Categories: Our Balsamic Insights

June 1, 2009 Vinegar Master

Distant Cousins: Balsamic & Cognac

A cool temperature sauce made of small amounts of traditional-style balsamic vinegar (long-aged in small, rare wood Italian casks) and Cognac (or Armagnac) is delicious and something of a family reunion, too, as you will read. 

You can make your own recipe by tasting.  Add finely sliced white truffles and a scant amount of salt to the precious liquid to top table-ready roasted meats.  A fine al dente pasta with that sauce, plus olive oil and melted butter and ground pepper, can be an explosive tour de force -- with each ingredient standing out of the mix.  > Read More

April 5, 2009 Vinegar Master

Gift Balsamic Vinegar

Before anyone even thought of selling balsamic vinegar, it was primarily made, used, and given away, usually by royalty to royalty.  It was an ultimate gift -- and one with meaning.

Early written records, dating back at least 1,000 years, tell of balsamic being given as a gift to the King of Franconia.  Such records also show the Duke of Este in the 16th century always had balsamic present for his own dining and that of his guests, plus much was made of his gifting other nobles with this rare juice, made then and now in Modena.    > Read More

February 13, 2009 The Vinegar Master

Great Glue, Too

Each bottle in our 50+ bottle collection of others' balsamic vinegars has one thing in common with the others: sticky, broken corks.  

No matter the purchase price, no matter the maker, no matter the age of these aceto balsamicos, traditional or industrial in their making, if they have corks, the corks usually get stuck after a single opening, just a single use.  > Read More