Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Balsamic Vinegar/Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale


Jason Perlow

Recommended Posts

I sprinkle a little over hollowed out cherry tomatos stuffed w/blue cheese and a little opal basil on top... feta cheese also works.

It is delicious atop sliced buffalo mozzerella and tomatos...

A small splash over homemade vanilla ice cream and berriesis a joy...

A wee bit sprinkled over scrambled eggs adds a wonderful layer of flavor.

-pk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I finally purchased some "real" balsamic vinegar this past year and was amazed at the difference between that and the cheap stuff I'd been using previously. I still use the cheaper stuff for basic salad dressings as it works well enough for me and fits my budget but the better quality balsamic goes far for the money due to the limited amount needed.

My favorite use is on fresh mozarella and sliced tomato salads. I drizzle just a bit of a good peppery olive oil onto the slices and then a very thin ribbon of the balsamic. great contrasta and amazing flavor. I also like using a tiny drizzle of it atop simple grilled fish or chicken breast. It adds a nice layer of flavor without being overpowering.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

There are now fast food restaurants that have plastic pouches of "balsamic" dressing to give away with their salads. But 20-5 years ago, few outside of Modena would have known what this was. (Not that the industrial stuff bears any relation to the real stuff.)

I'm working on a project that is looking at how speciality foods come into the mainstream, and we're trying to figure out what pushed balsamic vinegar into middle class consciousness, at least in North America, Britain, Australia, etc.

One story, which we suspect is apocryphal, has the condiment’s popularity rise with Modena's other big export of the 1980s, Luciano Pavarotti. Any truth to this?

Others have suggested it simply rode the coat tails of olive oil's emergence as a healthy fat, and the whole Med-Italo-food revolution of this time.

Any ideas and/or leads would be very welcome.

Malcolm

Malcolm Jolley

Gremolata.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Riding on this, can anyone produce a chart of prices for 25, 50 and 100 year old balsamic vinegars during this time? It seems like with a fixed supply and massively growing demand, either the price has to shoot up astronomically or fakes start appearing on the market.

Given that I've not seen much comment on rising balsamic prices, my hunch is that theres a lot of crap on the market in the high end.

PS: I am a guy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are now fast food restaurants that have plastic pouches of "balsamic" dressing to give away with their salads. But 20-5 years ago, few outside of Modena would have known what this was. (Not that the industrial stuff bears any relation to the real stuff.)

I'm working on a project that is looking at how speciality foods come into the mainstream, and we're trying to figure out what pushed balsamic vinegar into middle class consciousness, at least in North America, Britain, Australia, etc.

One story, which we suspect is apocryphal, has the condiment’s popularity rise with Modena's other big export of the 1980s, Luciano Pavarotti. Any truth to this?

Others have suggested it simply rode the coat tails of olive oil's emergence as a healthy fat, and the whole Med-Italo-food revolution of this time.

Any ideas and/or leads would be very welcome.

Malcolm

I always thought it was Mario Batalli's fault.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always thought it was Mario Batalli's fault.

Heh. I was going to blame the phenomenon on the whole Food Network in general. I for one confess to having been totally ignorant of the stuff until I first gained cable access to the Food Network--and then it seemed like it was mentioned on every single damn show sooner or later. I have no other evidence to base this on, but I still suspect that if one correlated the rise in popularity of the Food Network with the rise in popularity of balsamic in the US, one might possibly get some intriguing results.

Edited by mizducky (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it went along with the general re-interest in cooking and the 80's obsession with "gourmet" items and conspicuous consumption. Everything from popcorn to prime rib.

What was more decadent in the 80's that to drop some balsamic (that you picked up at the duty free shop at the airport in Rome? It had a great story to go with it.

Besides, it's good. It's different.

Edited by FistFullaRoux (log)
Screw it. It's a Butterball.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was working what was not yet America's first certified organic (it hadn't been certified at that point) restaurant, Restaurant Nora, in DC when I was introduced to balsamic, the real stuff, in 1986. After that I began to notice it in gourmet markets, but it seems as though it was still a couple of years before the fake balsamic began showing up at the local Safeway.

