Balsamic Vinegar Recommendation?


 
I

Ivan Stratton

TVWBB Fan
Does anyone use a basalmic vinegar they would recommend? My wife is making caprese salad this weekend and wants me to pick up the vinegar. I checked Cooks Illustrated and there are a couple that where recommended but most were more than $25 a bottle. Im more in the $10-$15 or less range.
 
Don't know if you can find it where you stay but I ahve a bottle of Il Villagio brand that i got at the local HEB.I think it goes for about $12/bottle. It's not a house brand.
 
I know it's not in the price range you listed, but the best Balsamic I have ever had is from Villa Manodori. I got a bottle in Sienna, Italy, when I was there. You can get it on Amazon for an arm and a leg.

http://www.amazon.com/product/dp/B0017WSH82

As for lower cost options, my go-to standard is FINI, which should be in your price range and can be gotten from most specialty grocers like Whole Foods, Fresh Market, or World Market, as well as places like Williams-Sonoma.

The other day I picked up a bottle of Newman's Own balsamic because I really enjoy their olive oil (it's a great flavor at a great price) but I haven't tried it yet. My guess is it's going to be pretty tasty for its price.
 
Balsamic vinegar can range from a few bucks to $$$ depending on the source and how long it has aged. The very expensive varieties can be used to drizzle over fruit and other desserts.

I'd recommend choosing something a few notches about the least expensive and see if you like it. It has a smoother, sweeter flavor.

Paul
 
What a wide spectrum of price and quality...I wonder if there is a very good middle ground product. My very limited experience has been with Costco's Kirkland brand-quite bit for not much $. Maybe there is something considerably better for not too much more?
 
Balsamic vinegar can range from a few bucks to $$$ depending on the source and how long it has aged.
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true balsamic can not be purchased for a few bucks. The original product was modified for mass production and the american market. I hear people from modena are horrified by stories of americans casually sloshing balsamic on just about anything. I stumbled on this info while reading this book. It was a brief mention but its got me longing for more info on how this product that takes decades to make can be replicated and mass produced.

anyways, like most people, I'll spend $5-15 on a bottle and never found anything that really knocked my socks off.

this stuff is pretty good but on the higher end of the cheap stuff.

one tip that works, is to take "american" balsamic and put it in a sauce pan and reduce it a 1/3 to a 1/2. It'll have a stronger flavor and will hold to the caprese salad nicely.
 
Maybe there is something considerably better for not too much more?
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There is. Get Newman's Own. Especially for balsamic reductions (I reduce balsamic for 90% of its uses).

I agree with j that the original is not the same thing. I have $150 bottles in my larder and carry at least one on the road. But less expensive balsamic (even cheap balsmaic) is available and is good -- if one does not plan to use it as the originals are used, and in most cases one doesn't (who makes a vinaigrette with $150 balsamic?).

(Not that they'll readily admit it, but the people in Modena have their cheap balsmaics too. They just don't call them the same thing, nor use them as they would the expensive aged vins.)
 
There is. Get Newman's Own. Especially for balsamic reductions (I reduce balsamic for 90% of its uses).

I agree with j that the original is not the same thing. I have $150 bottles in my larder and carry at least one on the road. But less expensive balsamic (even cheap balsmaic) is available and is good -- if one does not plan to use it as the originals are used, and in most cases one doesn't (who makes a vinaigrette with $150 balsamic?).

(Not that they'll readily admit it, but the people in Modena have their cheap balsmaics too. They just don't call them the same thing, nor use them as they would the expensive aged vins.)
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correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the logic was that until the product was mass produced, it wasn't used in a vinaigrette. can we assume the knock-offs were started in italy and were what was introduced to the new market here? Since we didn't have knowledge of the original product, we latched on to the mass produced stuff, because it has its own redeeming qualities.

My point about the mass produced stuff, is as long as you stay away from the really inexpensive stuff that I tend to find thin and acidic (and probably just red wine vinegar with caramel coloring) I haven't found a brand that I'd go out of my way for or spend extra bucks for. The elsa that I referenced above, was purchased as a gift, and although it was good, and worth recommending, its only marginally better then some less expensive bottles I've tried.
 
