In Modena you can taste the original balsamic vinegar (even aged 50 years) for free if you take a tour of a farm where it is produced. They usually offer tasting with a free tour because they know the stuff is so good that you will end up buying it
True. We went and bought a ton. The good thing about buying a lot is that they will never go bad. Balsamic vinegar stays what it is, maybe forever? (Assuming that it does not evaporate and dry out.)
@@XBullitt16X Right, that would be my guess also. But isn't the aging process only take place in the barrel? By interacting with the barrel, wine, (I'm assuming balsamic vinegar also), would take on more nuanced flavors. Without the barrel, how would the vinegar continue to age in the glass bottle? Wine could, because of the tannin; therefore, in theory, the balsamic vinegar which also contains tannin from the grape skin, could also age, albeit slower? Any experience in this area? This is very interesting...
I make a lot of my own vinegars and I can tell you it will age in the bottle, my vinegars age in glass bottles and form mothers, so yep. The barrel is just for flavour and thickening.@@Birdylockso
@@XBullitt16X Good to know, thanks. I have a good bottle that I have been using very sparingly, for almost 3 years now. I don't see any "mothers" formed in the bottle. Is that normal? And, I am assuming the "mothers" is just a top white/grey layer?
For anyone interested, I made a lot of testing when the original video came out and here is the best adjusted recipe I got: - 1 cup cheapest BV 4 leaf you can find - 3/4 tbsp maple syrup - 3/4 tbsp sugar - 3/4 tbsp msg - 3 tbsp aged tawny port - Mix all ingredients - Reduce to half volume - Remove from heat - Add back 1/3 cup BV 4 leaf
Also, for the "healthy coke," you should just make switchel or posca. Vinegar plus water can be refreshing and healthy, but it needs some form of sweetener (honey, molasses).
I'm so curious if smoking the reduction or added a piece of oak wood charcoal to "steep" like a tea, then strain out, OR just liquid smoke would help add that aged wood flavor
Thanks for being upfront about it being a directors cut. Too many creators will just repost a version of the same thing they’ve already done and hope people don’t notice.
For making a reduction, there IS a trick to get the wood notes that the barrel aged product has. Homebrew shops carry food grade oak cubes/chips/spirals that you throw into the liquid and let it age for a while. If it works for beer, it will work for balsamic. Get some cubes & age the stuff in a mason jar for some 2-4 weeks. I'd suggest trying this both before & after the reduction to see which you like better but this should get you even closer to the real (very expensive) balsamic.
my cousin owns an authentic vinegar manufacturing plant in Reggio Emilia near Modena and your explanations here are on the spot. She makes regular and all the way to gold traditional in barrels that date back to 1892. The real stuff is heavenly. For day to day, I like the Kirkland brand Costco one, it's 4 leafs. If they still sell it, have not been to Costco in a while and just ran out of my last bottle recently. For glazes I like the Trader Joes one, tastes great and while not anywhere close to the real stuff, works great. My favorite way to use the top shelf balsamic is to drizzle it over really good parmesan cheese, break some chunks off, drizzle with balsamic and enjoy. Or really good fruits or berries. Never use the top shelf stuff in a vinaigrette, that would make zero sense. Like gold leaf on a steak, LOL
Ethan I loved the original release of this series, and it's great that you've updated it. Also, as a result of this, I picked up some legit Balsamico de Modena and holy crap it's wonderful. I know it's expensive but it goes a long way since you use it very small amounts at a time. thanks for being awesome!
Went from watching Ethan Chlebowski's cooking videos for pleasure and to become a better home cook, to assigning some of these in-depth videos to my college-level science class. You definitely hold this channel to a high standard. Thanks for all your thorough research and testing!
Did you have your students watch them or did they have to do projects/papers? What a fun and interactive way to learn, you sound like a great professor
@@lasoren Not really. The traditional came in 100ml bottle, the cheap stuff in 500ml. So you need to multiply the difference 5 times to be mathematically correct :)
You are the channel I've been looking for since i started cooking. Why did i just discover you despite the fact that I've been researching food videos for about 8 years now
I really appreciate the editing of this video. I remember having to rewatch the first few trying to get all the information straight now that this is a single video I really feel like I can understand all that the first few were trying to say. Great work!
My grandmother taught me a long time ago to always buy 12 year aged balsamic vinegar. The extra price is worth it. But she was referring to bottles in the 20-45$ price range. It’s a rule of thumb I’ve always stuck to, and the difference between a 30$ 12 year aged balsamic vs a 6-10$ bottle is huge, big enough for me. Sometimes good enough is good enough. I’d like to see a comparison of only 12 year aged balsamics at different price points.
Damn your channel has grown so much and done so in such a focused manner. I remember finding you 2-4 years ago where we would just cook fun stuff and learn a few cool science based hacks. I really appreciate and am proud of you for taking this turn into extreme science and empirical evidence based approach to cooking smarter and better. I think you found a great niche and created a great community. I hope one day soon you and Kenji get together because I feel like it'll be a sick ass video or at the very least a cool moment for the both of you food science heads!
I definitely appreciated this video, even after watching the others. I love balsamic in all of its forms. I've never had 2 bottles that taste the same and I love to just try them whenever I can. I was somewhat surprised that you never mentioned that some balsamic tastes a lot more fruity, or sometimes even a little spicy, than others do. I generally keep several different bottles around for different cooking and eating applications. I do the same thing with olive oil. There's such a huge variation in taste and texture. Adding olive oil and balsamic together to things is such a great way to experience the variety in otherwise familiar foods.
Not sure if you're planning on traveling anytime soon again but a video of you exploring and explaining Italy's food culture would be really fascinating from your perspective.
NO!!!!!!! you do not mix high-grade olive oil and high-grade balsamic. They are 2 flavors that stand on their own. So American. Sorry. Real olive needs just a pinch of salt, that's it.
@@Markinfilm please show where they said the olive oil had to be high-grade? they specified good fresh bread, but said nothing of the quality of the oil. While the traditional balsamic has a viscous texture, a small amount of some form of oil adds a silkiness to the texture that you only get from fats. While true that it'd be a waste to put high quality olive oil with the balsamic and vis-versa a cheaper olive oil with the balsamic adds a lot of texture without interfering with the flavor of the balsamic.