I'm on the pavement

Thinking about the government.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure real balsamic vinegar (Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena or di Reggio Emilia) or even traditional fake balsamic vinegar (the various condimento products sold in Italy) is substantially more popular than it was back in the day. It was a luxury item then and remains a luxury item now. What has become popular is an invented supermarket product made from concentrated grape juice, strong vinegar and caramel coloring. I imagine few purchasers of supermarket balsamic vinegar know or care what real balsamic vinegar is. As for why the invented supermarket product is popular, there are probably a few reasons, the foremost being that it's sweet.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Riding on this, can anyone produce a chart of prices for 25, 50 and 100 year old balsamic vinegars during this time? It seems like with a fixed supply and massively growing demand, either the price has to shoot up astronomically or fakes start appearing on the market.

Given that I've not seen much comment on rising balsamic prices, my hunch is that theres a lot of crap on the market in the high end.

Looks like there's a lot more on the low end.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure real balsamic vinegar (Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena or di Reggio Emilia) or even traditional fake balsamic vinegar (the various condimento products sold in Italy) is substantially more popular than it was back in the day. It was a luxury item then and remains a luxury item now. What has become popular is an invented supermarket product made from concentrated grape juice, strong vinegar and caramel coloring. I imagine few purchasers of supermarket balsamic vinegar know or care what real balsamic vinegar is. As for why the invented supermarket product is popular, there are probably a few reasons, the foremost being that it's sweet.

But is this really a recent invention, or only recent to the United States?

One of the leading Italian manufacturers of industrial-grade balsamic vinegar has been in business since 1912, which suggests to me that there must have been some upsurge in demand for or knowledge of a product somewhat resembling true balsamic vinegar in Italy around the turn of the last century.

Sandy Smith, Exile on Oxford Circle, Philadelphia

"95% of success in life is showing up." --Woody Allen

My foodblogs: 1 | 2 | 3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the "wine" component of vinegar has more to do with derivation than with literal meaning. According to the Vinegar Institute:

The French said it succinctly: vin aigre - meaning sour wine. That is its origin, the discovery that a cask of wine gone past its time had turned to a wonderful new product. Through the centuries vinegar has been produced from many other materials, including molasses, dates, sorghum, fruits, berries, melons, coconut, honey, beer, maple syrup, potatoes, beets, malt, grains and whey. But the principle remains unchanged - fermentation of natural sugars to alcohol and then secondary fermentation to vinegar.

http://www.versatilevinegar.org/vinegarlore.html

According to multiple Google results, they've been calling it vinegar ("laudatum acentum") since 1046.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow. Great thread. Thanks for all the response.

MarketStEl, re: your quote below: have they been making balsamic since 1912? Or just in business? Can you maneion the name of the producer? Or PM me?

One of the leading Italian manufacturers of industrial-grade balsamic vinegar has been in business since 1912, which suggests to me that there must have been some upsurge in demand for or knowledge of a product somewhat resembling true balsamic vinegar in Italy around the turn of the last century.

Malcolm Jolley

Gremolata.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the "wine" component of vinegar has more to do with derivation than with literal meaning. According to the Vinegar Institute:
The French said it succinctly: vin aigre - meaning sour wine. That is its origin, the discovery that a cask of wine gone past its time had turned to a wonderful new product. Through the centuries vinegar has been produced from many other materials, including molasses, dates, sorghum, fruits, berries, melons, coconut, honey, beer, maple syrup, potatoes, beets, malt, grains and whey. But the principle remains unchanged - fermentation of natural sugars to alcohol and then secondary fermentation to vinegar.

http://www.versatilevinegar.org/vinegarlore.html

According to multiple Google results, they've been calling it vinegar ("laudatum acentum") since 1046.