For vinagrettes, I use the Maille brand of balsamic. It is inexpensive and readily available at the supermarket, at least it is in Canada. I get my better balsamic at an Italain store. It costs $40 for a small bottle, imported from Italy, which still isn't that expensive but it is quite good. I like to use it on strawberries and just a few drops is all it takes to add some oomph. I also use the better stuff where I actually need it for the balsamic flavour.
 
I think this is the one I've been using:

Monari Federzoni Balsamic Vinegar of Modena

It's recommended by Cooks Illustrated, isn't very expensive, and is available at Safeway here in WA.
 
correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the logic was that until the product was mass produced, it wasn't used in a vinaigrette. can we assume the knock-offs were started in italy and were what was introduced to the new market here? Since we didn't have knowledge of the original product, we latched on to the mass produced stuff, because it has its own redeeming qualities.My point about the mass produced stuff, is as long as you stay away from the really inexpensive stuff that I tend to find thin and acidic (and probably just red wine vinegar with caramel coloring) I haven't found a brand that I'd go out of my way for or spend extra bucks for. The elsa that I referenced above, was purchased as a gift, and although it was good, and worth recommending, its only marginally better then some less expensive bottles I've tried.
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I'd agree on all points.
 
ok, I'm kind of obsessive about getting things right. I went back to the original source mentioned upthread and looked up the part that mentions balsamic (luckily the book had an index).

for those interested here's some info about balsamic (according to David Kamp):

In 1971, Chuck Williams was running a small shop and catalog (Williams and Sonoma) that had mostly French related stuff. Marcella Hazan claims to have introduced Chuck to aceto balsamico in an effort to encourage him to carry Italian related stuff. Chuck recalls actually discovering it himself in Rome. Either way it appears in his catalog in the early 70's.

Around the same time, Giorgio DeLuca of NYC's Dean and DeLuca discovered balsamic vinegar and imported a "cheaper, lower-grade balsamic vinegar by Monari Federzoni."

"The sudden popularity of balsamic vinegar and sun-dried tomatoes in America caused a wrinkle in the cultural space-time continuum, surprising and taking back Italians, to whom these products were small-batch regional delicacies, not widely known even within Italy."

"Authentic balsamic vinegar was used sparingly and ceremonially, not splashed indiscriminately on salads like something from a Good Seasons carafe,or used as a glazing agent for chicken or fish."

"...the trendyness of balsamic vinegar in America upended the balsamic-vinegar industry in Italy, to the point were Gianni Federzoni- who's grandmother...had first started selling vinegar made according to the family's secret recipe in 1912- responded to demand by building a factory in the early eighties to produce balsamic vinegar in industrial quantities, using new technologies to accelerate the process."

"But because Italians like to copy Americans very much, now they put it in salads, too."

Here's what I find interesting:

Balsamic vinegar has only been in America since the 1970's.

It was introduced to American by Williams and Sonoma and Dean and Deluca.

Most Italians were unaware that this product even existed, so it wasn't until Americans fell for it, did it become ubiquitous there.

Federzoni brand (cited by m and noted in cooks illustrated) might be the original brand of mass produced stuff and may have some merit.

Since Federzoni, "less scrupulous" producers have come on the scene basically making red wine vinegar with caramel color.
 
Originally posted by Chris Nielsen:
I know it's not in the price range you listed, but the best Balsamic I have ever had is from Villa Manodori. I got a bottle in Sienna, Italy, when I was there. You can get it on Amazon for an arm and a leg.

http://www.amazon.com/product/dp/B0017WSH82

QUOTE]

I concur with Chris. I can get this at my local yuppie store for $39.99 (sometimes on sale at 3/$100). It really is worth it. Tastes better than ones twice the price. They have some behind lock and key at this store (hundreds of $). The wine guy described that there are 2 different official "stamps" one can get for their balsamics, this company opted not to submit theirs for official designation thereby saving a lot of expense. Don't know if it is true, but this stuff is really fantastic. I buy about one bottle a year for special dishes/deserts.
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