From: [email-masked] (Peter Masters)
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking,rec.food.historic,rec.gardens

Subject: Re: herbed vinegars
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Date: 26 Aug 92 15:00:02 GMT
References: <[email-masked]>
        <[email-masked]>
Sender: [email-masked]
Organization: ICAD Inc., Cambridge, MA
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In-Reply-To: [email-masked]'s message of 25 Aug 92 14:06:42 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] om ("Mr. Mike" Passaretti) writes:

   # In message <[email-masked]>, 
   # [email-masked] (David Adams) writes:

   david> Can someone explain for my benefit what the difference
   david> is between balsamic vinegar and herbed vinegar.  When I
   david> looked in Rhodales Encyclopedia of Herbs I read that
   david> balsamic venegar was supposed to be medicinal or have
   david> healing properties, but so many people have indicated
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   david> that balsamic vinegar should be used in some recipe or
   david> another.

   Balsamic vinegar starts its life as a sweet wine and is aged
   (And I mean aged.  For tens of years or more in the best of
   cases) in wooden barrels.  I want to say Oak, but I think
   that's wrong.  

Traditionally, in a series of barrels, each of a different wood.  Oak
and chestnut, probably; also more esoteric species (for some reason I
remember mulberry).  Alas, most of what you find in stores is only 2
to 4 years old.  The real stuff is very expensive; $20 for a half
liter is not uncommon.

                 It is not "started" like other vinegars, but is
   allowed to turn naturally.  There are different grades, drawn
   off over time like cognac.  I know that it's a bear to find in
   some locales (Cinci OH for one).  I also know that I can't
   make Christmas baked eel without it.  Any other questions I
   can't answer?

The commercial brands of "balsamic" (i.e., the 2-4 yr old stuff) is
pretty commonly available here in the Northeast; I would expect to
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find it in most big grocery stores that carry any Italian imports.

Peter Masters
[email-masked]
End of article 10316 (of 10317)--what next? [npq] see
my other posting, in reference to "Apples, Apples, Everywhere". There
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Article 10328 (27 more) in rec.gardens:
From: [email-masked] (Mark Schuldenfrei)
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking,rec.food.historic,rec.gardens

Subject: Re: herbed vinegars
Keywords: balsamic vinegar, tomatoes, salsa
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Date: 27 Aug 92 15:10:11 GMT
References: <[email-masked]> <1992Aug25.125344.16800@pr ogress.com>
Sender: [email-masked] (Mr. Usenet)
Organization: Progress Software Corp.
Lines: 39
Nntp-Posting-Host: ellis

I wrote an answer to David Adams' question
  Can anyone tell me how to make herbed vinegar?

And I apologized:
  This isn't exactly a rec.food.historic answer, since I have no idea
  how it used to be done...

In the cookbook "Take A Buttock of Beefe" (for ISBN Information see
my other posting, in reference to "Apples, Apples, Everywhere". There
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is a 1655 recipe for vinegar, including making herb vinegar.  Probably
not the method we will use ourselves, but hey...  If you read the
whole thing carefully, it seems you could start with beer, and finish
with Vinegar.

  TO MAKE GOOD VINEGAR

  Take one strike of Malt, and one of Rye, ground and mash them together,
  and take if they be good 3 pound of Hops if not four pound; make two
  Hogs heads of the best of that Malt and Rye, then lay the Hogsheads
  where the sunne may have power over them.  and when it is ready to
  Tun, fill your hogsheads where they lye, then let the purge cleer and
  cover them with two slate stones, and within a week after when you
  bake, take two cheat loaves hot out of the Oven, and put into each
  hogshead a loafe, you must use this foure times, you must brew this
  in Aprill, and let it stand till June, then draw them clearer, then
  wash the hogsheads cleane, and put the Beer in again, if you will
  have Rose-vinegar, you must put in a strike and a half of Roses, if
  Elder-vinegar, a peck of the flowres, if you will have it white, put
  nothing in it after it is drawn, and so let it stand till Michaelmas,
  if you will have it coloured red, take four gallons of strong Ale as
  you can get, and Elder-berries picked a few full clear, and put them
  in your pan with the Ale, set them over the fire till you guesse that
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  a pottel is wasted, then take it off the fire, and let it stand till
  it be stone cold, and the next day strain it into the Hogshead, then
  lay them in a Cellar or Buttery, which you please.

        schuldy (In the SCA, Tibor)
--
Mark Schuldenfrei ([email-masked])
End of article 10328 (of 10334)--what next? [npq] 

Article 10354 (36 more) in rec.gardens:
From: [email-masked] (Martin Golding)
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking,rec.gardens

Subject: Re: herbed vinegars
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Date: 27 Aug 92 17:29:35 GMT
References: <[email-masked]>
Followup-To: rec.food.cooking
Organization: ADP Dealer Services R&D, Portland, OR
Lines: 28

[email-masked] (Kristen McQuillin) writes:

: Basalmic vinegar is a sweet wine turned to vinegar in wooden barrels,
: unlike "wine vinegar", which is generally vinegar with some wine added
: for flavor. 

MY wine vinegar is wine allowed to ferment to vinegar. Snarl. Probably.

Balsamic vinegar combines grape juice (wine grapes not made wine yet) and
wine vinegar, and perhaps some herbs, and ages the vinegar quite slowly
through a series of barrels of different woods. A good brand should be
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slightly sweet, and add the presence of great maturity to whatever you
put it in. It's awful expensive for salads, but if you really care, and
have a great olive oil, it's worth using occasionally.

Depending, of course, on which brand you buy. I expect the very cheap ones
use a modernized process.

My favorite base for herbed and fruit vinegars, by the way, is oriental rice
wine vinegar. It seems to be a little less acidic, and has good, but not too
strong, flavor. And it comes in gallon jars at your local oriental grocery.

Martin Golding   | If there were a God,
   DoD #236      |  cocoa butter would be monounsaturated.
[motcsd!]mcspdx!adpgate!martin
End of article 10354 (of 10367)--what next? [npq]