[Sca-cooks] Documenting balsamic?

[David Walddon]

Interesting that it says the juice is blended and boiled and then placed in the vinegar barrels. 
So you are making vinegar from saba not from wine when you make balsamic? 
I thought the thickening came from the aging not from the boiling? 

Also maybe there are recipes in the wine corpus rather than the cookbook corpus. 

David 

________________________________________________________

Food is life. May the plenty that graces your table truly be a VAST REPAST. 

David Walddon
david at vastrepast.com
www.vastrepast.net



On Feb 1, 2011, at 11:58 AM, Raphaella DiContini wrote:

> Greetings, 
>       I've just finally done the next round of recipes from Libro di cucina/ 
> Libro per cuoco and I'm in the process of writing up the recipes and experience. 
> It's a set of three sauces, with the last two being variations of the first with 
> different meat, and slightly different cooking variants, XIV Ciuiro or sauce 
> black to ash gray for boar,  XV Ciuiro or relish for hind (deer, venison) etc. 
> ,and XVI Ciuiro for meat of roebuck or of hare. When I've interpreted this 
> recipe in the past, I've used balsamico because it helped give this "black" 
> sauce a nice dark color without toasting the bread to the point of giving the 
> sauce a burnt flavor (which I've tried to varying degrees of success). This time 
> I used red wine vinegar as I haven't been able to find solid documentation on 
> the use of balsamic vinegars in Venice at this time, although many of the 
> companies that produce it claim it dates back long before. I honestly like the 
> color, and complexity of flavor better with the balsamic, but don't want to use 
> or recommend it if it isn't plausibly appropriate in this context. 
> 
>  
> My apologies if this has already been discussed here before and I simply missed 
> seeing it in the archives. I did a quick search of Stefan's Florilegium and 
> found one article on vinegars ( What's so special about Vinegar by Mistress 
> Christianna MacGrain) that quotes from a couple of companies websites which are 
> no longer available to check to see if they sites sources:
>  "At the web site of Alessi, one of the larger commercial balsamic vinegar 
> producers, they say (at http://www.vigo.com/BALSAMIC.htm): "Balsamic vinegar has 
> been made for hundreds of years. It originated in the Modena region of Italy, 
> and until recently only those regions were privileged to experience its 
> delights. It is recorded that in 1046 A.D., Boniface, marquis of Bologna, made a 
> gift of Balsamic Vinegar to Henry III, the Holy Roman Emperor. Like in wine 
> making, each family had their own special recipe. The Balsamic Vinegar was aged 
> up to 25 years or more, and sometimes spiced with herbs and seasonings. "
> According to the web site of Master Choice 
> (http://www.masterchoice.com/vinegar.htm), another commercial balsamic vinegar 
> producer, the traditional production of balsamic vinegar goes like this: "After 
> pressing, the juices of the trebbiano and lambrusco grapes that are typical to 
> the Emilia-Romagna region are blended and boiled over fire, and then poured into 
> barrels of oak, chestnut, cherry, mulberry and ash. For years, the juice ages, 
> ferments and condenses naturally, gradually transforming into vinegar. Every 
> year, the liquid is mixed with younger vinegars and placed in a series of 
> smaller and smaller barrels. The vinegar absorbs much of its aroma from the oak 
> and its color from the chestnut. Then after five years, the vinegar is bottled." 
> "
> Does anyone have any more traceable, sited sources for the making and use of 
> Balsamic vinegars in Italy around or before the time of this manuscript? A 
> source that indicates use in Venice would be hitting it out of the park, but I'd 
> be happy with something that could reliably show when it started being used in 
> Italy in general. Like cheeses, they often don't state what type of vinegar to 
> use, and I'd LOVE to be able to occasionally use balsamic in recreations if the 
> application calls for it and feel that it's a valid and historically plausible 
> option.  
> In joyous service, 
> Raffaella 
> 
> 
> 
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