@@DreadKyllerI tend to agree with @Markinfilm. Olive oil comes in many different flavour profiles. From extremely fruity, over musky to fairly bitter. So the oil can really interfere with the taste of a BV. And though I also like to dunk bread in some olive oil and BV, I would never choose a high-end BV for that purpose. Anyone who’s ever taste-tested different olive oils understands how powerful and even overpowering they can be.
Thanks for the very thorough comparison. I have a bottle of Giuseppe Giusti (which I bought in Milano, and over there it was only about 95 USD), some Roland condiment grade and a vinegar based balsamic all on hand for different uses. The traditional is by far my favorite!! Not only is it great on ice cream, but on various cheeses it's phenomenal. Somehow it adds to the flavor of the cheese.
Here's a quick "Blow your mind" ice cream dessert serving suggestion: Strawberry ice cream + shavings of frozen mango + Basil chiffonade + balsamic vineger. Seriously mind-blowing how good this is.
I bought a bottle of 10 year-aged balsamic vinegar while I was in Nice, France last year. And you are right, there is no comparison. I never even liked balsamic vinegar...until I tried real balsamic vinegar. No idea if it was real or not, but man it tasted so good, I really don't care. If you are in Nice, I found it at this place in old town: Girofle Et Cannelle
@@v0ldy54 Thanks for the confirmation. I will ensure that I get 12 year minimum this year when I am over there. And going to get a ton of it this time. It was a very sad day when I used the last of the bottle I bought last year.
For the diy traditional balsamic vinegar recipe, the reduction must solely consist of the port wine and sugar, and the balsamic vinegar added in the reduction once cooled down. In your experiment, the sample tasted sweeter not because of the sugar concentration but because it was less acid, as the acetic acid of the vinegar was evaporated during the reduction process.
I was so confused and thought TH-cam had unliked the video for me. But now I see it's the combo of those 3 videos and I think it's a good way to do it. Looking forward to the next ones.
I love the direction your channel has taken, with a heavy focus on the food science and its practical uses. I've started using cookwell weekly for making 3-5 meals and its easily the best experience with an online recipe repository I've ever had. Used to use allrecipes before, but the quality there was just so hit or miss.
Hey, Ethan, as christmas approaches, would you be interested in testing different brands of Panettone ( italy's famous christmas dessert) and compare them to artisanal panettone? I am so enamorated of italian culture and would love that. Keep being awesome!
I had the honor to be gifted a bottle of authentic balsamico by an Italian from Modena who had kept the tradition alive in his family since started by his father. They created new batches with every child born. They had more than they could consume alone.
From the last videos I started buying Basalmic Glaze with grape must as the first ingredient which has a nice flavor profile compared to the $3 stuff which tastes like sweetened wine vinegar. Thanks for helping me affordable upgrade.
I liked this, but would have liked ann opportunity to look at the middle ground in between the $10 wine vinegar products and the $100 tradizionale. The traditional producers all have quotas, and most sell products made from only grape must and aged 5 to 10 years to use up production over quota. These are around $30/200mL, so about 7 times cheaper by volume than the tradizionale, but they have a lot more than 1/7th the flavor! If you have a chance I recommend seeking them out. The quality difference between a “nice” wine vinegar based balsamic and what amounts to basically a young tradizionale is striking. Great video!
I would like a follow up one day of how long that expensive bottle lasted you and the different things you tried using it for!! also, love that you joined these!
Thank you for this amazing deep dive and for reconstructing the video series! So much good information. Only thing I would note is that the way this was put together made it a little repetitive. There were a few spots where it felt like I'd heard the same thing 2 other times in the video (which makes sense considering it was originally 3 separate videos). Otherwise awesome stuff. Definitely an underrated ingredient/condiment.
I appreciate the timing of this one, because I have been thinking about playing around with balsamic vinegar. I want to ferment some blueberries and super hot peppers, and incorporate them somehow to make my own hot sauce. I tried blueberry ghost pepper hot sauce on ice cream, and it was a complete mouth freakout. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it.
Crazy you have 2million followers on a TH-cam cooking channel and have never tried true balsamic. That’s wild to even think about. Good for you for being transparent.
Watching your videos as a student is not easy every time as my eoconomy isnt quality-vinegar good, but I have still learned a lot from you. Both from thinking more deeply about food theory and bettering my cooking techniques.
Good timing, as I'm in Bologna rn and am headed to Modena tomorrow to sample and buy some DOP Balsamico to bring back to the States. And yes, I saw your original video. :)
Before all your testing, I decided to 'upgrade' as I knew there was 'better' than the bottle from the grocery store. I found a bottle that is about 250ml called "Giuseppe Giusti - Gran Deposito Aceto Balsamico Di Giuseppe Giusti Moderna" it to me is pretty good mix. What's interesting is its ingredients say Grape Musk and nothing else. It isn't pure syrup but it is a lot thicker than anything else in the store and when I put that Graza EVOO and it together, and dip some bread in it I enjoy it, so that's what matters to me.
I work at an Olive oil and Aged Balsamic shop in the US. It is an insane how any percentage of red wine vinegar really changes the quality of the balsamic. We work with a manufacturer in Modena, and our best Balsamic is aged 21 years. It has less than 1% of red wine vinegar, is extremely viscous, and has a profile that is difficult to put into words. Yet, that 1% creates such a world of difference to DOP Traditional. I would never be able to do any grocery store quality balsamic however, the flavor of it always feels so... muddled
It's been 6 months but I just made a balsamic and peanut butter sandwich. Slathered one half of a slice of bread with peanut butter, the other side gets a generous dose (I covered mine, but taste varies) of balsamic. Fold in half and it's like a super tangy PB&J. It's fantastic.
Mega Thanks to You for this area of knowledge! Just bought 3 diffrent bottles of traditional balsamic :-) Just opened first one - over 12 years and it is great! Tried it just on cheeses and on tongue, but surely it is game changer! Can't wait to compare to a second one - over 25 years ;-) The third one is for now a secret ;-)
18 year old balsamic from the Olive Tree is very good at a reasonable price. I really do not like vinegar but reduced balsamic is a game changer. My wife does not use sugar when reducing, she just heats the balsamic. A chef friend of our reduces balsamic down to a very thick paste that he uses by the teaspoon to add flavor.