Yes this is true, but I think that the distinction of "aceto" to "vinegar" labelling will tell you when the product became popular in the States.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the "wine" component of vinegar has more to do with derivation than with literal meaning. According to the Vinegar Institute:
The French said it succinctly: vin aigre - meaning sour wine. That is its origin, the discovery that a cask of wine gone past its time had turned to a wonderful new product. Through the centuries vinegar has been produced from many other materials, including molasses, dates, sorghum, fruits, berries, melons, coconut, honey, beer, maple syrup, potatoes, beets, malt, grains and whey. But the principle remains unchanged - fermentation of natural sugars to alcohol and then secondary fermentation to vinegar.

http://www.versatilevinegar.org/vinegarlore.html

According to multiple Google results, they've been calling it vinegar ("laudatum acentum") since 1046.

He, that was an interesting site, according to it balsmic made from grape must, rather then wine has only been producted since the 1860's! So the 'traditional', isn't that old a tradition. I wonder how different the products rearly are from each other.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One story, which we suspect is apocryphal, has the condiment’s popularity rise with Modena's other big export of the 1980s, Luciano Pavarotti. Any truth to this?

Luciano was already a huge star in the 1970s (he made his Italian debut in 1961 and made a huge splash in the US singing La fille du régiment with the (in)famous "nine high Cs" aria in 1971). So I think we can call that myth busted.

When did it get called "vinegar"? As it isn't made from wine I guess technically it isn't a 'vinegar' (and therefore neither is malt vinegar, which is an 'alegar'?), so if you can find out when 'balsamic vinegar' became common usage, this may help to pin-point 'ground zero'.

I'm not sure I quite get this, although it's very possible that I'm just too dense to see what you're getting at. As far as I know, the traditional Italian product has always been called aceto balsamico (aceto meaning "vinegar" in Italian). Certainly it's been called that a lot longer than it has been popular outside of Italy.

There is also some question in my mind about your suggestion that aceto balsamico might not qualify as "vinegar" because it is not made from wine. If wine can be defined as fermented grape juice, wouldn't this apply to the raw material of aceto balsamico, which is fermented 50% reduced grape juice? I gather that your suggestion that only acetic-acidified wine technically qualifies as "vinegar" is due to the original French meaning of vin aigre (sour wine)? I suppose this might make some sense in the French-speaking world, but am not so sure it makes sense with respect to the translation of aceto into our English word "vinegar." Interestingly (and as you probably know) the Italian word aceto, rather than being a compound word like the French vinaigre comes from the Latin vinum acetum, also meaning "sour wine" but only carrying over the "sour" part of the word and leaving the "wine" part behind. I guess a direct translation of aceto balsamico might be "balsamic/restorative sour."

--

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some interesting facts from the Consortio Aceto Balsamico di Modena:

  • It turns out that "balsamico" as part of the name is of relatively recent coinage, being found for the first time in the ducal inventories of 1747 at the Este Palace in Modena.
  • In 1839, one Conte Giorgio Gallesio made a brief study of balsamico production in Modena, and his documents are among the first technical treatises on the subject. Therein, he notes the difference between two categories made, that exclusively made from fermented must (described as "exquisite") and that made from fermented must with the addition of wine (described as "also excellent"). I think it's somewhat likely that there were historically different grades and levels of balsamico produced, some with the addition of wine and some exclusively from must. It also seems likely that the balsamico produced exclusively from must would be considered to have the highest quality and would be the most expensive. Perhaps this later consolidated on the highest quality, and therefore came over time to mean "must only."
  • Documents from the end of the 19th Century refer to products made from must and wine vinegar as well as shortcut methods involving the use of spices. Perhaps the first "industriale?"

--

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One story, which we suspect is apocryphal, has the condiment’s popularity rise with Modena's other big export of the 1980s, Luciano Pavarotti. Any truth to this?

Luciano was already a huge star in the 1970s (he made his Italian debut in 1961 and made a huge splash in the US singing La fille du régiment with the (in)famous "nine high Cs" aria in 1971). So I think we can call that myth busted.

When did it get called "vinegar"? As it isn't made from wine I guess technically it isn't a 'vinegar' (and therefore neither is malt vinegar, which is an 'alegar'?), so if you can find out when 'balsamic vinegar' became common usage, this may help to pin-point 'ground zero'.

