Balsamic Vinegar

UnwiseDuckling

Hey there!
I love balsamic vinegar! Its so yummy!:p But i only seem to make salad dressing and also use a good dash of it in pasta sauces.
Would love to use it more in my cooking but don't know where or what else it would be nice with,
Any suggestions?

duploelabs

UnwiseDuckling wrote: »

Hey there!
I love balsamic vinegar! Its so yummy!:p But i only seem to make salad dressing and also use a good dash of it in pasta sauces.
Would love to use it more in my cooking but don't know where or what else it would be nice with,
Any suggestions?

95% of balsamic is fake. It's just wine vinegar with caramel colouring

Dizzyblonde

If you drizzle a little balsamic vinegar over a bowl of summer berries and let it sit for a while, the taste is amazing. You only need around a teaspoon of vinegar.

I pour it over vegetables before I roast them, along with olive oil.

A little bowl of olive oil and balsamic vinegar is great for dipping crusty bread into.

S.R.F.C.

Balsamic chicken recipe here; http://allrecipes.com/recipe/balsamic-chicken/detail.aspx , also another one on there if you search.

Also a big fan of Balsamic, was in Modena not too long ago and picked up a really nice one.

longshanks

duploelabs wrote: »

95% of balsamic is fake. It's just wine vinegar with caramel colouring

How would someone tell the real from the fake?

Mellor

longshanks wrote: »

How would someone tell the real from the fake?

The price

wonderboysam

I adore vinegar

duploelabs

Mellor wrote: »

The price

also the ingredient list will say something along the lines of.....

White wine vinegar
Caramel colouring

Proper DOC balsamic should be about €20 for a 200ml bottle. Which makes me wince when I see TV chefs (particularly a certain irish one) justifing a drizzle of balsamic reduction, jesus wept

UnwiseDuckling

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

If you drizzle a little balsamic vinegar over a bowl of summer berries and let it sit for a while, the taste is amazing. You only need around a teaspoon of vinegar.

I pour it over vegetables before I roast them, along with olive oil.

Berries? oh! Sounds gorgeous!

S.R.F.C. wrote: »

Balsamic chicken recipe here; http://allrecipes.com/recipe/balsamic-chicken/detail.aspx , also another one on there if you search.

Also a big fan of Balsamic, was in Modena not too long ago and picked up a really nice one.

Really cant wait to try that one out!:p Would love to go there!

duploelabs wrote: »

also the ingredient list will say something along the lines of.....

White wine vinegar
Caramel colouring

Proper DOC balsamic should be about €20 for a 200ml bottle. Which makes me wince when I see TV chefs (particularly a certain irish one) justifing a drizzle of balsamic reduction, jesus wept

Really would love to get a nice bottle of it but one that i could afford!:D

duploelabs

well that's what I'm saying, there's no cheap balsamic. Much the same as there is no cheap champagne, relatively speaking

the beer revolu

Try Irish 'Balsamic' cider vinegar it's around €10 from any decent delicatessen and is really good.

katopyrgos

duploelabs wrote: »

95% of balsamic is fake. It's just wine vinegar with caramel colouring

Real Balsamic Vinegar is very expensive. Modena in Italy is the name you look for on the bottle. Tesco have real thing at 15 euro for about 25 centilitres.

Spanish Eyes

Hi everyone. When I saw this thread I jumped up to look in the back of a little used press in the kitchen. I remember buying balsamic v in Listons in Camden Street a good time ago. First off there is no "use by" that I can see, but does anyone know how long it would last? Bought about a year ago. Tks.

Second, seeing that caramel colour can be used to fake this stuff, does anyone know if the following is one of the fakes, or the goodies?

Brand -Ortalli, Aceto Balsamico di Modena

Ingredients listed as - wine vinegar, cooked grape must, and colouring agent E150d.

I'm sure it's fine. Must use it in what's recommended above soon. Have strawbs in the fridge.......

duploelabs

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Hi everyone. When I saw this thread I jumped up to look in the back of a little used press in the kitchen. I remember buying balsamic v in Listons in Camden Street a good time ago. First off there is no "use by" that I can see, but does anyone know how long it would last? Bought about a year ago. Tks.

Second, seeing that caramel colour can be used to fake this stuff, does anyone know if the following is one of the fakes, or the goodies?

Brand -Ortalli, Aceto Balsamico di Modena

Ingredients listed as - wine vinegar, cooked grape must, and colouring agent E150d.

I'm sure it's fine. Must use it in what's recommended above soon. Have strawbs in the fridge.......