I went on a visit to a DOP balsamic vinegar maker in Moderna. My teacher who was born and raised in Florence said that balsamic vinegar was something they had it in the house growing up. Sometimes used as a topping for food but would also use it for medicinal purposes like helping for illness, colds, coughs, etc. Question to the validity of that working, but also told me how much food is important to italian life from eating to taking care of one's health.
A few years ago we remodeled and white shaker cabinets were the thing. I insisted on alder raised panels and I love them!! Sure I did a big Swiss Coffee island that I touch up as needed, but the main cabinets are alder. I knew wood was on the way back!
I have made a reduction balsamic version with wine, a bit of sugar, minced plums and berries and a bit of lemon juice and of course 3 dollar store vinegar. It turned out nicer than store version and more tasty.
Ethen, I’m surprised you were wondering why the producers of authentic balsamic don’t mention ‘Salad dressing’ as a culinary use for balsamic. I’ve had many, ‘Insalata Verde,’ dressed with real balsamic and olive oil in Italy. They mix it right into the salad as it’s served, they don’t mix it in a bowl or jar beforehand.
I unlisted them for now! Is there any specific reason you think I should keep them up? For me, this is how I wish I would have done the video in the beginning so I don’t see any reason to keep the other ones live!
@@EthanChlebowski I personally don't see any value in keeping the older ones. As the audience I also wish it would have been uploaded like this to begin with. (Not knocking the originals I know you had good reasons to do it the way you did, that's totally fine.)
Hello, I hope your videos cover more deep dives into common stuff like the expensive chicken and eggs ones. I feel like they do the best because it’s something we are likely to implement as opposed to balsamic vinegar which most casual at home cooks don’t even use
Went to Italy last summer and our tour guide highly recommended that we come back to Modena to try the authentic stuff! Sadly it wasn’t on our itinerary, but we did get to do a FANTASTIC wine tasting and dinner at the Pazzi castle, Castello del Trebbio! We even had wine and AMAZING EV olive oil shipped back to the states! Lemme tell you that EVOO was amazing both as a drizzle AND WHEN FRYING! My steaks never tasted so good either! We plan to head back again this summer or winter and by god we are going to Modena to try this stuff for ourselves and bring back a bottle or five!
Had regular supermarket balsamic once, totally ruined the food I put it on. So I assumed balsamic just wasnt for me, but then I heard ched JP talk about aged balsamic once and I believe the Jolly channel did a tasting in Italy once that changed my perspectives somewhat. This video is top notch explaining it so well for a balsamic noob like me 😅 👌 thank you for this very interesting deep dive!
This was really informative all compiled together so thanks! Can you talk a little bit about shelf life with these products? Do they degrade in flavor over time?
The series you did before pushed me to try some higher end balsamic and my god it's so good. My favorite is Ponti's orange label Balsamic Vinegar of Modena. Thick, but not too thick, and a great flavor. De Nigris also has a really thick one, and I live it's flavor but I find it is too thick compared to the Ponti.
One important thing to add to the homemade balsamic reduction -and I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned- would be wood essence. Essentially high-ABV neutral alcohol soaked in some wood for a long time. Another thing I would suggest is molasses rather than sugar. I imagine that with the right combination of reduced balsamic vinegar, molasses, wood essence, and maybe a bit of reduced/evaporated wine one could get a very good imitation of DOP Balsamic. And while it might not taste identical, it may taste _equal_ in that some things might be _different_ but just as good; or potentially even better tasting to some depending on one's palette and the food it's used with.
Okay I've been reducing vinegar on and off for years. Today I put sugar sangria wine and hickory wood pellets in it for awhile and filtered out. Reduced 50%. The smell and flavor was amazing.
Nowadays, i always get the square bottles from Whole Foods or Trader Joes (are they the same product?) that say "Aged Balsamic Vinegar of Modena" on them. $15 for 8 oz, which I think is a happy middle. It tastes like actual balsamic vinegar with all the sweet, umami, syrupyness and distinct from distilled vinegar but it's not crazy expensive, and the bottle lasts me a few months.
Also worth noting that if you're making your own "lookalike" with port: The number on tawny port bottles are a suggestion of the taste of the port wine. This is to say that on a tawny 10 year bottle they've blended the wines from different times of cask aging into an end product that tastes like it's spent 10 years in the barrel, but it could be that 70% of the wine is younger than that. If you really want to get the wood and oxidation that comes with a longer aged port getting a colheita, a single year, barrel aged port that's spent a minimum of 7 years in a barrel (not to be confused with vintage port, which is a single year, 18 months aged in barrels port meant to age further in bottle), might be a good option to replicate the original balsamico flavour.
Watched a of the previous video's ofcourse, but i'm glad you made a single cut more refined video which i'm going to watch to just resfesh all that information. Especially since ive actually gotten that real balsamic although not for 150 since i live in Europe.
If your trying to artificially age something like vinegar I would suggest using a sonic cleaner (like they use for jewelry) with wood chips of the desired type. Doing so will strip the wood of tannins and the other good stiff you want for flavoring. You will still need to reduce it to get the right consistency the question would come down to heat reduced vs natral evaporation and how heat would change the flavor
The most confusing thing (which I don't think you explain) is that Balsamic Vinegar and Balsamic Vinegar of Modena are different products, and while the "of Modena" sounds like it should be fancier (because it sounds like it's more of a protected product from a designated region), it's actually the inferior product, which was invented to resemble the real Balsamic Vinegar which a cheaper and faster production.
Didn't check to see if this was already posted, and I don't usually comment. 9:24 I think you meant to say density AND viscosity. You said "or" which implies density and viscosity are the same or interchangeable. The two may typically correlate, they are NOT the same. Love your videos ❤
Weve a local specialty store that sells flavored & mulitple plain olive oils & not-$50/oz balsamic vinegars. I don't know what the vinegars actually are, but they do have an apricot white balsamic which is a wonderful thing. Mouthwatering, sweet-sour, a little syrupy like warm maple syrup, a touch of something else that I can't quite identify. Love that stuff. Usually I'll put it on steamed veggies or rice. I've never had the real stuff, so I don't know how it compares.
I had the amazing oppurtunity to go to one of the production facilities in Modena. We were walked through the process of production and I remember we saw the wooden barrels where the balsamic vinegar is aged. We brought home one that was aged for 40 years, and the taste is actually insane.
Those videos made me order traditional balsamic (thankfully it was more like $50 because I'm in Europe) as a gift to my parents, can't wait to try it together with them
I do not recommend it. I had some super-expensive balsamic vinegar on top of strawberries and ice cream. I thought it ruined the strawberries and ice cream. I hated it.
