. True aceto balsamic vinegar comes in 3.4 ounce bottles and sells from $50.00 to $500.00 per bottle. It must be aged a minimum of 10 year. The better balsamic vinegars are aged 25 to 50 years (these are not to be poured, but used by the drop). Find a good-quality medium priced one to use in your cooking. The same country that brought you such notable artists as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, as part of the Renaissance, also provides a culinary artistry that offers incomparable quality and taste - the wonderfully adaptable aged balsamic vinegar, aceto balsamico di Modena. Balsamic vinegar can only be produced in the regions of Modena and Reggio in Italy. The first historical reference to balsamic vinegar dates back to 1046, when a bottle of balsamic vinegar was reportedly given to Emperor Enrico III of Franconia as a gift. In the Middle Ages, it was used as a disinfectant. It also had a reputation as a miracle cure, good for everything from sore throats to labor pains. Balsamic vinegar is an aged reduction of white sweet grapes (Trebbiano for red and Spergola for white sauvignon) that are boiled to a syrup. The grapes are cooked very slowly in copper cauldrons over an open flame until the water content is reduced by over 50%. The resulting "must" is placed into wooden barrels and an older balsamic vinegar is added to assist in the acetification. Each year the vinegar is transferred to different wood barrels so that the vinegar can obtain some of the flavors of the different woods. The only approved woods are oak, cherry, chestnut, mulberry, a cacia, juniper, and ash. The age of the vinegar is divided into young – from 3 to 5 years maturation; middle aged 6 to 12 years and the highly prized very old which is at least 12 years and up to 150 years old. For more information on the history of traditional balsamic vinegar: History - History of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena.
Question: Answer: Under proper storage
conditions, that is, away from direct heat and light, the shelf life is
3 years. Most producers of balsamic vinegar say 2 to 3 years. I,
personally, have a bottle of the wonderful aged balsamic vinegar that I
have had for 10 years, and it still is great.
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Faux Aged Balsamic Vinegar
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