I'm not sure I quite get this, although it's very possible that I'm just too dense to see what you're getting at. As far as I know, the traditional Italian product has always been called aceto balsamico (aceto meaning "vinegar" in Italian). Certainly it's been called that a lot longer than it has been popular outside of Italy.

No, my post was just confusing since - which I put down to having about 2 jours sleep in the last 36.

Right it seems that the modern trational product (known as “traditional balsamic vinegar of Reggio Emilia” etc) is made from concentrated grape must. This has developed from a technique that became widespread after the 1860's. Prior to this it seems to have been made with wine,- according to multiple google searchs etc.

I was trying to suggest that if you look in the literature for the "Balsamic vinegar", rather then "Aceto Balsamico" this will help determine when it bacame popular in the English speaking world. For instance, why does Ada Boni call it in the 'Regional Italian Cooking' or older versions of Marcella Hazen's compared to modern printings?

Edited by Adam Balic (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Per my cross-posted info above from the Consortio it seems likely to me that the special Aceto di Modena was always made with fermented concentrated grape must -- or certainly dating to much earlier than 1860 -- but that some makers also included wine in making a "second quality" product.

Wikipedia says that balsamic vinegar was popularized in the US and UK during the 1980s through the writing of Marcella Hazan. I'm not sure what the basis is for that assertion (especially since her seminal books were written in 1973 and 1978), but I do think there is something to that argument worth considering since I think it is reasonable to regard Hazan as the central figure who introduced and popularized real, traditional Italian cookery in the English-speaking world. It would also make sense, per your "aceto balsamico" versus "balsamic vinegar" idea, that manufacturers and/or importers would have started anglicizing the labling when they started viewing the product as one that would be marketed directly to Americans as opposed to importing the Italian products.

--

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I associate balsamic vinegar with Gourmet and Dean & DeLuca, circa 1978 or 1979-1980 when I began reading the former and visited the latter where I made my first purchase.

D & D had just opened in 1977 (in a different location) and was still rather unique. It sold many items not available--or readily accessible--elsewhere, especially for visitors coming into NYC to go to museums, performances, etc.

In the United States, yes, the marketing of Extra Virgin olive oil is intrinsically linked to the "popularization" of balsamic vinegar.

P.S. Regarding Kinsey's post above, I bought both volumes of Marcella Hazan's cookbooks in 1979 & 1980. The author influenced my cooking profoundly. However, I have a distinct impression that magazines written for home cooks were marketing balsamic vinegar, extolling the virtues of a simple salad dressing made without Dijon mustard, without garlic, shallots or chives: just EVOO [well, not with Rachael Ray's dreadful, addictive abbrev.], balsamic vinegar, S & P. Being incredibly receptive and impressionable then, I even recall where I was when the wisdom of that advice all of a sudden struck me in a moment of Satori.

Edited by Pontormo (log)

"Viciousness in the kitchen.

The potatoes hiss." --Sylvia Plath

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wikipedia says that balsamic vinegar was popularized in the US and UK during the 1980s through the writing of Marcella Hazan.  I'm not sure what the basis is for that assertion (especially since her seminal books were written in 1973 and 1978), but I do think there is something to that argument worth considering since I think it is reasonable to regard Hazan as the central figure who introduced and popularized real, traditional Italian cookery in the English-speaking world.  It would also make sense, per your "aceto balsamico" versus "balsamic vinegar" idea, that manufacturers and/or importers would have started anglicizing the labling when they started viewing the product as one that would be marketed directly to Americans as opposed to importing the Italian products.

I haven't got a feeling for how influential Hazan is in the USA in terms of being able to shift a product, but is a TV figure is likely to be (for a period in the 90's any product mentionaed by Delia Smith was immediately popular in the UK). Any names fit the bill?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We should make sure we all understand (although I think we all do) that we're talking about the popularization of aceto balsamico industriale and not the super-expensive traditional stuff, which is still largely unknown in the English-speaking world.

I think Steven makes a good observation in pointing out that the largest part of its popularity is due to the fact that it is sweet. If we agree that balsamic vinegar's rise in popularity began in the 80s and reached critical mass in the 90s, it is interesting to consider that this coincides with the greatly increased consumption of salad.

--

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...