Actually good balsamic vinegar with vanilla ice cream is amazing, imo. I suppose I could see why someone might not like it, but I feel like most people would.
Thanks for the great comparisons and tests. I may try making a reduction but I will add a few drops of maple syrup to give it that slight hint of maple. flavor and aroma. I may even add a few drops of umami sauce and soy sauce to try something different. Great video!
I've had the 25 year old balsamic, it's crazy how much stuff it goes with. It was used at a restaurant I worked at and still have the little recipe book that was in the box.
My friend is chef/owner of a fine dining restaurant and a Culinary Institute of America grad. He taught me a balsamic hack. Take the cheapest real Balsamic you can find at the grocery store. Put it into a shallow, wide bowl in a dehydrator until it becomes syrupy. Done.
We have various types of real balsamic vinegar from our trip to Italy. I feel like it is a waste to cook with it. Instead we just indulge ourselves in drinking it with a teaspoon. In my opinion that is the best price to dopamine ratio lol.
Ethan, would it be possible for you to do a research video on the whole-grain food products and compare them to the processed grain as we know it? You have the brown rice and you have the white rice, both basmati type.. both are great for various dishes, but does it truly make a difference health-wise to use brown rice every day? Bread, pasta, tortilla wraps.. you can find it everywhere. I am curious about this.
If you want to continue on your balsamic vinegar journey you should make a video comparing all 3 versions of Emilia. My favorite is red, which is pretty affordable. Gold one is made for ice cream, but i can eat my ice cream without any vinegar anyway :).
I've never tried true balsamic vinegar from Italy, but I did visit a vinegary in North Central Nebraska that makes their own traditional balsamic vinegar as well as a few other berry, apple, and grape vinegars that are made from locally grown produce. The balsamic they make is amazing, I got to tour the small facility, it's basically just a guy and his daughter making and selling vinegar as a sort of hobby/small business. Maybe at some point I'll buy a bottle of traditional balsamic from Italy and compare side by side.
Long ago, when I found I liked Balsamic, I went to a higher end store, that had lots of odd and imported stuff. Balsamic from $20 to over $500. I got a mix of them up to $150. Learned a lot of what I like and what I am willing to pay for. a $50 bottle was VERY nice. the $150 was good, but not good enough to buy often. I like (from the cheapy ones) the one that has a bit of sweetness in it, vs sourer ones. In the end Safeway, home brand was not bad for about $10 Canadian. works for my day to day cooking and use. the $50 one was MUCH better, but do not want to spend that much on a regular basis. The $150 + ones. maybe if you are having company over and want to impress them. OR if you just have lots of spare money. I end up getting the cheap costco stuff theses days.. not as good as others, and likely FAKE... as it has caramel flavor/color in it.. and "other" stuff. If they list wine vinegar.. buy something else. I do not like the think surpy ones.. that's great on ice-cream and the like. (When i say sweat.. I mean fruity.)
Outstanding! 👍 Now I'll have to try balsamic vinegar. My past experience had been very yucky. Super sour and bitter. I was wondering what all the hype was about balsamic vinegar. Thank you for opening my eyes! Love all your videos ✌😋👌💞
Morning Ethan! Been binge watcing the low cal series (my friend is helping me get in shape) I may have overlooked it if youve already done a video but if you havent, could you do one on calculating nutritional info for beginners? Like with your pizza, what would change if I subbed the sausage for chicken and keft off the pickled peppers, that sort of thing (calculating from the ground up but also calculating modifications and stuff) You have a way of explaining things that makes sense and doesnt sound pretentious lol
Over the past year, I’ve became a balsamic vinegar snob and yes I have multiple bottles ranging from $150-$350 and to be honest the best flavor in my opinion has came from the $150 bottle which is exactly the same bottle that you show for $150! I have also done the same thing with authentic soy sauce in my opinion, Japanese dark soy sauce is the better version
In Modena you can taste the original balsamic vinegar (even aged 50 years) for free if you take a tour of a farm where it is produced. They usually offer tasting with a free tour because they know the stuff is so good that you will end up buying it
True. We went and bought a ton. The good thing about buying a lot is that they will never go bad. Balsamic vinegar stays what it is, maybe forever? (Assuming that it does not evaporate and dry out.)
It would age further, so taste could change, but yes it would never truly go "off" no vinegar can, even balsamic.@@Birdylockso
@@XBullitt16X Right, that would be my guess also. But isn't the aging process only take place in the barrel? By interacting with the barrel, wine, (I'm assuming balsamic vinegar also), would take on more nuanced flavors. Without the barrel, how would the vinegar continue to age in the glass bottle? Wine could, because of the tannin; therefore, in theory, the balsamic vinegar which also contains tannin from the grape skin, could also age, albeit slower? Any experience in this area? This is very interesting...
I make a lot of my own vinegars and I can tell you it will age in the bottle, my vinegars age in glass bottles and form mothers, so yep. The barrel is just for flavour and thickening.@@Birdylockso
@@XBullitt16X Good to know, thanks. I have a good bottle that I have been using very sparingly, for almost 3 years now. I don't see any "mothers" formed in the bottle. Is that normal? And, I am assuming the "mothers" is just a top white/grey layer?
For anyone interested, I made a lot of testing when the original video came out and here is the best adjusted recipe I got:
- 1 cup cheapest BV 4 leaf you can find
- 3/4 tbsp maple syrup
- 3/4 tbsp sugar
- 3/4 tbsp msg
- 3 tbsp aged tawny port
- Mix all ingredients
- Reduce to half volume
- Remove from heat
- Add back 1/3 cup BV 4 leaf
Hell yea, glad to hear you did the testing!
Also, for the "healthy coke," you should just make switchel or posca. Vinegar plus water can be refreshing and healthy, but it needs some form of sweetener (honey, molasses).
Thanks for your version
I'm so curious if smoking the reduction or added a piece of oak wood charcoal to "steep" like a tea, then strain out, OR just liquid smoke would help add that aged wood flavor
have you considered using molasses or wood essence?
Thanks for being upfront about it being a directors cut. Too many creators will just repost a version of the same thing they’ve already done and hope people don’t notice.
For making a reduction, there IS a trick to get the wood notes that the barrel aged product has.
