Abstract
Amongst the most famous condiments produced in Europe, and more precisely in Italy, there is a group of vinegars that have recently achieved outstanding worldwide fame for their peculiar historical iter and recent commercial success: the “balsamic vinegars”. Starting from first vague evidences during the Roman Empire, the evolutionary pathway that has brought this peculiar group of vinegars and condiments under the form we know nowadays is incredibly rich and complex. Notwithstanding the number of historical documents, it's impossible to draw a complete and accurate picture, but at least all the available sources can be examined and integrated together, in order to compose an analytical outline. Scope of this chapter is to show the available historical proofs of balsamic vinegars evolution through the time.
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Notes
- 1.
Operation that must not be replicated for any reason: it results in a solution of lead acetate that is a lethal compound.
- 2.
The fruit of Cornus mas, also called Cornelian cherry, European cornel or dogwood.
- 3.
It is assumed that the Old French word sextier in the text corresponds to the modern French setier, here possibly used as a synonym of chopine, a measurement unit that indicated approximately 0.45 L. Comparison was also made with the 1591 Italian translation by Hercole Cato, H., which indicated this as equivalent to “two or three inghistare” (Cato 1591). An inghistara was about 0.979 l (Zupko 1981).
- 4.
Pitch: it is not clear why the author suggests adding pitch to the vinegar mixture. One hypothesis is that it could be for colouring purposes, since the maturation period of 1 month suggested in the text is very short to achieve the typical dark colour of balsamic vinegar. If the pitch was tar obtained from wood or peat, it might also serve as a flavour enhancer or even to prevent undesired fermentation, but the latter hypothesis appears the weakest.
- 5.
Accete is an ancient word, cognate of the Italian aceto (vinegar), and probably a borrowing from a local dialectal form, which could indicate both the wooden barrels in which the vinegar is produced and aged, or even the premises where the barrels are stored. The modern Italian word acetaia (a place, typically an attic or cellar, for the production of vinegar) derives from this term.
- 6.
An English translation of rincalzo could be topping up or back-filling.
- 7.
Saba is a customary name for cooked grape must.
- 8.
Scrupulum is an ancient measure of weight, 1/24 of a Roman pound (approximately 1.296 g).
- 9.
The stein, or beer stein, was a customary measurement unit. Probably it was similar to the Imperial Pint, that is 568 mL (retrieved from the Official text of the Units of Measurement Regulations 1995, as originally enacted or made within the United Kingdom: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/1804/schedule/made).
- 10.
Well purified saba means cooked grape must (saba) well filtered, in order to remove solid residues (tartaric acid crystals, at most).
- 11.
Jamaica pepper is allspice, also called myrtle pepper, pimento, English pepper or newspice. It is the dried unripe berry of Pimenta dioica, a tree native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico, and Central America.
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Giudici, P., Lemmetti, F., Mazza, S. (2015). History of Balsamic Vinegars. In: Balsamic Vinegars. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13758-2_2
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