Balsamic vinegar chicken marinade

The Spruce Eats: What Is Balsamic Vinegar? Balsamic vinegar, an aged balsamic vinegar chicken marinade from grapes, has a soft, rich palate feel and a notable sweetness.

It is used for salad dressings and marinades. Peggy Trowbridge Filippone is a writer who develops approachable recipes for home cooks. Her recipes range from Grandma’s favorites to the latest food trends. Balsamic vinegar has been produced in and around its birthplace, the city of Modena, in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy, for nearly a thousand years.

The way it was made centuries ago is still pretty much the way traditional balsamic vinegar is made today. The juice is slowly cooked down to the consistency of a syrup, concentrating its flavors and aromas, and darkening its color. It is then cooled and transferred to wooden barrels, where the cooked must undergoes a slow fermentation, creating alcohol which, in turn, is attacked by acetic bacteria, turning the wine into vinegar. This is followed by a very lengthy aging process of 12 years or more. But not all balsamic vinegars are made in the traditional manner. It is pretty easy to determine the basic differences between balsamic and wine vinegar: Balsamic is darker, sweeter, and thicker than red wine vinegar. What gets a bit tricky is distinguishing one type of balsamic from another.

At the bottom of the pyramid is the commercial version, labeled simply balsamic vinegar” or “aceto balsamico. This a mass-market product based on wine vinegar with coloring, thickening agents, and flavoring added to it to simulate the flavor and consistency of a traditional balsamic vinegar. These vinegars must be made in the area of Modena and consist of a minimum of 10 percent concentrated grape juice, minimum 10 percent wine vinegar, and two percent caramel. Originally, a spoonful of balsamic vinegar was taken as a tonic and an elixir, and tiny bottles of long-aged aceto balsamico were bestowed upon important people as a special mark of favor. Today, many people use it for everything as their go-to vinegar of choice. When it comes to balsamic vinegar, how you use it depends largely on which type you have.