Homebrew shops carry food grade oak cubes/chips/spirals that you throw into the liquid and let it age for a while.
If it works for beer, it will work for balsamic.
Get some cubes & age the stuff in a mason jar for some 2-4 weeks. I'd suggest trying this both before & after the reduction to see which you like better but this should get you even closer to the real (very expensive) balsamic.
my cousin owns an authentic vinegar manufacturing plant in Reggio Emilia near Modena and your explanations here are on the spot. She makes regular and all the way to gold traditional in barrels that date back to 1892. The real stuff is heavenly. For day to day, I like the Kirkland brand Costco one, it's 4 leafs. If they still sell it, have not been to Costco in a while and just ran out of my last bottle recently.
For glazes I like the Trader Joes one, tastes great and while not anywhere close to the real stuff, works great.
My favorite way to use the top shelf balsamic is to drizzle it over really good parmesan cheese, break some chunks off, drizzle with balsamic and enjoy. Or really good fruits or berries. Never use the top shelf stuff in a vinaigrette, that would make zero sense. Like gold leaf on a steak, LOL
you said drizzle with balsamic twice
Ethan I loved the original release of this series, and it's great that you've updated it.
Also, as a result of this, I picked up some legit Balsamico de Modena and holy crap it's wonderful. I know it's expensive but it goes a long way since you use it very small amounts at a time.
thanks for being awesome!
You are welcome, glad you enjoy the Balsamic from Modena. It’s truly such a unique flavor!
I also got my hands on a bottle based off of the original video series and it is so awesome
Watched all the others and will watch this too. Really respect going back and fixing the series if it wasn’t to your liking.
I dont think I caught the original videos and I much prefer this longer deep dive format so this I really appreciate this video
Same, awesome satisfying format
Went from watching Ethan Chlebowski's cooking videos for pleasure and to become a better home cook, to assigning some of these in-depth videos to my college-level science class. You definitely hold this channel to a high standard. Thanks for all your thorough research and testing!
Did you have your students watch them or did they have to do projects/papers? What a fun and interactive way to learn, you sound like a great professor
The difference between $3 vs $150 balsamic vinegar is $147.
Well technically and mathematically, you're right.
Genius level observation, my guess of a 120$ dollar difference was close but not as precise as your analysis. Fantastic job.
Didn't even take 35 min to explain. cool vid thou
He's Technically Correct. The BEST kind of correct.@@lasoren
@@lasoren Not really. The traditional came in 100ml bottle, the cheap stuff in 500ml. So you need to multiply the difference 5 times to be mathematically correct :)
You are the channel I've been looking for since i started cooking. Why did i just discover you despite the fact that I've been researching food videos for about 8 years now
I really appreciate the editing of this video. I remember having to rewatch the first few trying to get all the information straight now that this is a single video I really feel like I can understand all that the first few were trying to say. Great work!
My grandmother taught me a long time ago to always buy 12 year aged balsamic vinegar. The extra price is worth it. But she was referring to bottles in the 20-45$ price range. It’s a rule of thumb I’ve always stuck to, and the difference between a 30$ 12 year aged balsamic vs a 6-10$ bottle is huge, big enough for me.
Sometimes good enough is good enough.
I’d like to see a comparison of only 12 year aged balsamics at different price points.
25:57 you are so genuinely happy! I'm so glad you can make these videos for us and enjoy making them so much 😄
Damn your channel has grown so much and done so in such a focused manner. I remember finding you 2-4 years ago where we would just cook fun stuff and learn a few cool science based hacks. I really appreciate and am proud of you for taking this turn into extreme science and empirical evidence based approach to cooking smarter and better. I think you found a great niche and created a great community. I hope one day soon you and Kenji get together because I feel like it'll be a sick ass video or at the very least a cool moment for the both of you food science heads!
I really appreciate all of the deep dives on single ingredients, super informative.
Love to see you balancing the trend of TH-camrs retiring while also improving your content. You go glen coco
I definitely appreciated this video, even after watching the others. I love balsamic in all of its forms. I've never had 2 bottles that taste the same and I love to just try them whenever I can. I was somewhat surprised that you never mentioned that some balsamic tastes a lot more fruity, or sometimes even a little spicy, than others do. I generally keep several different bottles around for different cooking and eating applications. I do the same thing with olive oil. There's such a huge variation in taste and texture. Adding olive oil and balsamic together to things is such a great way to experience the variety in otherwise familiar foods.
I'm impressed by your comprehensive reviews as well as the background information. Many thanks for your efforts.
Not sure if you're planning on traveling anytime soon again but a video of you exploring and explaining Italy's food culture would be really fascinating from your perspective.
As a nutrition and food sci student I absolutely eat up all your videos but I really enjoyed this directors cut format a lot. Thanks Ethan!!
I watched every epispde in the series as they came out. I'm hype to watch this one as well!
The higher end Balsamic Vinegars are the best with a good fresh Italian bread and a touch of Olive oil to go with your meal.
It's very nice on vanilla ice cream.
And on strawberries
@@sonodiventataunalbero5576and watermelon
NO!!!!!!! you do not mix high-grade olive oil and high-grade balsamic. They are 2 flavors that stand on their own. So American. Sorry. Real olive needs just a pinch of salt, that's it.
@@Markinfilm please show where they said the olive oil had to be high-grade? they specified good fresh bread, but said nothing of the quality of the oil. While the traditional balsamic has a viscous texture, a small amount of some form of oil adds a silkiness to the texture that you only get from fats. While true that it'd be a waste to put high quality olive oil with the balsamic and vis-versa a cheaper olive oil with the balsamic adds a lot of texture without interfering with the flavor of the balsamic.
@@DreadKyllerI tend to agree with @Markinfilm. Olive oil comes in many different flavour profiles. From extremely fruity, over musky to fairly bitter. So the oil can really interfere with the taste of a BV. And though I also like to dunk bread in some olive oil and BV, I would never choose a high-end BV for that purpose. Anyone who’s ever taste-tested different olive oils understands how powerful and even overpowering they can be.
I discovered your videos a couple of weeks ago and I am hooked. Extremely informative, interesting and watchable
Thanks for the very thorough comparison. I have a bottle of Giuseppe Giusti (which I bought in Milano, and over there it was only about 95 USD), some Roland condiment grade and a vinegar based balsamic all on hand for different uses. The traditional is by far my favorite!! Not only is it great on ice cream, but on various cheeses it's phenomenal. Somehow it adds to the flavor of the cheese.
