Balsamic vinegar

[KeenCook2 Profile]

Useful to know about the Morrisons Best Balsamic, I must ask my friend who goes there to get some for me.
I was interested to see your Sofra Apple Vinegar, Sue, next time OH goes to the MidEast shop I'll ask him to look out for it. If you're not keen on fruit vinegars, what do you use it for?

Funnily enough I've given various TKMaxx condiments to friends but have never kept them for myself. Good to know the chances are they were excellent

I recall I only bought the Tesco white wine and cider vinegars once as I didn't like them at all. The Waitrose ones were fine. Haven't had the Sainsbury's ones for ages.

At the moment I'm using up a pretty old Lidl red wine vinegar I found at the back of the cupboard which is OK, but would definitely have been better in its heyday! And I was given some Filippo Berio balsamic by a friend.

Has anyone tried the Asda own brand wine vinegars? The white wine one seems to be out of stock this week but I might give it a try if it appears. Unfortunately they don't do any of the Aspall range so I'll have to wait until I do an order at one of the other supermarkets.

I had no idea Lidl did a raw unfiltered organic cider vinegar, Renee.

i make my own red and white wine vinegars,

What happens to the alcohol in home-made wine vinegars? Do you get hold of some of the mother and add your own wine or is it more complicated than that?

[halfateabag Profile]

on the vinegar front, i'm a bit of an imelda...... i must have over a dozen my fave being my hm cider vinegar which is a sinch and uses peelings and cores to make and tastes so much better. walnut v. for celery apple and walnut salad together with walnut oil.

[KeenCook2 Profile]

on the vinegar front, i'm a bit of an imelda...... i must have over a dozen my fave being my hm cider vinegar which is a sinch and uses peelings and cores to make and tastes so much better. walnut v. for celery apple and walnut salad together with walnut oil.

What sort of vinegar do you use as the base?

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I had one Christmas when half my friends gave me fruit vinegars

Turned out neither OH nor I liked them in anything we could think of

I ended up making a batch of onion chutney to us it up - had a wonderful colour and I think it did add to the depth of flavour

Good quality fruit vinegars can be nice on ice cream!

That sounds awful to me - I just don’t like the smell of acetic acid
These were good ones, “artisan” and pricey, just not for us, I even went onto the website of one maker and tried a couple of the suggestions there, yuk

[Amyw Profile]

I’ve never tried the balsamic vinegar thing on strawberries , is that nice ?

[Pampy Profile]

I like it but I'm sure it's a Marmite thing. Mind you, I put strawberries in salad and like strawberry and black pepper jam!

[Suelle Profile Website]

My mother served plain steamed suet puddings with a heavy sprinkle of demerara sugar and raspberry vinegar - divine!

As long as balsamic vinegar is thick and syrupy, and sweet enough, I like it on strawberries too. Plus a little black pepper.

[Sakkarin Profile]

I know the thread was about Balsamic, but if we're talking all vinegars, Chinkiang black vinegar is my fave, being a primary constituent in Kung Po, Fish Fragrant Aubergine and the gorgeous dip for Potsticker Dumplings.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Oh I forgot to add that to my line up Sakkarin
With any form of cabbage or broccoli Chankiang Black vinegar is delicious - that slightly smoky taste

[scullion Profile]

What happens to the alcohol in home-made wine vinegars? Do you get hold of some of the mother and add your own wine or is it more complicated than that?

it gets converted to vinegar.
yes, 'ian in france' sent me some of his red wine vinegar mother some years ago and I've been making it ever since, converting some of it over time to a white wine one).
no, no more complicated than that.
wine is poured into the crock/jar or whatever you have with the mother in, left until it smells right - of vinegar, drain most of it off from the scoby (if one has been produced - sometimes it does, sometimes it produces layers and layers of them and sometimes you lose them but it still goes on working as long as you retain some of the vinegar in the jar) then add more wine and off it goes again.
i made some using just merlot a few years back. it made a lovely, rich, almost balsamic tasting vinegar - i need to do that again sometime but there's only so much vinegar one can use, even in pickles and chutneys... i supply my daughter's needs, too.

if you find some cloudiness in a bottle of (unpasteurised) wine vinegar from a supermarket you can often start your own.

[ZeroCook Profile]

if you find some cloudiness in a bottle of (unpasteurised) wine vinegar from a supermarket you can often start your own.

Would raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar work too? I have the bottom dregs of a few bottles I haven't had the heart to toss in case it could be used.

[scullion Profile]

i think it may be a case of 'suck it and see'. try it with a couple of glasses of wine the next time you open a bottle.
i have read that they have a different cultural mix but i've also read that you can use the same scoby for wine, cider and kombucha so who knows‽
i found that the wine that made masses of thick scobys was eiswein (i had a bottle that had been on the shelf for a few years) so maybe a sweet wine would be a quicker indicator of having viable microbes.

[Lokelani Profile]

Waitrose used to do an amazing balsamic, it had a leaf on the bottle & cost about £10. So expensive but so rich & thick a tiny bit went a very long way.

The only one I've found as good is the Belazu one, which Ocado often have for about that same price on offer. It is so lovely I just drizzle a teaspoon of it over salad & don't need to add oil to make a dressing.

I wanted to try sherry vinegar & the reviews on Cas Del Agua Jerez (£2 odd for 250ml) were so good on Ocado I didn't bother paying more, but I found it disappointingly sharp & acidic. I then tried Carbonell (even cheaper!) again following the reviews & it is much better, but still not as good as I'd hoped.

[ZeroCook Profile]

Thanks Scullion. Will read up some more on vinegar making as I know almost nothing about it.