A quick Google of food colouring e150d should tell you

Spanish Eyes

duploelabs wrote: »

A quick Google of food colouring e150d should tell you

Yes, I know it's caramel, but then I thought Modena was THE name for balsamic. Seems that most of it (unless you are uber rich and can pay the huge prices) is commercially produced (even in Modena) with caramel colouring. But I wonder how different that taste is from the properly aged stuff. Has anyone taste tested the commercial stuff from the aged stuff without caramel?

So even with Modena on the label doesn't guarantee anything. Same old, same old.

BTW I paid E15 for 200ml of the above stuff (price still on it). I'd need another mortgage to buy the real deal!!

Must open it and try it. I'm sure it's great, caramel or no caramel.

Brian?

duploelabs wrote: »

well that's what I'm saying, there's no cheap balsamic. Much the same as there is no cheap champagne, relatively speaking

I got some in TKmaxx a few months ago, €12 for 200ml. Not cheap, but definatly worth the extra few bob. I only use it for salad dressings, I think the cheap fake balsamic is grand for reductions or sauces.

Honey-ec

Balsamic vinegar is like olive oil, there's a place for both the really good and the cheaper stuff; it depends on what you're using it for. Again, like olive oil, the cheap stuff is fine for adding to cooking sauces, etc., but the really good stuff is much better off kept for using cold, as cooking it will just destroy the flavour anyway.

You'll get idiotic snobs telling you they only ever buy cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil (from Portugal, dahling, everyone knows it's better than Italian...) and then in their next breath, they'll tell you that they use it for all their frying.

Just because something is "better", it doesn't automatically make it better for everything.

Hondo75

With seabass http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/panfriedseabasssaute_89399

Brian?

Honey-ec wrote: »

Balsamic vinegar is like olive oil, there's a place for both the really good and the cheaper stuff; it depends on what you're using it for. Again, like olive oil, the cheap stuff is fine for adding to cooking sauces, etc., but the really good stuff is much better off kept for using cold, as cooking it will just destroy the flavour anyway.

You'll get idiotic snobs telling you they only ever buy cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil (from Portugal, dahling, everyone knows it's better than Italian...) and then in their next breath, they'll tell you that they use it for all their frying.

Just because something is "better", it doesn't automatically make it better for everything.

Anyone who uses extra virgin olive oil for cooking is a chump, so there .

duploelabs

briankeating wrote: »

Anyone who uses extra virgin olive oil for cooking is a chump, so there .

Maybe cold pressed olive oil, but I've done Chips in EV olive oil on a few corporate gigs that I've catered for and it's been a major difference to the flavour and colour of the chip, although it does kill your margin percentages

Brian?

duploelabs wrote: »

Maybe cold pressed olive oil, but I've done Chips in EV olive oil on a few corporate gigs that I've catered for and it's been a major difference to the flavour and colour of the chip, although it does kill your margin percentages

I didn't think it would actually be any good for chips given that the smoke point is about 160C.

Minder

duploelabs wrote: »

Maybe cold pressed olive oil, but I've done Chips in EV olive oil on a few corporate gigs that I've catered for and it's been a major difference to the flavour and colour of the chip, although it does kill your margin percentages

Cook them in dripping and keep the margins alive.

duploelabs

briankeating wrote: »

I didn't think it would actually be any good for chips given that the smoke point is about 160C.

depends on the acidity

duploelabs

Minder wrote: »

Cook them in dripping and keep the margins alive.

Yeah the veggies would love that

Minder

duploelabs wrote: »

Yeah the veggies would love that

Use quorn dripping:D

Mellor

duploelabs wrote: »

depends on the acidity

Well he stated extra virgin olive oil, which has a requirement for the acidity, ao the smoke point it always pretty low and its never good for frying.

duploelabs

Eh no it has a smoke point of 190, which is well above the 180 degrees of what you do your second (or third dip) of your chips in the oil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point

duploelabs

Minder wrote: »

Use quorn dripping:D

is that not vegetable oil?

Mellor

duploelabs wrote: »

Eh no it has a smoke point of 190, which is well above the 180 degrees of what you do your second (or third dip) of your chips in the oil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point

That's just one random table, could of came from anywhere. Smoke points differ greatly depending on the oil in question.

Here's another, its starts at 160 degree (its listed in F though)
http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/collectedinfo/oilsmokepoints.htm

duploelabs wrote: »

is that not vegetable oil?

No. Quorn is not vegetable based.

duploelabs

Well i'll tell you from professional catering experience that I used EV olive oil @ 180 degrees for chip and there was no smoke point or flavour impartment