Here's a quick "Blow your mind" ice cream dessert serving suggestion:
Strawberry ice cream + shavings of frozen mango + Basil chiffonade + balsamic vineger.
Seriously mind-blowing how good this is.
what kind of balsamic vinegsr?
Long ago, I discovered the joy of drinking a good red wine while eating vanilla ice cream. Heavenly.
@@gregbailey45For a healthy hack to this, you may omit the ice cream.
I bought a bottle of 10 year-aged balsamic vinegar while I was in Nice, France last year. And you are right, there is no comparison. I never even liked balsamic vinegar...until I tried real balsamic vinegar. No idea if it was real or not, but man it tasted so good, I really don't care. If you are in Nice, I found it at this place in old town: Girofle Et Cannelle
12 years is the minimum for the DOP stuff so no, it wasn't authentic
@@v0ldy54 Thanks for the confirmation. I will ensure that I get 12 year minimum this year when I am over there. And going to get a ton of it this time. It was a very sad day when I used the last of the bottle I bought last year.
Just finished for the second time through man. Your videos are great.
For the diy traditional balsamic vinegar recipe, the reduction must solely consist of the port wine and sugar, and the balsamic vinegar added in the reduction once cooled down.
In your experiment, the sample tasted sweeter not because of the sugar concentration but because it was less acid, as the acetic acid of the vinegar was evaporated during the reduction process.
Even though I watched the original 3, this was a great update. So much information for an awesome ingredient. Thanks Ethan, great work!
I was so confused and thought TH-cam had unliked the video for me. But now I see it's the combo of those 3 videos and I think it's a good way to do it. Looking forward to the next ones.
I love the direction your channel has taken, with a heavy focus on the food science and its practical uses. I've started using cookwell weekly for making 3-5 meals and its easily the best experience with an online recipe repository I've ever had. Used to use allrecipes before, but the quality there was just so hit or miss.
Hey, Ethan, as christmas approaches, would you be interested in testing different brands of Panettone ( italy's famous christmas dessert) and compare them to artisanal panettone? I am so enamorated of italian culture and would love that. Keep being awesome!
I had the honor to be gifted a bottle of authentic balsamico by an Italian from Modena who had kept the tradition alive in his family since started by his father. They created new batches with every child born. They had more than they could consume alone.
Thanks for thorough enlightenment. My jar: acidity 6%; density 1.22; batch number; aged 10 yrs; 8.45 oz; cooked grape must & wine vinegar (no coloring); IGP seal, Product of Italy, Modena; slightly thick, tasty, aromatic, $35; bottle shape nixed by you...but delicious.
From the last videos I started buying Basalmic Glaze with grape must as the first ingredient which has a nice flavor profile compared to the $3 stuff which tastes like sweetened wine vinegar. Thanks for helping me affordable upgrade.
Amazing work, as always!! I would also love to see a deep dive video on Saffron. 👍
I liked this, but would have liked ann opportunity to look at the middle ground in between the $10 wine vinegar products and the $100 tradizionale.
The traditional producers all have quotas, and most sell products made from only grape must and aged 5 to 10 years to use up production over quota. These are around $30/200mL, so about 7 times cheaper by volume than the tradizionale, but they have a lot more than 1/7th the flavor! If you have a chance I recommend seeking them out. The quality difference between a “nice” wine vinegar based balsamic and what amounts to basically a young tradizionale is striking.
Great video!
I would like a follow up one day of how long that expensive bottle lasted you and the different things you tried using it for!! also, love that you joined these!
Thank you for this amazing deep dive and for reconstructing the video series! So much good information. Only thing I would note is that the way this was put together made it a little repetitive. There were a few spots where it felt like I'd heard the same thing 2 other times in the video (which makes sense considering it was originally 3 separate videos). Otherwise awesome stuff. Definitely an underrated ingredient/condiment.
What a deep dive into this, thanks!
I appreciate the timing of this one, because I have been thinking about playing around with balsamic vinegar. I want to ferment some blueberries and super hot peppers, and incorporate them somehow to make my own hot sauce.
I tried blueberry ghost pepper hot sauce on ice cream, and it was a complete mouth freakout. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it.
This was fantastic! I'd love to see a similar video for maple syrup.
Yeeessss!
Crazy you have 2million followers on a TH-cam cooking channel and have never tried true balsamic. That’s wild to even think about. Good for you for being transparent.
Watching your videos as a student is not easy every time as my eoconomy isnt quality-vinegar good, but I have still learned a lot from you. Both from thinking more deeply about food theory and bettering my cooking techniques.
Its still very interesting to learn about quality food and condoments, maybe one day I can try real vinegar or real truffles.
Good timing, as I'm in Bologna rn and am headed to Modena tomorrow to sample and buy some DOP Balsamico to bring back to the States. And yes, I saw your original video. :)
Before all your testing, I decided to 'upgrade' as I knew there was 'better' than the bottle from the grocery store. I found a bottle that is about 250ml called "Giuseppe Giusti - Gran Deposito Aceto Balsamico Di Giuseppe Giusti Moderna" it to me is pretty good mix. What's interesting is its ingredients say Grape Musk and nothing else. It isn't pure syrup but it is a lot thicker than anything else in the store and when I put that Graza EVOO and it together, and dip some bread in it I enjoy it, so that's what matters to me.
I think the main thing is make sure grape must is the first ingredient and vinegar the second. Not the other way around.
I work at an Olive oil and Aged Balsamic shop in the US. It is an insane how any percentage of red wine vinegar really changes the quality of the balsamic. We work with a manufacturer in Modena, and our best Balsamic is aged 21 years. It has less than 1% of red wine vinegar, is extremely viscous, and has a profile that is difficult to put into words. Yet, that 1% creates such a world of difference to DOP Traditional. I would never be able to do any grocery store quality balsamic however, the flavor of it always feels so... muddled
It's been 6 months but I just made a balsamic and peanut butter sandwich. Slathered one half of a slice of bread with peanut butter, the other side gets a generous dose (I covered mine, but taste varies) of balsamic. Fold in half and it's like a super tangy PB&J. It's fantastic.
Mega Thanks to You for this area of knowledge! Just bought 3 diffrent bottles of traditional balsamic :-) Just opened first one - over 12 years and it is great! Tried it just on cheeses and on tongue, but surely it is game changer! Can't wait to compare to a second one - over 25 years ;-) The third one is for now a secret ;-)
18 year old balsamic from the Olive Tree is very good at a reasonable price. I really do not like vinegar but reduced balsamic is a game changer. My wife does not use sugar when reducing, she just heats the balsamic. A chef friend of our reduces balsamic down to a very thick paste that he uses by the teaspoon to add flavor.
A use I enjoy is 1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar with three scrambled eggs. Tastes wonderful.
I went on a visit to a DOP balsamic vinegar maker in Moderna. My teacher who was born and raised in Florence said that balsamic vinegar was something they had it in the house growing up. Sometimes used as a topping for food but would also use it for medicinal purposes like helping for illness, colds, coughs, etc. Question to the validity of that working, but also told me how much food is important to italian life from eating to taking care of one's health.
A few years ago we remodeled and white shaker cabinets were the thing. I insisted on alder raised panels and I love them!! Sure I did a big Swiss Coffee island that I touch up as needed, but the main cabinets are alder. I knew wood was on the way back!
I have made a reduction balsamic version with wine, a bit of sugar, minced plums and berries and a bit of lemon juice and of course 3 dollar store vinegar. It turned out nicer than store version and more tasty.
Ethen, I’m surprised you were wondering why the producers of authentic balsamic don’t mention ‘Salad dressing’ as a culinary use for balsamic. I’ve had many, ‘Insalata Verde,’ dressed with real balsamic and olive oil in Italy. They mix it right into the salad as it’s served, they don’t mix it in a bowl or jar beforehand.
Wow I thought I already saw Ethan’s videos on balsamic vinegar but I think making it one video is good, I just wish he didn’t delete the old ones
I unlisted them for now! Is there any specific reason you think I should keep them up? For me, this is how I wish I would have done the video in the beginning so I don’t see any reason to keep the other ones live!
@@EthanChlebowski I personally don't see any value in keeping the older ones. As the audience I also wish it would have been uploaded like this to begin with. (Not knocking the originals I know you had good reasons to do it the way you did, that's totally fine.)
You’re killing it Ethan, keep up the fantastic work!!
This version is much better and easier to track. Thank you!
You know a video is well done when someone who wasn't even going to watch 35 min of how-to-balsamic just finished the video with new ideas for dinner.
Hello, I hope your videos cover more deep dives into common stuff like the expensive chicken and eggs ones. I feel like they do the best because it’s something we are likely to implement as opposed to balsamic vinegar which most casual at home cooks don’t even use
Went to Italy last summer and our tour guide highly recommended that we come back to Modena to try the authentic stuff! Sadly it wasn’t on our itinerary, but we did get to do a FANTASTIC wine tasting and dinner at the Pazzi castle, Castello del Trebbio! We even had wine and AMAZING EV olive oil shipped back to the states! Lemme tell you that EVOO was amazing both as a drizzle AND WHEN FRYING! My steaks never tasted so good either!
We plan to head back again this summer or winter and by god we are going to Modena to try this stuff for ourselves and bring back a bottle or five!
Had regular supermarket balsamic once, totally ruined the food I put it on. So I assumed balsamic just wasnt for me, but then I heard ched JP talk about aged balsamic once and I believe the Jolly channel did a tasting in Italy once that changed my perspectives somewhat. This video is top notch explaining it so well for a balsamic noob like me 😅 👌 thank you for this very interesting deep dive!
Just bought balsamic vinegar a couple days ago and now I'm anxious to get home and see which kind I bought, but excited to also go buy some more
This was really informative all compiled together so thanks! Can you talk a little bit about shelf life with these products? Do they degrade in flavor over time?
That's what I'm curious about too. My husband always wants me I wants to throw stuff out
23:03 Ethan once again repping the greatest soda in the universe, we love to see it.
The series you did before pushed me to try some higher end balsamic and my god it's so good. My favorite is Ponti's orange label Balsamic Vinegar of Modena. Thick, but not too thick, and a great flavor. De Nigris also has a really thick one, and I live it's flavor but I find it is too thick compared to the Ponti.
One important thing to add to the homemade balsamic reduction -and I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned- would be wood essence. Essentially high-ABV neutral alcohol soaked in some wood for a long time. Another thing I would suggest is molasses rather than sugar.
I imagine that with the right combination of reduced balsamic vinegar, molasses, wood essence, and maybe a bit of reduced/evaporated wine one could get a very good imitation of DOP Balsamic. And while it might not taste identical, it may taste _equal_ in that some things might be _different_ but just as good; or potentially even better tasting to some depending on one's palette and the food it's used with.
Okay I've been reducing vinegar on and off for years.
Today I put sugar sangria wine and hickory wood pellets in it for awhile and filtered out.
Reduced 50%.
The smell and flavor was amazing.
Nowadays, i always get the square bottles from Whole Foods or Trader Joes (are they the same product?) that say "Aged Balsamic Vinegar of Modena" on them. $15 for 8 oz, which I think is a happy middle. It tastes like actual balsamic vinegar with all the sweet, umami, syrupyness and distinct from distilled vinegar but it's not crazy expensive, and the bottle lasts me a few months.
Similar, but it was Aldi's Specialty line for me. And it just tastes so different than basic balsamic vinegar, it elevates everything in the dish.
Also worth noting that if you're making your own "lookalike" with port: The number on tawny port bottles are a suggestion of the taste of the port wine. This is to say that on a tawny 10 year bottle they've blended the wines from different times of cask aging into an end product that tastes like it's spent 10 years in the barrel, but it could be that 70% of the wine is younger than that.
If you really want to get the wood and oxidation that comes with a longer aged port getting a colheita, a single year, barrel aged port that's spent a minimum of 7 years in a barrel (not to be confused with vintage port, which is a single year, 18 months aged in barrels port meant to age further in bottle), might be a good option to replicate the original balsamico flavour.
Thanks for the deep dives on single ingredients, super helpful.
Watched a of the previous video's ofcourse, but i'm glad you made a single cut more refined video which i'm going to watch to just resfesh all that information. Especially since ive actually gotten that real balsamic although not for 150 since i live in Europe.
Your food science content is absolutely baller, dude.
If your trying to artificially age something like vinegar I would suggest using a sonic cleaner (like they use for jewelry) with wood chips of the desired type. Doing so will strip the wood of tannins and the other good stiff you want for flavoring. You will still need to reduce it to get the right consistency the question would come down to heat reduced vs natral evaporation and how heat would change the flavor
I bought and used balsamic because of these videos before. I used it while cooking steaks, and it turned out good.
this man makes borderline documentaries and video lessons for every random cooking question i’ve ever had
The most confusing thing (which I don't think you explain) is that Balsamic Vinegar and Balsamic Vinegar of Modena are different products, and while the "of Modena" sounds like it should be fancier (because it sounds like it's more of a protected product from a designated region), it's actually the inferior product, which was invented to resemble the real Balsamic Vinegar which a cheaper and faster production.
Such good information. It’s like a modern day Good Eats with Alton Brown meets modern day home cook!
Didn't check to see if this was already posted, and I don't usually comment.
9:24 I think you meant to say density AND viscosity. You said "or" which implies density and viscosity are the same or interchangeable. The two may typically correlate, they are NOT the same.
Love your videos ❤
Weve a local specialty store that sells flavored & mulitple plain olive oils & not-$50/oz balsamic vinegars. I don't know what the vinegars actually are, but they do have an apricot white balsamic which is a wonderful thing. Mouthwatering, sweet-sour, a little syrupy like warm maple syrup, a touch of something else that I can't quite identify. Love that stuff. Usually I'll put it on steamed veggies or rice. I've never had the real stuff, so I don't know how it compares.
I had the amazing oppurtunity to go to one of the production facilities in Modena. We were walked through the process of production and I remember we saw the wooden barrels where the balsamic vinegar is aged. We brought home one that was aged for 40 years, and the taste is actually insane.
Enjoyed the rewatch 👍
thanks for your great work!
Those videos made me order traditional balsamic (thankfully it was more like $50 because I'm in Europe) as a gift to my parents, can't wait to try it together with them
Great video! Got to quit buying the crap and spend more for a better quality. Your video has pointed me down the right path! Thanks again!!!
I cannot imagine putting balsamic vinegar on ice cream.
I do not recommend it. I had some super-expensive balsamic vinegar on top of strawberries and ice cream. I thought it ruined the strawberries and ice cream. I hated it.
@sweetmusic3821 maybe you were duped? Both are amazingly good with the real stuff.... Just a thought ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Actually good balsamic vinegar with vanilla ice cream is amazing, imo. I suppose I could see why someone might not like it, but I feel like most people would.
Thanks for the great comparisons and tests. I may try making a reduction but I will add a few drops of maple syrup to give it that slight hint of maple. flavor and aroma. I may even add a few drops of umami sauce and soy sauce to try something different. Great video!
I've had the 25 year old balsamic, it's crazy how much stuff it goes with. It was used at a restaurant I worked at and still have the little recipe book that was in the box.
My friend is chef/owner of a fine dining restaurant and a Culinary Institute of America grad. He taught me a balsamic hack. Take the cheapest real Balsamic you can find at the grocery store. Put it into a shallow, wide bowl in a dehydrator until it becomes syrupy. Done.
I don't have a dehydrator, I simmer slowly.
Genius
I would love to see a deep dive on different pestos! Using different nuts (pine, walnut, etc) and different greens (Spinach, basil, etc)
We have various types of real balsamic vinegar from our trip to Italy. I feel like it is a waste to cook with it. Instead we just indulge ourselves in drinking it with a teaspoon. In my opinion that is the best price to dopamine ratio lol.
morale of the story: stay way from 99% of tiktok hacks
Ethan, would it be possible for you to do a research video on the whole-grain food products and compare them to the processed grain as we know it? You have the brown rice and you have the white rice, both basmati type.. both are great for various dishes, but does it truly make a difference health-wise to use brown rice every day? Bread, pasta, tortilla wraps.. you can find it everywhere. I am curious about this.
If you want to continue on your balsamic vinegar journey you should make a video comparing all 3 versions of Emilia. My favorite is red, which is pretty affordable. Gold one is made for ice cream, but i can eat my ice cream without any vinegar anyway :).
I've never tried true balsamic vinegar from Italy, but I did visit a vinegary in North Central Nebraska that makes their own traditional balsamic vinegar as well as a few other berry, apple, and grape vinegars that are made from locally grown produce. The balsamic they make is amazing, I got to tour the small facility, it's basically just a guy and his daughter making and selling vinegar as a sort of hobby/small business. Maybe at some point I'll buy a bottle of traditional balsamic from Italy and compare side by side.
Long ago, when I found I liked Balsamic, I went to a higher end store, that had lots of odd and imported stuff. Balsamic from $20 to over $500. I got a mix of them up to $150. Learned a lot of what I like and what I am willing to pay for. a $50 bottle was VERY nice. the $150 was good, but not good enough to buy often. I like (from the cheapy ones) the one that has a bit of sweetness in it, vs sourer ones. In the end Safeway, home brand was not bad for about $10 Canadian. works for my day to day cooking and use. the $50 one was MUCH better, but do not want to spend that much on a regular basis. The $150 + ones. maybe if you are having company over and want to impress them. OR if you just have lots of spare money. I end up getting the cheap costco stuff theses days.. not as good as others, and likely FAKE... as it has caramel flavor/color in it.. and "other" stuff. If they list wine vinegar.. buy something else. I do not like the think surpy ones.. that's great on ice-cream and the like. (When i say sweat.. I mean fruity.)
Outstanding! 👍
Now I'll have to try balsamic vinegar.
My past experience had been very yucky. Super sour and bitter. I was wondering what all the hype was about balsamic vinegar.
Thank you for opening my eyes!
Love all your videos ✌😋👌💞
Morning Ethan!
Been binge watcing the low cal series (my friend is helping me get in shape)
I may have overlooked it if youve already done a video but if you havent, could you do one on calculating nutritional info for beginners? Like with your pizza, what would change if I subbed the sausage for chicken and keft off the pickled peppers, that sort of thing (calculating from the ground up but also calculating modifications and stuff)
You have a way of explaining things that makes sense and doesnt sound pretentious lol
Over the past year, I’ve became a balsamic vinegar snob and yes I have multiple bottles ranging from $150-$350 and to be honest the best flavor in my opinion has came from the $150 bottle which is exactly the same bottle that you show for $150! I have also done the same thing with authentic soy sauce in my opinion, Japanese dark soy sauce is the better version